I just took squad leader of my line this year. As i understand it in all the years before me the line just didn't care. They didn't stand in attention, didn't march correctly, and just fooled around the whole time.

Well my highschool band just started doing competitions a few years ago and I want the line to get a 1 at contest. I want to be a line that people are amazed by how good we look and sound. So I'm trying to totally turn the line around. We have no drum instructer which makes this even harder. The line just doesnt understand what truely being "good" is, and the freshman bass line just doesn't care, and no one wants to be "band dorks."

Is there any advice someone can offer me as to how to turn it around to be a tight drumline??? I'm turning it around, but I just think its going to slow right now. We've improved on a whole bunch of things, but theres just sooooo much more the needs improvement.

I dont know if this will be of any help, but show them some DCI videos. See if they are interested in what is being shown to them. If they are, tell them they could be like that, with practice and dedication. Other than that, i wish you luck. Considering they dont quite understand the concept behind being competitive, it might take a while to turn it around. Youve already taken the first step, which is making up your mind about this coming season. Just keep trying and remember, dont take it all on your self of the outcome. Any improvement is good.

yea i showed them that a DCI video and they were amazed, they thought it was so cool, (and i did too). I've told them thats what we can be like, and i went on a 10 minute motivational speach lol, we practiced that day awsomely. Ive never seen them practice so good. But come the next day they forgot everything I talked to them about. I need a way to make it stick in their heads. Thanks for the help.

Take them to a battle of the bands type competition. Let them see some good drumlines in person and on the DCI videos. Also have yall all seen Blast?

Well the only positive experience that I've had at being a leader was 2 yrs ago when I was on bass. The attitude there stunk, 2 of the four yelled at each other and one just didn't want to practice. Even though I wasn't the designated leader everyone else said I was, but that's besid the point so I'll get back to it. As you can already tell the attitude there was negative. The section leader at the time didn't know how to read bass music and the reason he was there was that he played snare the year earlier and came into the season that year late. I taught one how to read, went to the other one's persons house to get him to practice, and the other just mainly needed good motivation. Now one thing to do is to just keep a positive attitude towards your goal. Like most attitudes it should spread even though it may be slow. Make sure that you have your stuff down before you go and try to "bust up" on everyone else. Does everyone understand the music and everything in that matter, it may be a good question. I say keep with the positive attitude, which can't be stressed enough, with it you can go far.

There are no overnight fixes. You're making progress, be happy with that. Would you like it faster, yes, of course, everyone would, but you have to start somewhere. Just remind them of how well the other practice went and ask if they want it to go like that again. I'm sure most of them would. Once they get into the habit of working hard, then the rate of improvement should take off exponentially.

"Each journey begins with one step."

I know this may sound a little strange, but you might consider having an adult present during your practice sessions. It would help if they had some experience in music.
We had our share of problems 2 years ago when we couldnt keep a coach and the members of the drumline bickered amongst themselves. That was bad and it showed in competition. They did not end up in the top 3 positions.
We have since found an excellent coach, the musicians dont bicker, we always have a parent or 2 present to support the coach. The Music Director always makes his presence known before the end of practice.
Its not perfect. In fact, I have another post regarding a parent who was unhappy and went right to the top bypassing the Music Director. The parent finally came clean with what was bothering him and I think his issues have been resolved to his satisfaction. I have found that drumline can be an emotionally charged issue for the overwhelmed, overcommited parent. You must follow up. Things can get quickly out of hand. Dont be afraid to ask for help. You will probably find out, that most of the parents and musicians are on the same page with you. I believe they want their children to succeed.

Yes having an instructor is excellent. Also you need to impose your love of drumming on the others. Me and and a fellow snare have been interested in DCI and stuff for a while and its starting to wear off on the others. Its great when you're on a bus going somewhere for competition and you realize that a good amount of people other than yourself also are playing on pads.

I got a guy who wanted to play bass drum... Didn't even get that and is now stuck on cymbals. I'm almost absolutly sure he hates playing cymbals and doesn't want to be in the line anymore. The problem is that he doesn't have to be there, and can just quit since we're an independent band. Now I need somthing to keep him in long enough to get him interested again, or at least practice enough to take one of the bass positions. Any suggestions?

Well you can help him out by offering to practice bass with him Trimen. Ask him if he would like your help and you would be delighted to give it to him. Tell him if he wants that bass spot bad enough he will get it. The main thing is motivation which is interesting since we are in the section of that here. Well anyways tell him just because he didn't make it to bass this year doesn't mean he has to quit all together.

