#wasn't even because of art! it was because of high school band being a flute player is Pain | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gay-jesus-probably · 3 years

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why do people always write high school AU's focusing on boring cliques like popular kids and jocks and art kids and drama kids and nerds and who sits at what lunch table. those aren't even a real thing. ...well, at least they weren't a thing in my high school; my drama class had like five members of the football team and nobody gave a fuck. the closest thing we had to a 'designated clique lunch table' was just a decent sized group liked to hang out and play magic the gathering. and nobody gave them any shit for it, the general agreement was that it was pretty cool that they were all into a complicated game like that.

but yknow what part of high school did have clearly defined cliques with rivalries that occasionally escalated to blood feud levels?

god damn Band Class.

listen. listen. i was in band in junior high and high school, and that shit was RUTHLESS. ...i mean, in a friendly sort of way, given that we were all there for a shared love of music and had to work as a single unit if we wanted to sound any good, but like seriously the different sections were Defined Groups and we had full on political intrigue of rivalries and alliances n shit. It was wild. Flutes and clarinets were basically married, and together they made up the eternal Woodwind Alliance, which the saxophones would be a part of half the time. The trumpets were the leading powerhouse of the brass section just by merit of being Very Loud, but also frequently alienated the rest of the band, again by merit of being Very Loud, but they had a relatively steady alliance with the trombones, and would have an on-and-off friendship with the saxophones. The trumpets and the woodwind alliance hated each other like poison though, it was a full blown blood feud between them. The trombones would usually be on decent terms with everyone, except whenever they decided to start trying to convince everyone to refer to them as the tromboners, which only the trumpets thought was funny and they never really noticed that the rest of the room just wanted them to shut the fuck up and play their damn trombones without making terrible innuendos.

Percussion (my people) was in an interesting position of being both the most and least powerful group in the room, because everyone knew we were A. vital and B. irreplaceable, since we were stretched thin enough that at least one of us would be playing two instruments in most songs, and being in the back of the room meant we were observing everyone while our own internal disputes stayed fairly private. But also being such a wildly different section from everyone else and being at the very back of the room meant there wasn't much of an opportunity to forge alliances, and not much common ground to work with. We felt a pretty solid kinship with the woodwind alliance by merit of mutually hating the trumpets, but that never really went anywhere just by merit of them being all the way at the front and us being all the way at the back, and they usually suspected we were associated with the trumpets just because percussion is also Very Loud and the brass section sat closest to us. As the lone keyboard percussionist, I was basically our ambassador to the woodwind alliance, because a lot of the time I'd be playing the melody along with them, and I also wasn't capable of being Very Loud like the others were on drums (although they were a little concerned with how enthusiastic i was when i got to wield the big hammer to play the giant fucking chimes)

We did have a solid alliance with the tuba section, mostly because again the band wasn't that big so our tuba section was exactly one guy, so he got along with the percussion section on our shared ground of being irreplaceable, having Giant Fucking Instruments that were a pain in the ass to move for concerts, and feeling bitter whenever the rest of the band was taking us for granted (though the strength of the percussion-tuba alliance was also helped by me and him already being friends outside of class). Occasionally the trumpets would get obnoxious enough to drive the trombones away, and that'd usually lead to a percussion-tuba-trombone triad vying with the trumpets for control of the back for awhile. And it was very rare, but occasionally the trumpets would get their act together while the trombones were on good terms with tuba and percussion and the flutes and clarinets were being primadonnas, and the end result would be the mighty union of saxophone-trumpet-trombone-tuba-percussion dominating the room, at least until the trumpets and/or trombones inevitably started being annoying again and the alliance broke apart.

I'm just saying, high school cliques? Boring, overdone, unrealistic, and honestly the whole inter-clique rivalry thing is usually too meanspirited to be any fun, especially since high school social standing will mean absolutely fucking nothing the second you're out of there. High school band cliques? Hilarious, filled with political intrigue and shifting alliances, literally everyone is forced to work together in the end no matter what, nobody is trying to be mean because its universally understood the rivalries are just for fun, and your allegiance to your band section (aka what instrument you play) is something you'll have for the rest of your life.

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