Our drumline looses more and more players every year because people loose interest in band. The band directors at the middle school are making band so boring that they quit their 8th grade year. So now we don't get any new freshmen. Can anyone help me out or tell me what to do?

I'm in that same posistion here in NJ. I am studying to be a msuic teacher in the middle schools when i graduate. There is nothing that you, or anyone for that matter, can do. We can't make the kids enjoy music. It is there choice. One thing you can do is have recruitment assemblies at the middle schools to try and get the kids interest back into it. If that doesn't work, just take what you can get. If anyone else has any suggestions, I would like to know too. Hope this helps and Good luck.

Rock on!

you cant make them enjoy anything, but you can definitely stop them from enjoying it. make sure youre not doing that. you could have some crazy musical prodigy in the audience, but if the music is no good they won't enjoy it... at least not most of the time.

what do kids want? fun. thats what kids are about. fun. MAKE IT FUN!

go down to the middle school and teach them sometimes and make it more intresting for them

good point marimbaman. you cant make them enjoy anything. in my opinyon you could aloways show them some viedos of your past drumlines and give them something to be apart of. or just hang out with them. really if you were in 8th grade and the entire drumline showed intrest in you would you quit?

Go to your middle school and just hold an assembly where the drumline plays some cadences. After you are done with that, you should tell the young middle schoolers that you need more people in the band and have a sign-up sheet at a table near you. If your performance is awesome, you should attract alot a lot of new musicians. (This goes for the band also but mostly drumline.)

You need to get involved and give the 8th graders a reason to stay with band, because from the sounds of it, they are not seeing the incentive. As mentioned in another post, playing cadences or something cool for the 8th graders and then having a sign-up sheet can help them to stay with it. Also, I can't stress enough the importance of getting the younger ones some help through lessons or workshops so they are getting better and staying interested, and make it into the program as a high schooler.