Yeah, just tell him that he can get the spot on the bass line if he just practices. Or you could try and show him how fun a cymbal line can be. Like, show some videos of cybal lines doing some crazy visual stuff. Thats what makes playing cymbals fun.

I really wish I could do all of that, I would do it too. But well.. We're under very limited conditions, unfortunatly he lives about an hour away from me, and we have only one 3.5 hour rehersal each monday night wich is cramed with all of our normals stuff. So that's the only time I get to see him... I'll see about maybe getting some coll visuals down and showing it to him or maybe the whole cymbale line next monday.

So you only see him once a week? Well, maybe you could just pull the cymbal line aside after the practice, and show them some visual stuff or some drum corps.

I dont know if they wil agree to that, but its worth a try. You could also give a speech to them about taking the cymbal line (and maybe the whole line) to the next level.

Ok I know what you mean man. I just recently moved it sucks so bad I had to leave a really good and tight line. I played bass down there I got 3rd since I was a sophmore but was better than 2 and the bass leader really liked me. Well comeing up here I found a line full of beginners all but one to be exact and he is pretty good. I can't seem to help some of these guys though I just don't know. We got me on quints now even though I'm not a quint player even though they are fun to play. The good guy and two beginning 8th and 9th graders (yes the hs band has 7 & 8 grade in it is there something wrong with that) They have gotten alot a lot better since I got here. The two bass players though they both are pretty bad as in they can't keep tempo one is motivated and wants to learn but he can't seem to get it. The other one just doesn't care and I really hate him with a passion. Anyways I'm looking for ideas to help us turn around for better.

The best way to encourage a line in my opinion is to show them some DCI Videos. Any time I am tired of long practices or sick of working on an exercise for hours, I sit down and watch some videos. After watching them, it makes me want to practice even more so that I can join a drum corp.

Once the people in your line realize how cool it is to sound great, look great and even have people watching them warmup in the parking lot, they will want to practice more and it should help the line out alot a lot.

Good Luck!

Always making someone feel important helps.

Post deleted by Middle Age Man

well, the motivatoin thing has been stated. i can't add anything. as for the band nerd problem? try this-make it COOL. be like, dudes. you rock. we are the shiznit. [don't say that if its not what you usually say..i do say it so i can but dont be fake.] plus, come up with either a name [like the perc. mafia] or a slogan [we stick it better] that they can say or whatever. part of hte problem may be that your line isnt as close as it could be...have everyone over for a party/sleepover and do the 'bonding thing'. but dont tell them its bonding or they migth not come. if they're closer, they'll want to come to practice. if they want to come to practice, they'll want to work hard to get things accomplished. if they work hard, they'll sound good. if they sound good, they'll feel good about drumming. end of story! good luck!

Right before my senior year in high school, my school district decided to spit our high school into two different high schools due to over population. As much as I loved to see most of these people leave my school, our drumline went from 20-some members down to 4. (2 seniors and 2 juniors)

Fortunally, we had around 12 new members come in as freshmen and sophmores. So a line with 18-or so people.. not so bad right?

Here was the problem - no one knew what marching band or drumline was all about. Sure, they may have seen a football game or a DCI video in jr. high, but we all know theres far more work and effort that is behind a marching performance. Not only did my co-captain and I have to teach the show, cadence, and the typical "newbie" stuff but we had to teach almost everyone about the strong sense of unity, dedication, and passion that goes behind every note.

Anyways, what seemed to work best was to make it fun for everyone and show our group of musicians is unlike any other in the school. We were family. We WANTED to play. If theres a line who doesn't have fun when they play or doesn't want to be there... it's going to take longer to get any better whether you want to be like the Cadets or not. Just my 2 cents

sounds like my pathetic line... they've seen blast. they've been to DCI competitons. we have an instructor from DCI and she can motivate them but no one else has so far. we also had a guy from the madison scouts do our drum camp one year, i thought he was great, but it didn't motivate them. i think that when some hs drummers that are so unmotivated and uneducated see a DCI line and are just blown away. we've even went the other way so to speak and tried harsh discipline. this showed the worst results and made the line unruly... and it still is from it a little. i'm sure you could motivate them, but i don't know how. i think half the line is just in the band to be in it and not take another class.