Section A, B, and C help me determine the pitch range students hear best. If they do better on the higher pitch matching, maybe a higher instrument such as flute, clarinet, maybe trumpet. Mid-range pitch matching, alto sax, trumpet, horn. Low range, low brass. This takes a little prep on your part to know which questions involve which pitch ranges.
Sections B and C help me to determine horn players since I can see who can listen for pitch changes in a harmonic sense and who can listen for intervals.
Section D needs to have a perfect score to be considered for percussion. I also look at section C because, lets be honest, many percussionist tend to learn mallet parts "by ear".
We also use the GIA "Instrument Timbre Test". This helps the student (and us) determine the instrument sound they like the best. Once we have all of that, we have the students try ALL instruments so we can find the best physical fit. Then, we recommend our top two instruments. About 95% of the students are happy with their top two choices. The ones that are not can re-screen for an instrument of their choice (not percussion, those spots are locked once a student accepts the invitation to play that instrument). But, there is no guarantee they will still get what they want. I know this is more info than you probably wanted, there are more options than just the SMGS. The SMGS is just a tool; it shouldn't be used as THE determining factor (not that this is what you are doing).
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