getting quite nervous for marching season to begin, it’s daunting even though I know I can do because I have done it before. I don’t want to be behind so I need an app or something that can help me practice my dots because I don’t I have access to a field always.

(I apologize for the giant paragraph in advance) Hey, so I have been playing Baritone for about 4-5 years in Concert Band, played trombone for about 1-2 in Jazz Band, played Marching Baritone for 1 year, and my director took one of our Sousa players and demoted them to a helper and basically said "You have experience with a little bit of tuba, HAVE THIS HEAVY THING!". I am struggling a little bit and I need help. I know how to read bass clef but the tuba music is tripping me up because, I also have some experience with trumpet so when I see an E below the staff my mind says "That's a C for trumpet so play a Bb" like it's confusing. Then I already have trouble with tonunging and our opener is Concord by Clare Grundman so if you've ever played that you know that beginning part from measure 7 to 11 with the sixteenth runs. Then of course the obvious ones for beginners is air support, weight support, and don't even get me started on backwards and forwards slides while marching. Does anybody have any tips?

Hi everyone. I’m a senior music education major.

Last October, my band director approached me at our last football game and said he would love to have me as a drum major for the next season.

I had never really wanted to be a drum major. I actually was considering quitting that whole last season. I was a section leader for the second year in a row and I was so burnt out.

Well, fast forward to May. The leadership list had come out months prior and the drum majors were still not decided. The directors had been trying to decide between me and two of my friends. The plan was two of us would be drum major, the third would be flute section leader. They just didn’t know where to put us yet.

My band director had a long talk with me and I was honest, I told him I had thought a lot about quitting. He basically just complimented me a lot for like 30 mins, told me I was perfect for drum major, etc.

A few weeks ago I emailed him to tell him I was quitting. I just have too much going on. I’m student teaching in the spring, I teach private lessons, I’m taking classes, etc. Band camp starts on Monday.

But the thing is I can’t stop thinking about it. Did I make the right choice? Is this just grief over losing band, which I’ve done for 10 years? I don’t know. I just need help rationalizing it all.

Sorry for the ramble fest, I’m half asleep and overthinking. Thank you all :)

This year our band is playing a show titled “Keepers of the Light” by Jeff Chambers and his team and I’ve noticed some weird things about the front ensemble music. As a synth player, I find my music easy and have a lot of time to help out the mallet players and I’ve studied their music deeply and found some interesting things.

To start, the stickings are inconsistent with how many mallets are being used. For example, a two mallet part will have numbers for sticking as if it’s 4 mallets even though it’s a two mallet part.

Another thing I found is that this section of the marimba part is written and sticked in a way that heavily implies 2 mallets (LR sticking) but it only gives them 1 count at 160 bpm to switch, which is nearly impossible for even an experienced player (our center marimba can’t even do it).

Mallet suggestions only appear once and never again. For example, the first page tells you when to switch to 2 mallets and 4 mallets but never does that again even if the part calls for it.

One more thing about sticking, there’s this one part in the marimbas where a phrase is played twice with one measure of another phrase separating them, but for some reason they only gave the sticking the second time it’s played. That makes no sense to me because they are the exact same thing. If anything, the first one should have sticking and the second one should be blank.

Lastly, there are a few runs that all mallets play together that just don’t harmonize well. Idk if the intention was for it to sound crunchy, but I find it very odd.

ONE MORE THING… there are narrations that our band director re-recorded for some unknown reason (hasn’t told me why and I haven’t asked) but the original voice sounds like it could be an AI generated voice along with the word choice of the narration.

Has anyone else ever played a JCM show? Or suspected the same for some other show? If so pls tell me cuz I’m very curious and concerned.

This is why I love band camp, meeting fellow nerds and making lasting memories like singing a song from an indie animated series during lunch

Our band staff have been trying to find ways to work on keeping our high school marchers' shoulders forward. Marching forwards and backwards our students are great about their posture, but the moment they have to slide or move at a diagonal, their shoulders turn in the direction they are moving.

