Personal Narrative: My Role As A Drum Major

Through high school I have been a part of my school's marching band, and for the last three years I have held a position as a drum major. My role as drum major was not only to lead the band musically but also to lead them mentally. I needed to make sure that everyone was in good spirits, and I also needed to have a healthy level of communication with the band and our director. After my sophomore year, our band director retired and was replaced by a young director who had just graduated college. Our first year without our old director went well because he kept us under his wing and gave our new director advice. During my senior year, though, our old director had become busy and let go almost completely. This gave our new director the freedom to teach as he pleased. Older members of the band had very little faith in our director, and they were pushing their negative opinions off onto the rest of our band. The level of trust and respect for our director were very low.

I was torn. I needed to be positive for my band, but I was beginning to understand the concerns of my peers. We weren't progressing as quickly as we felt like we should, and we weren't performing as well as we should have been. Our season had a difficult start both in the visual and mental aspects. Because of all of the negative energies, our band was not communicating like they should be. I needed to restore communication with my director. I talked to him and then felt much better about the situation. After talking to him, the season went much better. I had regained the proper level of communication, and my band fed off of my confidence in him. We all worked together and finished the season strong. Because of my connection with my director, I was able to be a positive influence on our