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So im section leader, and it is curently band camp time.

Well, we've been doing a lot of sectionals, but so far, only two people in my section show me any kind of respect.
And one is a freshman.

We ahve two rookies, a senior with ADHD who has trouble reading music, and a freshman.
Then we have 3 sophomores, one of which refuses to listen to me, cant read music and ius completely clueless.
And then me and another Junior, who is the other one who respects me.

Well, on Friday i was running sectionals, and pretty much hell broke loose. I paused for a moment to help the clueless sophomore and everyoen started talking and playing whatever they wanted. Over the chaos, i called them to attention. I only made them stay there for a few seconds before going to help the senior and letting them relax. It didn't get quite as chaotic, but there was still some talking. Well, the senior was standing next to the other two sophomores, and so i squeezed between him and them. when i turned my back, i overheard the two sophomores talking about me. I ignored them and kept woking with the senior.

After a bit, we started working on stands tunes and the fight song. I knew the clueless sophomore was having troubles with all of them, and so i asked him to stand next to me. He yelled at me and i nearly had to drag him over. We played through one sonng, with us having to stop a few times to help him, annd then we moved on. He started to go back to his old spot, so i told hiu to stay by me. he claimed it was because he left his music for that song in the old spot. Everyone has the same part for this song, so i told him to look off of mine. He huffed and puffed a bit before coing back over.

Then, we get to the fight song. For the first time in many years, i found 2nd clarinet parts for the fight song. 1st art is uber high, and the rookies and a fe others have troble tuning it. So i put everyone but me and the sophomore who was talking about me behind my back earlier on 2nd. Well, the clueless sophomore got mad, because he wanted 1syt part. Note tat all the other clarients had volunteered for second. I told him i wanted more on second thenon first so it wouldn't be so hard to tune, because we would be playign it on a marching field. He threw a fit. He claimed that he could play 1st part well. He could barely play it at all. I ended up having to confiscate his 1st part. I did this while he was in the bathroom. Which kind of worked, until he caught a glimpse of his part hiding behidn my flipfolder. He kept trying to steal it back and eventually did, giving me a nice bruise on my shoulder and a large paprcut-_-

At lunch, he tried to steal my friend's lunch, so i told him off. He told me to shut up. When i commented to hi about it, he said he didn't have to listen to me because he was older. He is 16, but he is a sophomore. I'malso 16, but his birthday is a month or two before mine. I don't see what being older has to do with it.
I told him that he shoudl listen to e anyway, and he said he always lsitens to me. I aske dhim when. he said sectionals. I brought up our fight song battle, but he iterupted me and walked away...


I don't know what to do...
How can i lead my section if only two respect me? I punish them, they yell at me and talk about me behind my back. I try being nice, they take advantage.

I cant tell the teacher, because we don't have one. Band camp is being run by the choir director. They might lsiten to her a bit...but the moment she is gone they would start being disruptive again...

Respect is hardest to get from people who don't want to respect you. All you can do is treat them how you would want to be treated in their position. They're all teenagers, and they all want to feel like they're living their own lives. They're told what to do by every adult they meet, they don't need to be told what to do by their peers as well. Give them options. Don't tell them "This is what we're doing, there's nothing you can do about it". Make a list of things you need to work on as a section and don't single anybody out in front of the rest of the section. With that list, ask them what they want to do, and go with the majority. Promise that you'll get to the rest later.

Apart from that, you can't act like you feel that you deserve their respect. If you haven't earned their respect, you don't deserve it. Don't go out of your way to "be someone you're not" to get their respect. That will only make you seem like a poser, and they'll respect you even less.

Funny, I am having a similar dilemma.
Anyway, I recommend that you just stand firm, while still respecting them. Maybe reward the two that do respect you?

I know the feeling because no one respects me either, except my section because I'm the only one that really knows what their doing other than one other person.

What you need to do is less punishment. I know it sounds crazy, but the more you punish them the less they will like, listen, and respect you. Last year I had a freshman that wouldn't do jack squat for me unless I kept her entertained. The more I punished her the more she walked off and did her own thing or smarted off to me so I had to make amends with her. When she started talking and doing whatever another freshman would start beating on his bongos or sit down somewhere and be lazy. She would then start talking to the other girl freshman while she was trying to learn her part so it was just a big chain reaction.

When you have to stop to talk to someone you tell them to continue looking over their part silently or their going to play their part by themselves in front of the group. Make sure they know that rehearsal time isn't socialization time. Time is limited and they need to use it to better themselves with their music. If you're working with one person individually and it is something that will only take a couple seconds then let the talk a little unless the entire group is having trouble with that part, but make sure all of them have complete attention when you're back with them. If you're too strict with a group like that then they're just going to get worse.

Another thing I do is learn how each individual person learns and how long their attention span is. You can also try to arrange them so they aren't sitting next to their best friend. If you think they'll listen to the choir director her tell them what is going on and have her talk to them about their behavior.

I hope this helped at least a little.

Oh, and another thing. Never tell your section/ students to shut up. It will only bring more disrespect and dislike towards you. Our field commander was so annoying last year because when he was sitting in the shell he would talk quite often but when he was on the podium he would stop and stare at anyone that said one word, pause, then tell them to shut up that he was on the box. Every one of us hated it when he conducted just because of that. He never followed his own rules and wasn't exactly the Best leader. I felt he could have done a lot better than he did.

If i were to punish them less before, i would be letting them do whatever they wanted.

At the eginning of bandcamp, i never punished them. Punsihment is helping in my case =/

Well if the get distracted and i cant get them back focused i call them to atention just to quiiet them down, but my other punishments are aove the quote from youXD

well, i'm also a new section leader...though for the guard.
when youre correcting them, try to be more general, like say it to everyone, unless you have to repeat the same comment.
and i'm not totally sure that the stealing of the 1st part was the right thing to do. you said you don't really have a teacher, but is there a DM you can go to? or someone else he actually does respect? like, in our band, we have the section leaders, and we have band council, who aren't necessarily section leaders, but they're just leaders that help out our BD and plan stuff...

Push ups have an advantage, they will be able to hold up their instruments without complaining. Running helps them loose alot of weight. And bleachers work the leg muscles. not to mention bleachers bite. And last would be swimmies. you lie on the floor on your belly and hold your arms and legs off the ground. then pulse all limbs at the same time.