The older they get, the more you need to sell ownership of the program. You have to make it their program. Get as many upper classmen involved in being a leadership team as you can, and make it real - not just a name or title. They will buy in more (and stay) if they see the program as theirs.

I have always believed that part of the problem with upperclassman retention is that the band is 'not as good as when I was a freshman.' When they were freshmen, the juniors and seniors were awesome and could do anything. When they became sophomores, those amazing seniors are gone, and this new group of freshmen is so much slower getting up to speed than their class was. When they become juniors, those kids that were sophomores when we were freshmen are really seniors now? The aren't nearly as good as the seniors when we were freshmen, and by the way - this year's freshmen? Clueless. Now we are seniors, and honestly there are a lot of kids in this senior class that are either gone or just don't care as much as the seniors when we were freshmen. We can understand it because the band just isn't as good as when we were freshman and sophomores. But..as directors we know that the band has actually improved every year. The kids think it is the opposite.