When a group of students or individual student tells the adult that if they don't get to do whatever they will quit (rebel, boycott) ...THAT is emotional blackmail. It is an immature reaction to a command decision. At the end of the day the band director is the person who is (in the end) responsible for the band. The band's policies, supervision, it's program decisions, and purchases. He is suppose to get the final say. Now a good band director will include students in the decision making process on items that he has leeway on. But on other items, he is not required to include the students on issues that "legally" are his responsibility.

When I was still teaching, my line had say in two things only, head and sticks/mallets. Everything else, form the warmups to the show music to the show concept to rehearsal schedule was up to me and me alone.

There's not enough hours in the day to get good rehearsals in AND waste time having a group vote on warmups.

I challenge you to have someone tune up a Pearl and Yamaha snare with the same heads, use the same sticks and have you identify which is which blindfolded.

Well baseman_matt, welcome to the real world! Guess what? At work, I don't get a vote on what my next computer monitor, desk chair, etc. will be!

Rather than just repeat what has already been said, let's do a little exercize -- look at things from your BD's point of view:

You're working with a limited budget and you need to look at the availability of parts and customer service.

Bids are solicited and Pearl comes in reasonably low. Pearl parts are easy to get (the local dealer probably keeps them in stock, many other schools in the area probably use Pearl). Their new carriers are much cheaper, too, so you can get more equipment for the same price -- lets say you can afford an additional snare or a lacquer finish or something.

Soooo, you're happy you can get plenty of spiffy new drums and figure your percussion folks will be thrilled....and your supposed section leader effectively throws a fit.

You were a jerk. Go apologize.

I want to say one thing before this topic is locked, or deleted.
First off What leadership? You haven't led anyhting except a muntiny here... not drumline.

Second, What does it matter what type of drums you are getting? Who cares man? Do you know how many schools in Alabama are in desperate need of new drums? You should be happy you are getting new drums and from the sound of it, new heads and sticks to boot. How about saying "thank you", instead of saying "Everything is not going my way, screw this.. I'll just quit"? The highschool program I teach has drums that are 15+ years old. Who cares what brand they are as long as they are new and sound decent? I'd gladly take a new set of pearls OR yamahas ANYDAY for my highscool. Dude, If I were your band director, I would've canceled the order right when you did that and bought something else.

And oh yeah...



done.

A few years ago I dropped an enormous amount of money on a top of the line set of new golf clubs. I did this because the ads, commercials, magazines, salseman and independent testing said they would shave many strokes off my game. They didn't. I continued to shoot the same score I have for the last 20 years.

Here's my point...you're not going to play/sound better on a Yamaha than you would a Pearl. Both are top quality instruments. It's a new set of drums. Why anybody would have an argument about that is astonishing.

As my grandfather always said "A poor craftsman blames his tools."

This is fantastic support for the fantastic thread on this website which I read a while back about why there shouldn't be 'section leaders' in high school marching bands.

The band director doesn't have to compromise on anything. It's all his call, not yours.

My school's drums are 7 years old. I would KILL to be in your position.

Seven-year-old drums should still be in good shape if they've been reasonably maintained. And if they haven't been maintained, it's probably not too big a task to get them back into decent shape with a little time and attention (and maybe a few spare parts).

Our drums are 10 years old and still in good shape... All we would need to do is replace some parts, rims, and heads instead of spending more money on stuff that isn't worth the money.

I know I've heard some side talking going on with the rest of the drummers about us raising separate money (and not telling the band director) and buying what we want/need. I don't know what to think of this but I think it would work...

And to DRUMS11
~you said I was being a jerk and to go apologize. I WILL NOT because I was backed into a corner and spoke my mind. I wound up not going to the fundraiser because:
1. I didn't want to
&
2. My car kind of broke down.

The drummers with the exception of 1, all told me that they respected me more for sticking up for my belief in the drums. Only 1 drummer went anyway.

If you guys raise your own money without the band director knowing and then decide to purchase products and use them, don't you think that will piss him off even more?

You guys are really being immature about this. I'm still waiting for a legitimate reason why you think Yamaha drums are better than Pearl drums.