Do you pick out individuals?

[11clarinet]

My section is pretty good at marching and playing, but there are certain things that they will not fix, like hand positions, and picky things about posture. Is it okay to pick out the individual in front of the section?
What about talking problems?
Is it okay to just say "we aren't going to get anything done if you guys keep talking. do you want to make it to state this year? drop and give me ten."

[290Piika]

Actually, that's pretty good to do if you're allowed to administer punishment like that. You might wanna ask your BD about it first, just to be safe.

For instance, my freshman year, my SLs would assign push-ups if they saw an individual drooping their flute, goofing off, etc. If we had a bad rehearsal, we'd get push-ups or run.

I don't think it's problematic enough to complain to the BD, though, unless they are deliberately not listening. Besides, it's early in the season; just point it out to the people not using correct posture, and if they continue to do it later in the season, punish them with push-ups (or whatever else). Talking, however, is not okay, but you might want to assign group punishment for rehearsal issues, so as to not get your section angry at you. @_@

[KUguardgrl13]

try to be positive when you make corrections though. say something like, "hey, So-and-So, you do this really well, but it looks like you need to work on this." give them advice and encouragement. punishment for an honest mistake won't solve the problem. however, if it's a matter of goofing off or talking, then you should consider punishment. just make sure it's ok with your BD to do so before you hand out punishments.

i think it's ok to pick out an individual if you make positive corrections for mistakes. you can yell if it's a matter of discipline. the hairy eyeball can also be a very effective silencer for talking.

[fruple]

If you don't want to pick out individuals (but you should a bit, just being like, hey you, fix that), do something like making them responsible for each other. Like, if someone doesn't fix their hand positions or posture, make the entire section (yourself included) do a certain amount of pushups. This would backfire if it was like marching or playing (something that you can have those honest mistakes) but for those things, it's basically just a lift of the arms or move of the fingers, nothing that's difficult to fix.

But group punishments will make them look after each other, and have them all look really critically at each other and help each other with posture. It's better to have the entire section critiquing you than just a section leader who has other things to deal with. Just make sure to not single out the people who make mistakes, keep it in your head when you count. Only tell the section things like "it was a few people's mistakes" or something so they don't try to get a scapegoat.

But yeah, do pushups or something as a group. Right after rehearsal is a great time. We did that my freshman year, and nothing made us fix our style (or whatever else; sometimes the SL would add pushups for random things) faster than having to do 50 pushups after rehearsal, especially when the rest of the brass would stay and watch us do them. The only other thing is to be easier with punishments at first, like 1 'shup for each thing you see, and do them in blocks of 10 in time, so everyone looks the same doing them and you don't have those stragglers.

(But make sure after rehearsal you talk individually to everyone who messed up to let them know again, but not in front of the group.)

[~*Not~a~Stalker~*]

As a DM, I pick out individuals. We give pushups for things like fidgeting or talking in block, or doing the wrong command. If they're posture or fundamentals have a problem I'll remind the group and if the problem persists with an individual, then I'll call them out. We try to make sure they know from the get go what to do right so that we don't have to fix it later.

[11clarinet]

What if the section is already angry at me? will the push ups still be effective?

[~*Not~a~Stalker~*]

Well, I know no matter how mad I was at a section leader, I still wouldn't want to do more pushups. Are they angry because you've been punishing them?

[trumellotonium]

Another thing you can try if you don't want to make people feel bad would be to pick one person who can take some crap. I had someone in my section this year who was pretty good, but we all knew he could take a joke and so if someone's horn angle wasn't good, I'd say "hey, good thing all of our horn angles are better than his!" And then they'd all think about their horn angles and fix them.

[Lee]

Always start with something good first. Isolating someone (without hurting them) makes it easier for your section to improve.

[1frodos1]

NOT IN FRONT OF THE SECTION!!! individual help is essential but it can embariss people.Try assigning an exercise and and have them hold in certain positions then walk up to the problematic and try something like "your posture is good,try lifting you elbow and moving that finger,ther it looks even better" in their ear so only you them and a person next to tham can hear.or try assingning them colors or whatnot then taking a group aside (ie the green group all need a little help with posture,the blue are actually really good so you run more difficult exercises for fun,red needs to work music) even taking the problematics aside so the rest arnt poisend.

the "dont you want to go to state" line is really old and tiersome.personally i had a director that would threten us not getting into disneyland but everyyear we did so it was an empty threat.If you must i would use "this will not be the section that keeps up from state and i will call 6 am sectional to get us up to par if i must" then actually do it if an effort isnt made.

[KUguardgrl13]

generalizing for the whole section is good early in the season when a large number of people have the same problems, but once it get downs to only a few people, you should start to pick out individuals. again, don't be mean about it. pnp is a good tool to use. i'm not a section leader, but my guard has been practicing for about a month now, and the coaches are still generalizing when it's only really 2 or three people that are still struggling. we're in college, so i think we can handle a little constructive criticism. "You suck" isn't specific enough (and yes my coach did say that to us once). The captains have actually been better at spotting problems and fixing them. Maybe that's because they're down on the field, while the coaches are up in the tower for the most part.