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Dear Mr. may,

Please come back. This band needs you more then you think.

Yes, the director is not as important as the band members, but without a good, caring director who knows what they are doing and actually wants the band to exceed, the attitude and abilities of the band members are useless. There has to be a higher in command that actually deserves the position to tell the band what to do. Harris, while she is alright outside of class and is a decent choir director, could care less about what the band does. The only reason she even took your position was for the extra money, since it would put her back at fulltime.

Its unfair. The students actually care about this band. We want it to be good, and we want high ratings. we want to show the state that just ebcause we come from a bad school, it doesnt make us bad people, that good musicians can come from anywhere. harris doesn't even believe this ehrself. You always said you wanted us to be the best for our own benefits. Harris says that we have to show what a band with a choir director can do. Isn't that even the slightest bit condradictory? She makes it sound as if she is saying it for us, but it is still all abotu her.

She doesnt treat us right at all. She insults us, backs turned or eyes on her. she isnults individuals in front of the band. She rarely gave us water breaks during marching season. The few times we did get awards, she put them in her own office and complained we weren't working hard enough.
You, on the other hand, built a shelf to show off our achievments, right above the outside door. You hung the band day banners above it, put the plaques on the walls so we were surrounded by our acheivements, and could be proud. she hid them in her own office where only she will ever see them; where only she can marvel at her self-proclaied achievments.

You broguht this band from being part of the crowd to being soemthing I was proud to be part of. You cared abotu us all, and it showed. You would insult us, yes, but in a way that we laughed about that moment and always. Your lashes left smiles, while hers only leave permanent scars.

I am not the only one who thinks band is becoming less and less an activity and more and more a chore. I practice often at home, and feel the joys of playign a new piece correctly or finally hitting a scale. but when i return to that band room and take my instruemnt out, only to stare at the face and listen to the words of a director who doesnt want to be our director, and doesnt know how to be our director, I just want to go home. The positive attitude the band had while you were here has washed away, revealed the negativity you strived to conceal behind flowers and sunshine. It wasn't like this at bandcamp, when she was unable to be around as often as you would have been. student staff was elft in charge, and the band ws good. We worked hard, and a sparking storm of focus and a positive attitude hung over our heads like a soft blanket. We strived for excellence, and things looked like they were goign to change for the better afterall. yet, whenever she entered the picture, that blanket was thrown into a fiery pit of tortured bodies. At band camp, as you would always say, we could march through a brick wall and never know we had. But when she got back in charge, we were lucky to have the focus and energy to walk over an anthill. The moment student staff was in charge agan, thigns got done, and done well. But it was never long enough to make a difference.

Even if you can't come back, soemthign has to eb done. we need a true director, someone who will truly care about this band the way you once did. If it continues down this road, the consequences will be severe. If Harris remains director into the next marching season, our beloved band will be half of what it is now, if even, and it willonly be a shell of its former self. I'm not th only one who thinks this, as I have talked to many of the other band students. Those who really care are debating returning to this school. i came to this school not because it was enar my home but because it had an excelling band program. I am not afraid to leave it if this program continues in the corkscrew fall it is plunging into. There are closer schools, ones with excellent bands.

The past two years, I held my head high when i said i was in the band. now, I just hang my head in shame.

-ClarinetGoddess


I nearly cried when i wrote that. I'm tempted to actually find our old directors new address and actually send him this or a similar letter, labeled anonymous or from the band. I really wish somebody would gather the courage to say soemthing...band is becoming less fun.

Dear Winterguard,
What the f*** is wrong with you, really? Many of you are freshman or newcomers who have never done this before and I think you need to show my friends, who are vets and are higher ranked than you, some respect (especially you N). You all know that J is shy and doesn't like being frank with you, but you shouldn't take advantage of her like you've been doing. Please, knock all the b.s. off and don't be the stubborn, bitchy people you seem to aspire to be.
And J, you need to show them you aren't fooling around. You're an upperclassman and therefore should have that respect. If they are talking back to you or not following commands, you need to make it clear to them that they can't get away with that. In other words, learn to be more strict and frank with them, and also give them some attitude back. It may surprise them and help you get a better handle on them.
Yours Truly, JP

Dear Bill,

Thank you for the compliment. Literally, I cannot tell you how much it meant to me. You are an excellent player, and a silent leader. I couldn't respect you more, but for you to compliment me? Thank you so much. I felt like nothing in my section, like nobody cared about my opinion just because it was my second year in band (even though I'm a senior and I've been studying the band since 9th grade). For you to say that I actually deserved to be section leader is one of the best things I have ever heard. For you to even say that I'm good, thanks.

