[Menvi-discuss] Being a student leader in band

Tue Apr 16 23:27:27 EDT 2013

Hi Winona,

Good thinking on the two leaders idea; most college bands actually
structure their leadership in more of that way.  In my college
marching band we have section leaders, who oversee more of the section
but also focus on the music and getting the section to sound good.
Rank leaders are usually sophomore or junior students who act as
assistants to the section leaders and focus primarily on visuals and
teaching drill.  Coming from the high school set up, I can see that
setting leadership up in this way actually has some advantages.  It
took me a while to get used to, but it's really nice sometimes because
if I have a question I can categorize it as either music or marching
and go to the person who has studied up on that specific aspect of the
show.  It also relieves some pressure from the section leader because
the rank leader can handle the questions that they can answer and
neither of them gets bombarded like I saw happen to section leaders in
my high school band.

I think if you have the musical talent and are confident that you
could lead the musical aspects of the section that position would be
great.  I don't know what your show is, if you're band does more of
the show style or competes, but memorizing 2 or three parts isn't
always too hard.  I was in a position where I had to be able to help
people learn their competition music on second and third parts my
junior and senior years, and once you learn them and see how they fit
together it's not too bad.  As with anything get the music as quickly
as you can so you can learn it over the summer.  Having everything
memorized by band camp would be ideal, but if that can't be done
having your part plus one would still be really good.  In that case I
would advise talking to your band director and asking him what the
music and the section will be like next year.  If the second part has
a few tricky parts you might want to learn that, but if he says you'll
be getting a lot of rookies then learning part three might be better.
Just use your best judgement and pick the one that you think most
people will need help with, then work on the part you don't have in
your free time at band camp and get that as soon as you can too.  As
far as conducting goes, your band director should be able to teach you
how to conduct, and for both positions leadership is the most
important quality.  As section leader you do have some freedom to
deligate.  I've seen quite a few section leaders do this with other
upperclassmen, like, "Hey, that rookie is having trouble with his
part.  Can you go work on it with him for about ten minutes?"  This
doesn't mean you're not leading, you're just deligating and putting
those who need help with other people who can help them while you're
busy doing something else.

Another thing to consider in terms of being brass captain is that you
would have a little more freedom to deligate for tasks you might not
be able to do.  For example, you could learn to conduct and probably
get really good at it with practice.  (I know my sighted drum majors
practice a lot for it too).  You could do the music stuff again, but
deligate for the visual things by saying, "trombone section leader,
take this tuner and tune your section, then give it to the mello
section leader and have her tune her section when you're done."  Then
pass it to the tuba section leader, etc.  Meanwhile, you could talk
with people who need help with musical passages or have questions.
And for the visual things, perhaps there could be a visuals captain
too if your band director is up for it for things like leading
marching excercises and checking that feet are in time, horns pop at
the right time, etc.

Finally, I bring up what might be an important overall point.  Every
band is different, and I don't know what your's is like, but in my
band the students could be pretty immature.  I had been first chair in
my section since freshman year, had marched an extra year early, and
led by example pretty well, but my directors didn't think that simply
because I'm blind I would be able to gain the respect I would have
needed to have from my section.  They were right, as for reasons
unknown there were even issues with the section refusing to listen to
the girl who was appointed section leader.  Although I wasn't
appointed into a position I did kind of take on some of the duties a
section leader would usually have had.  My section leader and I had
been friends since middle school, and while she was great at visuals I
was better at music.  She would answer the music questions she could,
but when someone asked a more technical question like about a
fingering or how to play a part of the show she would send them to me.
 From what you said in your email your band sounds more mature than
mine was, but it's really important for a section leader to have
respect from their section.  If you haven't had to deal with that kind
of immaturity from other people in your band or section so far (the
whole reason my band directors were afraid of that happening was
because there were instances where they saw issues of that before) you
should probably be good though.

I like Julie's suggestions of talking to the people who are currently
in the positions you're applying for.  Get a sense of all they do,
then work on coming up with modified ways of performing those duties.
Also, if you are given one of the positions then keep up the contact
with your band director so you can get a sense of how to prepare for
the coming marching season.  Anything he can give you, tell you, or
work with you on in advance will help.

    Good luck, and let us know how it goes!  Like Julie, I think if
you were to get section leader or brass captain it would be a great
experience for you, plus have the advantages of looking awesome on
resumes or potentially making a great college entrance essay.  If you
have any other questions about this or band in general feel free to
email me off list.

On 4/16/13, Julie McGinnity <kaybaycar at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Winona,
>
> I think it's up to you.  How familiar are you with the visual things
> like formations and marching?  How comfortable are you at leading your
> section?  Do you think you have the confidence to lead them?
>
> I have never played in a band, so I have no idea how marching bands
> work.  I am sure that Kaiti or someone else who knows more about that
> kind of thing can write on that aspect, but I believe you could do any
> or both of those positions if you figured out some alternative
> techniques.
>
> I believe that if you can be the section leader, it will look really
> good on your college applications, especially if you want to go into
> music.  Maybe you could talk to the current section leader to learn
> about some of the things you would need to do.  That way you could
> draw up a plan for how you could make them happen.  I agree with the
> friend who said that two leaders might get confusing.  If you did want
> someone to help you out with the visual stuff, you would need someone
> you trust very much.  Perhaps your director could simply assign an
> assistant to you--someone who could tell you what things look like so
> that you could use their observations and make the final decisions.
>
> Like I said, I am not the expert, but hopefully some of this helps.
>
> On 4/16/13, Winona Brackett <trumpetqueenwb at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I am a junior (grade 11) in high school. I play trumpet and I'm in my
>> school's marching and concert band. My band director is letting his
>> students apply and audition for marching band leadership positions. I
>> would like to apply for Trumpet Co-Section Leader and Brass Captain. I
>> have asked my peers their opinions on how well I would do as a brass
>> captain or co-section leader and I've gotten different answers:
>>
>> "You have the musical talent, you would be great."
>>
>> "I don't think Brass Captain would be the best thing for you.You need
>> to be able to teach marching; control the entire brass section;
>> conduct them; warm them up; and have sectionals.I don't think it would
>> be a good idea to have two captains (a music captain and a visuals
>> captain), it would be confusing and could end badly if the two
>> disagreed with each other."
>>
>> Those quotes are for both positions. If I was brass captain or trumpet
>> co-section leader, I would have to learn everyone's music ahead of
>> time so I would be able to help the students in my section learn and
>> memorize their parts. (Field show music and stand music). I know that
>> would take a lot on my part. I want to push and challenge myself, but
>> I also don't want to bite off more than I can chew.
>>
>> What are your thoughts? As a blind individual, how do you think I
>> would teach visual block? (Marching basics, drill where they are in
>> the formation). Or, should I be the music section leader and have
>> another student be the visuals leader? I have talked to my band
>> director about having two leaders, and he seems ok with it.
>>
>> All opinions are appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Winona
>>
>
>
> --
> Julie McG
> National Association of Guide dog Users board member,  National
> Federation of the Blind performing arts division secretary,
> Missouri Association of Guide dog Users President,
> and Guiding Eyes for the Blind graduate 2008
> "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
> everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
> life."
> John 3:16
>
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-- 
Kaiti