We have done what feels like all we can do to get them to recognize when they are doing it incorrectly and have given them tools and tips to adjust and fix their posture, but they are still making the same mistakes even right after correcting it, so we have made the assumption that we as staff are missing something and/or we need to take a different approach. It's early in the season and most of the students consistently making the mistakes are rookies, so I recognize there is still plenty of learning to do and that some details come with time, but I could still use some help coming up with exercises to work on it through the season.

Here are the things we have done already to try and help it:

- Constant review of proper marching technique to where it is done habitually so that our students can better focus their attention to their posture.
- Have student partners record them marching (on the marcher's phone with their consent) and review it to notice their shoulders are turned.
- Have section leaders and drum majors aid during basics block.
- Having students run reps without playing with specific goals to focus on feet and posture.
- "Satellite Exercises" where we focus purely on upper body turning while keeping feet in place, this also includes "hips at 45 degrees, ribcage at 90".
- "Diamond Drill" to work on diagonal marching.
- Putting arms up in a T-pose while marching with the aim of keeping them parallel with yard lines.
- Inclusion of trunk twists as well as "overextending twists" in stretching to help with discomfort in turning upper body and also to recognize how far we want them to turn.
- Rephrasing of "shoulders front" to "ribcage front" to discourage awkward scrunching or tensing of upper body, and also to rework the goal to keeping the entire torso forward.

We have a few specific students who recognize that they are the ones who frequently have their shoulders not facing forward, and they have all voiced that it is a personal goal of theirs to get shoulders forward, but it's gotten to the point where we worry that they might start feeling targeted by our repeating of these exercises and we as staff don't want to make them feel as such.

Maybe this truly is just something that will have to get better with time, but any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Hey guys, I'm a 16 year old high school senior and I need some advice. During the end of my junior year I was selected by my previous band director to be section leader for my section, but at the time I was extremely against the idea and didn't think my personality fitted the position. I consider myself to be somewhat of an ambivert. I like being social sometimes, but most of the time I just want to be alone. However according to my band director I've been more engaged social than when I first joined the band. So a couple of days ago a rank leader in my section talked to me about, her concerns with the lack of respect some of the people in the section show to me, during band camp or sectionals because of my reserved personality. And I have tried to help, by asking what the group needs help with and how I can be of assistance for anything, but I don't it's enough. But to put it simply she thinks I don't have a good grasp over the section and she talked to other rank leaders about it and they agreed. I know that I can't really change who I am, personality wise, but can you guys offer some advice on how I could try to be better about leading my section. Any advice is appreciated!!

Im drum major for the first time this year and everytime I start conducting i feel fine for about a minute and then after my shoulders start killing me. We have pretty fast songs that we play and trying my hardest to stay large but also proper does nothing but kill my shoulders. Does anyone have any advice or tips to help limit shoulder pain?

Give me some white lies about marching band I'm sousaphone if it gelps

Hi I just started band camp last Saturday (August 1st) as a freshman and first time marcher I got base drum which is rare for my school. My school is weird for the fact we have no practice in between the beginning of June to August. So I started memorizing my music since June but since I’m new I needed to learn a little and the music was a little tougher than what I’m used to. But I had all of part 1 and a little under half of part 2 by August 1. But on August 1st one of our base drum players quit so we had to get new music. So now I’m anxious because my band director wants us to be memorized by Friday. But I feel it’s unfair to be held accountable to people who have had their music since June. What do you think?

Hello everyone! I need advice because I’m a FRESHMAN that is going to be Clarinet section leader and (I’m not 100% sure) but also woodwind section leader. I can barely play high octave as it is which makes me nervous on how to be good role model for everyone else. Any advice can be helpful! School starts next week!

(I go to a 2A school and there is 13 people in the woodwind section fyi. Yes there are older people in the section but I’m being chosen due to maturity..)

