YES. For context I'm a percussionist speaking on our schools percussion section. Now, granted this is coming from 1st in All State on both snare and mallets, did open class drum corps last summer, etc- people often tell me I need to "take it easy," specifically teaching and mentoring wise. However. Before covid...
I distinctly remember even the kids who "weren't super into it" could read rhythm very well, had an alright understanding of dynamics and knew how to practice. Any of them could have taken lessons and improved to the point of DCI Open class at least.
Our main issue was always that our drumline tech never marched DCI, high-level WGI or even a half decent college band. Our pit tech was fantastic but had to stop teaching because he no longer had time, and was replaced with an alumni that never took lessons before. Our band was out to do our first competition show right before covid with record membership numbers, and I imagine with time we would have gotten new, much more qualified techs after getting ripped apart in competitions.
Me and two others took lessons on classic perc., but eventually those became unavailable because our pit tech was the one giving them, and obviously he wasn't available anymore.
Now, here's our specific factor: Our drumline thought they were "the sh*t" because they could wrist out diddles and fast single strokes- to the point where the other quad would make fun of me for not being able to play Jig 2 at 140 (he hit every rim) and for not turning my palm up for crossovers( like wtf?). This was slowly being faced out,but here's where the REAL ISSUES start.
Most of our seniors last year had an iffy friend group to start- they were the high school equivalent of an all-white male MAGA frat, and our director fought with guidance even before covid to kick some of them out. Now, during covid they had a lot of energy and nowhere to put it, so they started acting like idiots and their already disgusting trends of sexism and bullying worsened tenfold. They formed a hazing group, and stopped caring/practicing and eventually all were either kicked out of band or left because nobody liked them. Our director has since been very strict on behavior.
The one kid who was once our "prodigy"(yet never made all state) had held his own drumline rehearsals for his sophomore year(my freshman year), and literally taught that "its all in the wrists." He yelled at our old pit tech for telling him not to change show music before he even learned it. He frequently bullied me and other younger members, and made any ensemble outside our school seem nearly unattainable. He eventually got kicked out and suspended because he sent our director a profanity filled email calling her "selfish and toxic" for holding our band to playing assignments during covid(even though she would frequently give mental health surveys, positively encourage the younger members and communicate with the school social workers). This was mainly triggered because I made it obvious that I didn't like him, and he was insecure that he no longer had influence on the program.
Lastly, our old middle school director, who was one of the worst teachers I've ever seen (and was verbally abusive to 5th graders and hated me and my friends because we knew more than her), was replaced with a berklee grad who was an amazing wind teacher but had 0 knowledge of percussion.
After all this, you could imagine our program took a hit. When authority is undermined, the younger members don't take them as seriously even after authority is re-established.
We went from 12 to 5 percussionists. We have one guy a grade below me who's a fantastic kit player and who I was very hard on in the Marching season, and he became pretyy good(especially for our circumstance). We have one sophomore girl who I got to audition for DCI and take lessons and she's progressing fast. But then we have one senior who tolerated the old group, doesn't care and is very close to being kicked out, and one freshman who refuses to listen to criticism or advice and can't play half notes in time.
As far the other sections, we have a band of 16 people, nearly half of them including me auditioned for all state and all made it, half of them getting top 5. Our winds are amazing, we just have a damaged culture in our drumline. Well recover in due time,but it's a struggle.
Thankfully, I've been teaching the middle school percussionists and there's a lot of potential in them. Ironically they listen more to me and their teacher(thank God) than the high schoolers do...