World of Pageantry

The size of the section is the determining factor here. Also things to be included and considered are; Work ethic, talent level, and good ol' intelligence. If you have a large sectionthen 2 and maybe three at the most. But typically 2 is the cap. But like I said, if the section is big but has a great work ethic then you may need only one. On the other hand, if you have nine unruly tubists, then you may need 2 or 3 people to keep thingsd under control.

What my high school did was that each section each had one main section leader, and a few junior officers depending on the size of the group. When I graduated, the director started putting co-section leaders for the larger sections. It just depends on how many people you have in each section.

For example, my senior year, there were about 20 trumpets for marching season. I was the main section leader, and I had two junior officers to help me. Also, the drum major was a trumpet player, but he would be like a junior officer when it was just sectionals. We kind of balanced out the responsibilities, which is what should happen.

Like what many people have said, the amount of section leaders really depend on the size of the section. For instance, the clarinet section at our school for the past few years have been huge, up to maybe 50 players, so we had 5 section leaders. However, estimating the size of incoming freshmen and the number of seniors leaving, we have reduced the number to 4.
It really depends on the situation though. If the section has a tendancy to not be well-behaved, then the number of leaders should corollate to that, and vice versa.
I personally think that for the section of 16, one or two is really enough. But that's just me.

It really does depend on the size of the section. There are sections which have more than one section leader. They are usually large sections. It is pointless to have 2 section leaders for sections of less than 20. The only section which is an exception to this would be percussion. Only in marching though. We usualy have a section leader for snare, bass, and tenors. They usually have parts different enough to have different section leaders.

roan520 wrote:would another factor be the (Disciplined) senor to Freshman ratio? becuase, the more seniors you have that know what they want, the less leadering you'd need?

I would say that the experience of the members of the section affects the amount of leadership needed. Many people have said that you never need more than two section leaders, but I think in some cases it is necessary (fifty in a section is a good example). When I was a section leader my senior year of high school, we had three section leaders for a section of twenty. I would agree that normally that is probably one too many, but of the twenty total section members, eleven were freshmen who had never marched before. Having three of us made it much easier to give the freshmen one-on-one attention if they were having difficulty with anything. That being said, it made a lot of difference that all three of us worked together well, and if we had disagreements they were not brought up in front of the whole section. Having multiple section leaders also allows for them to be well dispersed within the section in drill, which makes it easier to maintain discipline during rehearsal without disturbing the rest of the band.

Responding to what some people said earlier about having infighting among section leaders...

I think it is actually more reliable to have at least two rather than just one. If there is only one section leader, you run the risk of said section leader getting a little too full of themselves, and alienating their section so absolutely nothing gets done. If you have two, both can keep each other in check. In addition, those section leaders will realize that they have to share power with someone, lessening the risk of someone getting power-hungry.

Barisax951 wrote:do you think the section leader should be the better player

of course...hence section "leader"

I think that it typically depends on the size of the group. Although one person should be able to do the job, it is understandable to have co-section leaders for exceptionally large sections.

You only need one.

The only benefit I see to having a co-section leader is that if one has to miss a sectional then they have someone to run it. I have an awesome section that knows how to do things even if I'm not there, so really, it doesn't matter that I don't have an assistant...

The exception is in particularly large groups. And even then, it's SUPER important that the leaders are all on the same page.

eternalbando wrote:I really think it depends on the size of the section, but in my opinion, it usually should be no more than 2. 3 is too many. If you need more than 2 for proper leadership, then maybe you should reconsider who you're choosing as leaders...just my opinion.

I totally agree. My section has two section leaders for a group of 8. It's completetly unnessesary. The sad part is that ,with championships this weekend, people still can't play their music! If you could here flutes from up at the box, we would get called out so much more(and not for a good reaason).