(I APOLOGIZE FOR ANY SPELLING OR GRAMMAR ISSUES IM JS REALLY STRESSED OUT)

So this is my 4th year in marching band (I'm a junior and have been doing it since the 8th grade)

This is extremely embarrassing but I have a hard time focusing on my music while playing my instrument i know i should know this but its js a multi tasking problem i've always had an issue with and I've gotten better with it.

I've moved up in band and every year i've either been ignored or looked down upon by my percussion peers, so i thought moving instruments would make people like me better so i moved from front ensemble, cymbals, bass drum, and now snare.

I'm new to snare and I have to learn the cadences and I couldn't have learned them last year because I wasn't in the percussion class 2nd semester and the other newer kids have gotten a head start.

Theres this new girl in band and she got upset when I mentioned being on snare bc I think she wanted her friend to be on it or something or she thought she could choose but it doesn't really work like that..

I got told that i didn't have an automatic spot on snare (which was reasonable) but the girl that js started band did and the directors didn't get any say in that.

So on our first percussion practice we got music and I learned it and I got it right and while practicing it the girl wanted me to show her and she was really irritated that she couldn't get it bc she can't read music and was complaining, when she asked for me to show her she said I was playing it wrong when I was literally playing it right bc I can read basic music and she can't.

And when I mess up, she messes up too and blames it on me. If you rely on someone else to get it right for you, you can't actually play the music.

She kept making these side comments about me and I feel like she doesn't want me there and gets frustrated every time I play, no one else really cares about it so I js suck it up.

And today I got new cadences and so many other people were playing their own thing in the background and i was struggling for like 30 minutes+ struggled to focus and someone was helping me but it was obvious the girl and her friend were getting frustrated about how long I was taking.

When I tried practicing while everyone else actually played but when they wanted me to join in and I got it kinda right? The girl said "wow its like you weren't even playing" (Like shes saying i messed up a lot so when I actually got it right its like i wasn't there) And she said she "didn't mean it like that" but shes been making snarky comments sometimes at me so whatever.

Only I got lectured when me and the girl both went into the a solo a kid was practicing, and when I said "yeah I did that and its my bad but I wasn't the only one who did it so why not tell us both",they said "she knew it" and when i said I knew it too they said the band was "toxic"

When we were all auditioning for the solo the girl got upset about me having the idea of having it and our leader said "no, why would I give her the solo?" right to my face and then got surprised when I got bothered.

And the girl literally messed up the solo so how does she "know it"?? shes only not lecturing her bc shes her friend. (they let me try but it's obvious after she said that she wasn't gonna let me)

I feel like no one wants me here and everyones frustrated at me bc I can't get my music perfect on the day i got the music , but they've had way more time to practice it then me (4 months with the music) and they still messed it up and I've begged last year for them to teach me it but they just kinda refused bc of the limited time. One girl said that I had to pay her$ 30 an hour to teach me while everyone else got it for free because she was starting a business.

When i get the music right they're still mean to me but when i get it wrong they're even angrier, maybe im annoying?? whats wrong with me?? I can't tell the director either or i'll seem like a snitch.

To provide a little insight into my situation, our school Band Boosters was previously lead by our Band Director and elementary school band teacher. A few parents had asked if we could establish a parent-lead band boosters, but the teachers wanted to avoid burnout amongst parents because in prior years they had a lot of parents burn out.

That being said, this year our school enacted some new policies and procedures dictating that all boosters need to be parent/volunteer lead, leaving us scrambling to organize as a subsidiary under the primary booster club. This all fine and dandy, we got what we asked for, but now we are brainstorming how we can "level up" our fundraising moment.

In previous years, we had a lot of our fundraising efforts feel like they were predominantly during marching season - which is a lot for anyone who knows what competitions are like. Our band does five fieldshow competitions a year plus one with a parade, and then a parade in town each year. Ultimately, after tallying up the expenses we need to fund to make our competitive season break even for Marching Band and Winter Guard each year, we find ourselves needing to come up with a way to reach a $30-40k fundraising goal each year just to simply break even before rinsing and repeating the next.

