Today, I want to talk about my high school Jazz band.
Here’s the background. One day I was in chorus (who knew, right) and the new band director walked in. He asked the class if anyone knew of a bass player that would be interested in playing in a new jazz band he was forming. I raised my hand and said I play classical guitar and can read sheet music, I was in. Next, I proceeded to purchase a Kramer 4001 bass and a 100 watt Yamaha B100-115SE bass amp and I was off and running.
At first, we were pretty terrible as a band. No one really knew what jazz music was and certainly not how to play it. We were all trying to just get the right notes out. After that came the rhythm and groove. We were struggling.
The key to getting us to perform as a band was he entered us into a jazz band competition. Of course, our eyes all went wide at this announcement. There wasn’t a lot of time to get ready.
I admit, he was pretty clever in how he pulled us together and made us a band. One, he put a deadline on when we had to be ready. Two, he picked relatively easy music to play. And three, he taught us all about dynamics. The dynamics of a song are when certain parts of the song are loud and certain parts get really soft. We practiced our dynamics a lot.
We went to the jazz competition and I don’t remember if we won or not, but I do know we placed really well against or piers. We went in to won several jazz band competitions after that. So what’s my take away from this experience? It’s not the complexity of the music that creates the feeling, it’s the feeling you put into it that creates the music. Have an awesome day. Cheers!