Welcome to Gaia! ::

I have a couple of question for whoever wants to answer them.
First off, I'm a current Drum Major(for this upcoming year). Our band is massively tiny. We haven't gotten above 30 in the last 2 years. Currently, it looks like I'm pretty much in charge of the band next year; we only have one Drum Major normally, but their has always been a Band Captain, who is like a co-Drum Major. However, no one tried out for it this year, so I'm on my own. I'm kinda freaked out about it, too.
Anyway, my first question: I know alot of pretty are having discipline problems in their bands, but I think mine is one of the worst. Last year, we had 20-something people in the band, but only ten or so showed up for practice every day. How can I encourage people to actually show up for practice?

i only have one problem for this upcoming year as drum major..
our band doesnt do field shows, just parade
and i'm really good at spinning, but the thing is...
I SUCK AT BEATING TIME!!! and idk how to improve it /:

anyone want to help that lives around norwalk california? lol d:

My school didn't have a marching band for 20+ years (although every other school in our district did). When I was a freshmen my school finally got together a bunch of people to direct/write drill/etc so that we would actually have a band, but we were only 13 people our first year. I'm going to be a senior (and the drum major) this year and we have 34 people, which is awesome. Anyway, my point is that we have a super small band too. ;]

We've had slight issues in the band (people showing up 15 minutes late, one or two people skipping practice) but nothing like what you described. It sounds like you'd want to talk to your director/other adult in charge and find out if there's any way to have harsher punishments for not showing up to practice (In our band, the written rule is that if you miss practice you don't get to perform, although people who skip usually only get a stern talking-to - but we also don't have a huge amount of people skipping, everyone kinda knows that practice is mandatory). In reality, the drum major is just another student with extra responsibilities and a fancy title - you can handle minor issues, but if there's a major problem (like half of the band not showing up), you may need to take it to an adult.

If you want more people to show up more often, try thanking them when they DO come to practice. So if someone who usually slacks off ends up getting to practice early one day, go up to them in private after practice and be like "thanks for getting here on time, you were a big help to us!" or something along those lines. Often times, the people who are acting out in your band are the ones who want attention. If they're just looking to make a scene, then talking to them in private prevents that. On the other hand, if they just feel unappreciated, giving them positive attention and making them feel important makes them want to participate more.

When you have such a large-scale problem, it gets difficult, but you're really going to have to single people out and find out from each individual person why they're not showing up and what you can do to fix that problem. It may seem cliche to say that you should make each band member feel "special," but you really should. Each person joined band for a reason - they like playing music, they had a sibling in band, their mom made them join ... Find out WHY they joined, and you can figure out a way to make them show up.

If you do have to speak to someone about acting out, you definitely want to do it in private: praise in public, criticize in private. Always. And NEVER argue with anyone on the field. The key to being a good drum major is never letting anyone find out that you have absolutely no power whatsoever. wink Think about it - the second you start arguing with someone in front of other people, all those people watching will realize "hey, that random band kid is arguing with the DRUM MAJOR. I bet I could argue with the drum major too!" And then you have a major problem. But if you talk (or argue) in private, you'll still keep a semblance of power in front of the entire band (and the person who's arguing with you may not be so tough without his pals to back him up).

Again, all the things mentioned may be hard to implement with such a large problem - I really would recommend talking to someone in the staff and getting their help.

(I just recently got back from the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy, which was AMAZING ... but for anyone else who's attended, you'll probably recognize 99% of what I posted. So I can't really take credit for coming up with any of this stuff ... I just re-read my notes and rephrased it all. But honestly, doesn't it sound like it works? George Parks is like a genius or something ...)

(Also, sorry for the epic long post. I didn't realize I wrote so much ... sweatdrop )

The one at West Chester University in PA ... it was from July 28 - 31 I believe.

Everything he taught just makes sense, ya know? Half the time I was sitting there like "how on earth did our previous drum majors survive the season without being here?" wink It definitely kicked my a** though. I probably did more work on the first day of DMA than my band does for the entire week of band camp.

EEE that's awesome! Gotta love that walk from the dorms to the practice field ... and Joey Page. Who doesn't love Joey Page? ;] Hahaha.

Anyway, I totally agree with everything Cataclypsa said, particularly the part about pointing people out. My best friend has been the colorguard captain in our band for two years and was my roommate at DMA, but she also has a really bad relationship with about half of our colorguard. There's a lot of conflict and one of the colorguard members even quit because she was so upset that this girl became captain for a second year. And as much as I love her, I've seen firsthand that she doesn't go out of her way to try and repair the relationship between her and the other colorguard members. There have even been times when she's said nasty things to some of the girls who don't like her in front of other band members, which is exactly the kind of behavior she should be discouraging as a captain. It really does negatively affect the band, since the girls who hate the captain are always late to practice, never put any effort into practices, etc. But this girl doesn't make any effort to try and talk to the colorguard members one-on-one and fix their relationship.

So basically ... singling out = tension = badddd.

I love our DMs this year. They where our section leaders for Clarinet and Sousaphone last year. And next year I'm pretty sure our Trumpet and Saxophone leaders will be it.


So I have a quick question. The first game we went to this year, the other band had one DM. The second game, they had three. We have two.

So, what is it that decides how many majors a band has?

I am drum Major/band caption so whats up everyone