If you don't do it who will?

Screw the section leader if he/she isn't helping.

well i am not the captain and we dont have any instructers either.....plus one of them(i am not goin to give names, but cough*sammy*cough )well sit there and lay all over the floor and just sit there and when it is time for him to play, he will play while sitting down(this is durin concert season)...........my drum captian trys his best to get them to shutup but they wont lesson at all! my bd has gotten feed up with and makes them sit in front of everybody, but they STILL talk and goof off! i just dont get! i feel they need to stop acting like little 6th graders and start acting like the high school people they are......i may be just a freshman, but at least i have the respect and dignity to do what i am told to do when i am told something.

My drumline has seen lot videos and WGI videos also. They just choose not to stand at attention and do what they are supposed to do during practice. However, outside of practice they do practice their parts which I am so glad they finally caught onto that. If I try to step it up someone will be there to shut me down, wether is my section leader or anybody in my pit. Now I think that I wasted 6 years of my life in music.
This is one of the better reasons for me to quit my high school line. I can't stand people being that way.

First of all....All of you stop picking on chs. She was just trying to help too, and I bet she feels like you all are jumping down her throat. Whether it is right or wrong to you, it isn't to her. Kapeesh?

To the problem at hand. There is something that should be understood here. There are no instructors here, and it seems that the line is the bad section in the line. Been established already. The only thing I think you can do right now drummermanic, is to believe in yourself and keep playing dude. You are a freshman, and the people probably goofing off in front of you are upperclassmen and such, so as the way of high school goes, there is no way that they're gonna listen to ya. If the drum captain and the band director are also having trouble with the line, then that probably means the bad apples have a lack of respect for them as well, more so the drum captain than the band director(of course cause the band director can own them for free).

So drummermanic, just believe in yourself and keep practicing. It isn't going to be like this all the time, and with your dedication, you will probably sow the seed for the up and coming players in the future.

I would say it seems like you are in a good position. If the goof offs are upper classmen then that means you will get rid of those undesired individuals. Also you are in a position to change things over the next three years. SO by the time you graduate you can leave a solid program behind. Obviously there were some poor leaders and bad exapmles set prior to you getting involved with the program. You are in a rebuilding time. This happens in bands and in drum corps. Even the top 12 corps have gone through periods of rebuilding. 1991 Cadets of Bergen County. 6th Place corp that year. In 90 they were a champion. I took 3 years for them to rebuild. In 93 they won another title against Star of Indiana. So just stick with it and watch what happens. You are getting in on the ground floor of this rebuild. So be a designer my friend. Start writting down your ideas. For next season have a booklet ready for you BD to look at. Have the booklet spell out what is expected of members of the line. Talk about rehearsal etiquette, amount of rehearsal time, outside practice time, what style you will play with, exercises ect... Inform them for next year/season. Set the tone very very early next season. This will turn out great if you can stick it out through the hard times and put in the effort to help impliment the necassary changes.

chs..think for a minute. Breathe, hunny. I don't so much agree with the advice that you were given about doing nothing, but I could understand how you could frustrated because nothing seems to improve, no matter how hard you try. I believe that section leaders in HS programs are thought to have way too much power. Yes, they're there to "lead", but you can't honestly expect them to be mature all of the time. Y'all need to realize that everyone in the line is still responsible for their own actions. Section leader's just a title, like Ironman said. A true leader does not let the actions of others prevent them from achieving their goals, nor do they abuse their power. Keep that in mind.

But, as for the original post, mad props to you for wanting to improve, even if you're one of the youngins! In the lines that I've taught, they have been a little out of control, but I understand that that is part of the territory. If you can only figure out some way to make being disciplined fun...my kids always seemed to straighten out whenever they knew that they were being watched, or when I would remind them of the reputation that their group had to uphold.

I totally agree with everything DIVA just said. I've seen freshman tremble when their SL comes by. Any dicipline (as discussed in the Discipline vs. Hazing thread) should come from the instuctor. And sometimes instructors rely too heavily on the captains/SL for the discipline. I think all instructors should probably take a look at this in their lines. Good points by all.

One last word of advice. To touch on what my dear friend Diva said. There is only one person whose actions you can control. That person is you. No matter the title given to anyone they only ulitimately control their own behavior. So just keep that in mind.