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Section Leader Help

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 10:41 pm
by the yellow dart
Ok, so i offered to post this for my friend who doesn't come on WoP. Also, everything I'm saying she told me, so all of the opinion about her comes from her.

In the past, my friend's section has been very relaxed, bordering on lazy. Now, this was when she was not in charge, but she was a part of it. Now she wants to turn the section around, and have the section work hard and be focused. However, the section, because they are used to years past, either don't notice her wanting to change, or don't want to change.

Now, my friend is not very assertive. She's basically one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. And her section is not listening to her. She sometimes wants to just yell Shut The F**** Up!!! But she really wants to be friends with the people in her section, so she doesn't want to be mean, or snap, or anything.

One other problem is that another person in her section, who is a year younger and will probably be the section leader next year, (ok, i'm not sure if i have this part exactly right), is not backing up my friend, and is kind of, not disobeying, exactly, but not really obeying either.

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:34 pm
by JazzGeek
The problem with being a section leader is: you can't always be buddy-buddy with your section. Eventually, you must assert authority or your band director will replace you. The real key is getting your section's respect---if you happen to be the best player in the section, this part is easy since most underclassmen do look up to the better players. Also, don't be afraid to teach; part of being a section leader is teaching the others to be better players. It's one thing to bitch about how someone plays, it's another to help that person play better. Worry about the respect first, then the friendship. The friendship will last longer if you both grow some respect for each other.... 8-)

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 9:34 am
by Ex Nihilo
screaming obsenities doesn't work (believe me, i've tried) but a key to leadership is being assertive; to be firm but not mean. if you're a section leader, back her up. tell her section that if they don't listen to her, they will have you to deal with. friendship should always be a secondary factor.

Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 11:46 pm
by blackzarg
Screaming profanities at the section isn't the most effective way to get a section moving. It's motivation and incentive. You need to give a reason why they should work hard, whether it be telling them about the benifits of their efforts, how they'll feel after a show, or even how their peers will think of them.

A few years ago in my school, we have student managers, who, in the past, have always been very lazy and instead of doing basics they would stand there and "take attendance" and just wouldn't contribute to much to the practices. Because of that, the band had a really low opinion of the band managers.

Last year my co-manager and I strived to give respect to this position, and got people to notice how this position could be and how much work that you can put into something.

Frustrating as it may be, your friend needs to give them an incentive, and know that being in that position means that a friendship can't interfere with work. Work hard, play hard.

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 9:56 am
by ChIckInPIt
mmm and I thought I had issues (HAHA). Well, the future section leader now asst. leader, yea i have one of those. Unfortunately, I can understand how annoying that really can get. Anyways, yea, I had issues in the past about getting ppl on their feet and being to "hard" on my section. First thing's first

1. The only reason they complain about being pushed too hard is because they don't wanna try (this is very true, especially for the ppl that say "omg! noooo, that's soooo hard, can someone else do it?!?!?!") That is just plain lazy and disrespectful to u on their part.

2. Your asst. if anything, should try to (if he or she hasn't) be a leader. If they are not really listening to you, then they need a ear full to listen to.

Yea, I can understand when a section starts becoming lazy or just doesn't wanna work for it. Yea, u can blame it on the past leader, but if anything, you'd want to find a solution. There's going to be TONS of days when u want to make ur section shut it and just listen, but if only they worked like that. (life would be SO PERFECT if they DID!). Sometimes they really need to understand that we're not there only to tell them what to do or when to play. They need to understand that were not different from them. They need to understand that, as a group, we want them to look, play, perform the best or the best to their abilities. WE know they wanna look good (who doesn't wanna look good???) But sadly, some ppl just don't understand that and yea, u really can't do much about it.

Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:25 pm
by AzhlackDMPiccolo
I think she should sit down with her section and explainwhat is going on. I know she's a nice person but she needs to differentiate between beign a friend and being a section leader. she needs to be FIRM not mean or abusive or anything but.. she can't be uncertain or anything... but mainly just talk to the section.

Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:03 pm
by phatbob2007
yeah i know exactly what your talking about, my horn section has always been that way, and we actually used to pride ourselves on it, but that was back when everyone in our section would get into honor band, and we were all verry good players who learned our parts on out own time, so when sectional time rolled around, and we were flawless, well we went to taco bell or something cool. but see we have always mad sure that we all know our stuff before relaxing, maybe your friend should try the kind of approach our horn section uses, no fun unless its done. if something isnt right we will fix it, and once we are good, than we will have fun, goof around, tell stories to the yougers about goofy things we did the year before and about the alumni. so maybe just sit down with the section and cut them a deal, be like "ok well we can have fun, but if we hammer through this it will only take like 15 minutes, and then we wont get yelled at either"...that worked for me lol, good luck with your section.

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 5:06 pm
by musicallife
Our horn section is like that too....except that the music is really easy and so we just talk about anything we want to. Our leader doesn't mind because we are good enough for the preformance. So we are buddys in our section....we even do horn chior before school just to give us something to work on and do.