First of all, Ive been playing clarinet for 4 years and am 1st chair clarinet at my highschool and Im a Freshman. I need help to fix some things in my school and since i had nowhere else to put this i put it in the Clarinet Forums (sorry). The band isn't the best and at all I expected from the high school band. All the trouble comes from the front row (clarinet and flutes) and I am one of them. The flutes will start a whole lot of trouble because one of them is a spoiled brat that gets everything at her house so she expects to be treated like a princess at school. She will constantly mess around, play the wrong song, play pure sharp or flat notes, and will bring out a magazine in class all on purpose to get the director mad. She has NEVER had a detention which i find extremely stupid. And they will play the clarinet solo in one of the songs and they were saying that i was playing one of there solos because it said soli in one of their papers. (wtf?) So they will will always bring up the subject about the solo on purpose to get me mad. So once i yelled at them nonstop and they DID deserve it and a whole lot worse but that was all i could do. They forced the director to let them play the solo so here was my counter offer for messing up the band. The clarinets will always get the first part and they CAN'T play high notes. I am most capable at playing high notes and they seriously dont know the balance pyramid for a band. I give them 2nd or 3rd part and they yell and say "You have no power over me" so i go to the Bass Clarinet player who supposivly is the section leader and she gives them their parts and the first things they do is throw it then go back to their 1st part. So i play 2nd part then they say "That's what you deserve for sucking at the clarinet" so then again i get mad. They make everything a life or death situation so i try to make the band better then what it is because no one is standing up to help us. The director says he tries, which is not true, so i put all the matter on my hands. Can anyone help me in a way to control this problem for i am almost tired of it and to stop all the madness is to quit band, but I want a future in music. So please someone help me to fix all this.

P.S. Sorry for writing it soooo long. I just type fast and time slips by so fast.

do you have chairs? if so the first few should play first part, seconds second part, and the last few third- depends on the number of people in teh section how many to each part, obviously. usually if it doesn't divide up even the lower parts get the extra person, i think.

if you don't have chairs, see if you can work something out to rotate parts per song. that way everyone can play first at some point but all the parts can get covered.

and if theyre doing things on purpose to make you mad, yelling and screaming is only giving them what they want. ignore them and play what your part says to play, i say.

We KINDA have chairs, but they won't go by them. Ive been playing 3rd and 2nd for quite a while now. I think its simply stupid how they react when they know they don't need that part. Simply immature and stupid. And the director doesnt do a thing about it.

Ugh, I hate when that happens. In our band, the flutes are all okay, but some of the clarinets can't play period, on the playing test, they can't even make a note. Which I find insane, I mean, how did they get into this course? Our clarinets put all of our semi-okay players on 1st, although some of the 1st clarinets can't play ANY high notes. I really don't like how our band runs. Our alto saxophones are not very good, we have some saxophone players which don't have timing, tunning, rhythm, or even able to read music. And of course, our WORST Alto has the solo part for one song. Our band direct just makes fun of him, because whenever he has the solo, our directer goes with HIS timing which is HILARIOUS. He has NO sense of timing whatsoever. Our percusion either: 1 never shows up, or 2 Doesn't know how to play the instrument they need or 3 sits on the drum kit when they need to play timpani. Some of our trumpets can play, but most don't want to be there. Other from that, Band is Okay, next year will be better.

<Added>

*should be director, and The Percusion section Either: Sorry 'bout that

I know EXACTLY how you feel.

Yeah but its atleast good you dont have "Ms. (possibly MRS!) princess" playing in the flute section who never shuts up! Ill LOVE to have atleast a good clarinet section. With the flutes...ill just buy my own C clarinet and play their parts >.< We don't need them if they act like this. And one of them has talked seriously to the director saying that the band never does what they are suppose to, WHAT THE HECK? They are real pains in the butt! I play multiple instruments EXCEPT the flute but im going to learn it only because of THEM. Oh and when i screamed at the flutes one of them cried...ooops. And not only that she was saying things about me and clarinet (dirty things) just to cover up her crying in laughter. And its hard to remember that im in HIGH SCHOOL! And not only that the band has never had this trouble until we the freshman came in...yay freshman?

That sucks! We just have the Alto saxophones to deal with... They are.. Artistic? Huh. Well, lets just say: Our Band sounds WAY better without them.... They play in the wrong key JUST to annoy the band director. HANG IN THERE. Band will be better! Stick to clarinet, and try to have some fun.

lol if i were at your band i would play sax for you guys. Its just very hard to stick up with them!

Ugh, thanks ^^. Haha, last year I played Saxophone, and It's SOOOOO EASY. I don't get it. It's ugly though, it's sounds loud, annoying, and painful to listen to.

Sorry all I can do is tell u to try to keep cool my band plays really good because the woodwinds Im second chair and I don't want to befirst but my promblem is that ourbrass sectin is really childish they throw stuff at us because we can play there parts better than them and we don't have a lot of percussionist we only have about five of them

Well bobo, it depends on the size of your band. Mines about 32 people large so its very small. And the flutes and most of the clarinets through off the whole band. Its sucks how so little people could mess up somthing people really try hard for.

Yep, it's hard with such a small band. Flute do ALWAYS seem to have the melody >_<.

Oboe has the counterish melody, kind of.... It's mainly an octave down with more rests. T__T.

We LOOOOVE rests. Ugh, well stay in there.

I WANT to play oboe but we don't have any. I tried bassoon but it is soooooo hard! Most of the keys are for the thumb which got me off and well...i didnt try again. DUmb creator of the bassoon. YOu couldve made it easier! But i love oboe.

Oboe is the best intrument I've played ^_^.

I love it dearly and I think you should start.

Have you tried renting from a local music store?

Remember to not buy store bought reeds though!

Get Handmade reeds or else you'll suck =D.