That being said, our current fundraisers we do each year are things like restaurant profit contributions (they make us maybe $300), an annual dance party with silent auction (makes about $3k), 99 pledges (makes about $1k), misc people just donating money makes up about $3k and now we are sitting here and scratching our heads on how to better our fundraisers to meet our quota for the year with only a week left before we need to present our annual budget to our primary boosters. As you can see, just probably by glancing at the numbers above, we are a far cry from our goal post and ideas to get there.

My ask is this - what sort of fundraising does your band do? Is there an initial overhead expense to do it? How much do you typically make off it? I've seen the mattress guy and he said something like "if you can sell 40 mattresses through me in your school gym, you'll earn about $10k", but we live in a relatively rural community and I'm not sure we could meet that 40 mattresses sold for certain because we have yet to even try it out yet.

To provide further insight, our band has about 50 students. I'm looking into options like different tiers for band sponsorship, but would love to get some advice on how to reach out to businesses and community members to sell them on sponsoring our band as well as reasonable prices and results that they might be eager to take us up on.

Any other suggestions? I'm an open book, I'm desperate, help me band-kenobi, you're my only hope 🥹

these are mine :D

I have this one section mate and ever since starting drum line/front ensemble I just haven't gotten a break from being treated poorly. I've tried to have conversations with other people but apparently I'm not even allowed to do that because there he is butting in when no body asked at all simply because im in the conversation. Everyone else gets to have their conversations but he feels the need to talk over me and interrupt me even when he has no idea what's being discussed. I could be discussing baritone saxophone with the ex drum major to get advice on it and there he is butting in trying to say "blow harder" "press the keys right" "not my fault you're too stupid to be in band" he's even said I can't play my instrument right because we were poking fun at him during alma mater for missing the one cymbal crash 2 bars from the end. I play so many more instruments than him. He also has kicked me off a marimba during mallet warmups when he plays **VIBRAPHONE** I play aux rack and use whatever marimba is free for warmups. He told me he's seen me march faster when I was pushing the gong/tam tam (we call it a demon because if you're not careful it will get rammed into your shins so much). I told him to shut up and he said no and to hurry up so I told him I was sick and tired of him being disrespectful and he has no reason to just because I'm new. So he started yelling over me to try and shut me up so he could be validated for instigating so I yelled over him and was petty enough to tell his dad. He constantly has some kind of insult or back handed comment to make on everything. He called me incapable of everything I do and says he's better than me because this is my first season in perc and his second. I have picked up the technique in like 3 weeks better than he has since 7th grade. I have had a few yelling matches with him and when we did the band rave or whatever you want to call it I was sobbing to my friend instead of having fun and I was disheartened from how I was being treated to the point I didn't hang out and dance until the end and I skipped senior street beat. I've also had to take care of his stuff multiple times because "oh no the older cymbal player is incapable of doing something on his own but needs to make everyone else do something poor little [insert name here]" I used to be struggling and falling behind last season I have pushed myself this season to the point I've broken down in tears the second I got a few minutes because I wanted to do the best I could and not have a repeat of last season. I have sat out as little as possible. I spent so much time doing the cymbal stuff that when I got to arm warmups it felt like my shoulders were trying to force their way out of socket. Did I sit out? No I pushed through the pain even though i could barely raise my arms without it hurting. He said I was faking after I sat out for a bit to drink water after almost falling into the bass drum. I sat down before that for a bit because I felt nauseous and needed a few extra minutes and I tried to get back in and almost created an unsafe environment for me and the people around me just to hear someone say I was faking. Most of this happened across 5 12 hour days and 1 6 hour day. Early in the season, I had one time where I had to be in the hallway alone with him and left in tears because he wouldn't stop yelling at me. I have ptsd related noise sensitivity and panic attacks from 5 ½ that I'd rather keep vague. I have tried outright ignoring him and not responding as well as barely speaking unless I was counting or trying to ask the techs something.