But Bill, you are also so confusing...Oh well.

(alright this one is gonna be a bit difficult to read because my comma key is broken and the m is sticking. Thank you sis for spilling milk on the keyboard...)

Dear savannah

I am sick and tired of you treating me like crap. I'm not trying to call you out on everything you do wrong. I'm just trying to help you get better. I don't scream my head off at you when you try to help me even when it is completely unjustified and I am the one playing it right and you are telling me to play it wrong. I just go with it and if i know you are wrong i just say i would rather we asked the bd how it goes because i don't want to be rude.

Savannah I dont want to hate you or vice versa. Really all I have wanted since I met you is to be your friend and to help my section get better. You are one of the best players at this school even though that isnt saying much and i dont want to see you go downhill like you are. You used to love music and would work hard at a piece like i do but now you sit and hope you get the rythys right and when you dont you yell at me when i tell you something is wrong.

You dont even lsiten to me. I can tell you are doing it on purpose and its a real bummer that you are willing to purposely fail at music just so you can yell at me. I know you know that note in our duet is a Bb so why do you keep playing it natural? I'm not so sure about the speed at the tempo change witht e annoying triplets but you shouldnt be constantly playign it at the same speed.

When you yelled at me yesterday after i comented about said triplets you said i was speeding them up too. I know. The only reason I was doing that was because it is the type of rythym that if one person is playing it wrong the entire section locks into it unconsciiously. Its physically impossible to play it at two different tempos especially when you were blaring out way too loud. Speaking of which i hope you realize that it was you and jordan the director was referring to when she told the clarinets to quiet down at that part. I noticed only four of us wre playing at all. The others were lost and i couldn't go any quiet. I was already playing pianissimo to the extreeme. Had everyone else stopped and listened to mmme it would be very difficult to hear. Yet you continued to blame me for it. I even stopped playing once and you still said i was too loud.

Please savannah I a tired of fighting. If i switch schools next year it wont be because of harris it will be because of you. I can deal with Harris. Ive given up on winning the battle with her and refuse to be brought down by her. But it doesnt help at all when i hav you in the section constantly at y throat. Ive only ever held one grudge. You dont want to be the second.

-Your attepted friend
Rini

(so the m button stopped working about halfway through. I barely anaged to get the one out to say what button.)

Dear band:

I know things have been kind of weird lately since you've all, inexplicably, stopped caring.
We were all set up for getting a two or three yesterday and goddammit we all knew it.
Somehow we pulled our stuff together and got straight ones, a perfect superior.

I don't know why you're all unhappy about this. Sure, all it means is that we can pull our crap together at the last minute but that's nothing to be ashamed of. We still worked for what we got. Please stop being such Negative Nancies and saying things like "oh, lol, who bribed the judges?" "Good luck ever getting that score again without trying, guys" or, my personal favorite, "Way to get a score we didn't deserve, everyone."

We ******** deserved it. We've survived a shitty marching band season and an even worse concert band one and we came out on top. I know you all hate band because of H but that's because you're not around him as much as I am. I know I'm gullible and optimistic about everyone and everything but I really think I'm the only one who sees how much H really cares about all of us. He just...has an annoying way of showing it. You're all just too busy complaining about how band isn't your life and how H needs to step off to even notice.

Why am I the only one who cares anymore? Is it just because I'm his TA, or is it because I'm a better and more open-minded person than the rest of you?
For once I don't know the answer. I hate almost all of you for being so selfish and stupid. There are some of you who are wonderful people but you've given up too so I respect you slightly less.

No love,
Me.

yeah she used to be a friend, but started talking behind my back