Yeah...I should probably explain.
Last year, when I first joined jazz, the first chair was always complaining that I wasn't playing loud enough. I couldn't really hear myself at all, so I started playing louder, and my director says that I'm just the right volume. I don't drown them out - what I mean is that I can finally hear myself above the other instruments, which is a really big improvement, considering that the woodwind section is now the largest. The single trumpet player is still louder than me, but that's the point, so I don't really try to be louder.
I guess it's also kind of because a lot of the people in the band this are beginners. We've grown to about 23 people, and only a handful of us know how to play, compared to the previous 10/12 last year. I've even gathered two other new people, one who plays snare in marching band and the other who plays clarinet and is the assistant drum major.