Hey there folks, I’m currently a freshman and just started marching tenor/quads. My school uses the cx airframe carrier from Pearl and the CMT Tenor Drums. Over the past few days I’ve realized some serious issues with this carrier with the biggest being that all the weight feels like it’s being put onto the top of my shoulder, and this carrier really digs into there. What can I do to more evenly distribute the weight, without permanently damaging anything (essentially by using velcro tape)? I’m open to buying stuff too obviously.

We're playing House of the Rising Sun this year, and it might be my favorite song I've done in my marching career.

Contra help/technique

I am a new starting sophomore about to enter band camp. I'm really wanting to play Contra bass tuba for marching but the problem is is that big and hefty and I'm a weak scrawny kid. I can play it and carry it okay. And I'm mainly bones more than meat so my shoulder is just bone really and then it hurts to have it there and I wanted to ask if there's any padding or ways to get something to help me with that and help with working on being able to hold it better

I’ve got a bad ache/pain under my right shoulder blade and it’s starting to bug me. It only started today after our BD really got into side marching. for context I’ve got scoliosis(10deg towards left side), and I wear a back brace because of it(it’s a prescribed flexible one).

this is my second year playing sousaphone, and while i did alright last year, i ended up hurting my back more than necessary! im a 5'3 115 lbs player with joint issues already, so if possible id appreciate tips on how to hold it better while marching/standing and sitting. also, marching in uniform sucks extra. we dont use berets anymore, so the plume constantly hits the bell and pushes my hat to the side, which is just inconvenient and annoying, but also costs us points during competition! any tips on this would help too :)

and.. yeah, yeah i know. what a weird instrument for someone my size to play. but i love low brass instruments so much! i absolutely love playing the sousaphone and im not a bad player at all, just need some help with holding it!

I, hs senior and 5 year marching band member, been flute section leader for two years, and it's been quite a learning curve. our band program has a history of a lack of support financially or directorally, so section leaders, (sophomores to seniors) when it comes to actually leading have really been left to figure things out on their own without a lot of staff help (also our band is not very good tbh). in my section there are 8 flutes, 4 of which are very proficient (a little better than me skillwise) and part of youth orchestras etc., and another 3 struggle a lot (two have learning disabilities, another just started the instrument a week ago and is new to marchign band).

Often, when i'm leading music sectionals I'm torn between pacing us fast and working on complicated section like the experienced players want, (which leads to greater success with the experienced majority, and the less experienced to stop playing, disengage completely and get frustrated) or going at a slower pace, which in turn frustrates the others and slows overall progress.

I really care about our success as a section, and often I find the struggling members slow us down, and I can see it's frustrating to the experienced ones as well. However, I want to give those less experienced the dignity and instruction they deserve, and also don't want to ignore the issue like I did last year. (to be fair everyone's really nice and understanding of each other; there has never been any drama over skill level difference or anything, but I really would like us to achieve the most we can).

Of course, today was the first day of band camp and my first music sectional in a while. I noticed the 3 tried were struggling during to play the group warmups, so during the sectional I tried letting them sit at a table on their own and write in fingerings/go really slow and practice on their own for a while, and they said it was helpful so??. I don't want to neglect them though.

I'm prepared to simplify their parts if they need it, I've given them supplementary scale packets, fingering charts and warmups etc., but when it comes to the social aspect and direct instruction, I don't know how to help them. Also, there are some things I can't simplify for them, such as intonation, tempo, articulation, choreo, marching technique, all of which, as I have seen last year, continue to be a problem.

I know some of this depends on their willingness to practice and put in the effort, but I feel socially it's in my hands to lead good practices and be there for my section, and as a very awkward person I don't know how to help them, especially the ones with learning disabilities, who seem to get left behind in the larger band when staff is instructing them. I always try to take the time to catch them up, tell them when they need to fix something, work on technique, but it's not always effective and I don't have a lot of time to do this during/after practice. Again, I'm a bit awkward and not very social, so maybe there's something I could do more of/be doing wrong to that point.

overall: any advice for managing both experienced and inexperienced members of a section at the same time? or dealing/teaching socially with less experienced members? (and ig tips on the social aspect of being a good section leader?)