Oh goodness, I didn't know it was like that. Man you are right about your instructor, that's a boneheaded thing to do. The thing I will have to tell you on this one is stick to your guns. If you let this break you, you'll end up losing interest and quitting. Don't want that I don't think. While dealing with this as well, make sure you have a friend you trust to confide this stuff to. It does wonders to release the steam with testy situations.

You can also talk to the BD about your instructor. Tell him what he is doing right, and/or wrong. The BD could deal with him/her accordingly.

There was this guy like that on my line, and we would turn his snare of and loosen it up so that there was hardly any noise sometime just to be mean. But later he got lessons and he became a good bass drummer. I don't know why my director him on snare to start with.

well...we have had 2 competitions already (1 for drumline, and 1 for whole band), and our line got GOODS at both. The first one i can understand, it was our first one, we were nervous, and we were against some awesome lines. However, the last one we had (yesterday), completely frustrated me. We were competeing with horrible bands that had horrible drumlines, and we STILL couldn't pull the caption. I thought we didnt do too badly on the field (because i only listen to the snares right next to me...the good ones, and we sounded together), and i realized how bad our drumline was. This girl that im whining about was happy with our good! She doesnt care that we find that score unacceptable, and she will not work hard enough to help us raise our score. Our line had a huge fight on the bus coming back, and it was basically 15 against 1 (her). Even with all of this, she is not changing her attitude, and she just will not committ to this drumline. I wasted an entire friday practicing, and an entire saturday riding in a bus, just so people like her who are not striving for excellence can destroy our performance. I've had it with this drumline, and if i could, i would quit as of now. Since i cant, im calling this my last year unless some major changes are made next year. What would you guys do in this situation?

Man that sucks well my problem with my line was more than the line itself. Maybe you need to blow some steam at home. What I did to blow some steam was I just sat down by my computer and started drumming and wrinting in here. Try that and see if that works for you. Your line is not worth it for you to quit what you like best( at least I hope so). Someone gave me great advice and said that if you really love something you will not quit and let the years before you go down in flames.

Thats true what you said...
I have no intention of quitting drumming altogether, i just think ive wasted enough time with my high school line...i will be trying out for a division 2 corps in my state in december, and will keep working as an individual...as far as a high school drumline goes though...it's too much of a committment with few rewards

how bout this-ask your director if you can have playing tests on the music. have everyone play a part memorized for a GRADE. or even just have a serious talk with her, just be all official and throw your weight around. section leaders who get scary will be behaved...i once had one that smacked and bit people who messed up/mouthed off..we had a good show that year. it was hell, but we knew we couldnt slack off. also if i were you i would call a mandatory three-hour or so practice just for the DL every week/twice a week even and if people complain? "well, ___ can't seem to get it together so we all have to practice." nothing like having an entire line mad at her.

this is a little devious, but I'd "borrow" her drum during one of the practices and mess the heads up some so they sound bad enough that the BD will make her stop and try to fix it, I mean if she hasn't been there for most of the practices, I'd say she prolly wouldn't know much about snare repair and tunning. If your not feeling so devious though, just tough it out till next tryouts and hope she doesn't make it, or if the BD knows shes as bad as you say she is, he/she won't let her into the line.

-mike

We have the same problem, except it was with like 2 drummers. One of them shaped up, but one still isnt practicing, and really isnt that great. (its not like it matters now, cuz marching season is over.) We were gonna tell him straight up, "you wont be on the line next year if you dont practice." but we decided not too, because it was just before a huge performance, and we didnt want him to not play as worse than he already did.

Or you could talk to your director about it. Show your concern for the section as a whole.

well here is what i would do. have your snare line show up to rehersal early and have a snare sectional for a couple of hours having people play the parts individualy. that might show her that she isnt up to par with the rest of the line. if that dosnt work the you, along with the line, should confront her and let her know how you all feel.

First of all, she knows how most people feel about her (except she justifies it by believing we are just negative a-holes), so i dont think confronting her will be very effective. The other problem is that we have a huge band (160-some people), and our director and drum instructor feel that we have to fill every single spot (5-snares, 3-tenors, 5-basses). I see that to be the biggest problem (for next year). Instead of fitting the drums around the available talent, our instructor is stretching the talent around the spots. Even now, when he knows how much trouble she is causing, i have a hard time believing he will pass up someone who already has a year's experience on the instrument.

Well, in december i'll be trying out for a Division II corps, and if i make it (ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease) i will most likely give up high school band. If not, then we'll have to see...