School is a place to learn, but also a place to challenge oneself to unlock new potential. It’s also a good place to learn new skills, like painting, cooking, or even woodworking. Playing an instrument, in particular, is a skill that can often offer new routes to improvement and many different opportunities to suit the individual behind the music stand. Among the musicians at FHC, the jazz classes uniquely offer many opportunities to students, like improvised solos, a new style, and even some differences in instrumentation.
This year, at the concerts for the jazz classes, many students built new skills, and others furthered their capabilities on previous skills. As these students grow, so does the difficulty of their music; this semester, they were given the opportunity to play very challenging music. The FHC Band Director, Nathan Griffin, gave new challenges in tempo, range and style.
“I think [the biggest challenge was] actually the material that we gave them. Especially [in] our jazz ensemble sixth hour, we programmed pretty stiff. Every piece was challenging in and of itself,” Griffin said. “When we create our playlist for that concert, it’s usually a variety of styles. Within that, we’ll pair it out so that we have some challenging pieces and some that are not so challenging, just to balance it out. This time, everything was challenging.”
Students work very hard on their parts for their classes; sometimes, the skills do not come easily. Among them, improvised solos often prove to be a difficult challenge for students to overcome. Sophomore pianist Kieran Kelley spent a long time learning to do his extended solo within the song “Basa for My Buddy.”
“I first start with the chords written on the top, certain notes… what notes are in the chords. For that song, specifically, I got really lucky, because for piano, there’s white and black keys. I just had to play white keys. That’s how I started; about two months ago, I started by just doing white keys and experimenting, going up and down octaves, because I also had to utilize backgrounds,” Kelley said. “I had trombone backgrounds in my solo. Since the trombone played lower notes, I went up. After a while, I started incorporating black keys- flats and sharps. I started making an intro into my solo and making a closer to my solo. I also messed with some chords, instead of just playing notes.”
Jazz, like any style of music, has many unique elements. New styles can be difficult to adapt to since they often change foundational elements in the musician’s sound. Senior Kenny Pries, a jazz trombonist, described how the way classes are laid out greatly assists in developing the ability to utilize these stylistic changes.
“They have a lot of exercises, like swing exercises that they teach us where we move around. It’s fun,” Preis said.
Meanwhile, there are almost always opportunities for improvement. Junior Kinley Crane, a drumset player, believes that jazz can be challenging due to the way tempo (speed) can interact with jazz rhythms. Eight notes, for example, are often played swung (in uneven length with a longer first note), which can make it odd to count because the notes are not as even as they would be in other styles. Crane expressed that as a set player, it is important to be able to act as a metronome for the band and that it’s something she is continually working on.
“[I’m working on] tempo, because it can be harder to keep faster tempos consistent, especially with swing. I’m better at rock stuff, so I’ve been working on that,” Crane said.
A major draw to jazz is the opportunity to interact with more fun and engaging pieces. One such piece this semester was the song “Two Seconds to Midnight” by the Alan Baylock Band.
“It was really loud and funky, and I got a lot of freedom in it to do whatever I wanted, and that was really fun for me to do,” Crane said.
Among the students, it seems that the song stood out as a favorite. Even the directors could tell that it was a favorite due to its interesting patterns and exciting structure.
“It sounds like they like ‘Two Seconds to Midnight’ in Jazz Ensemble in particular. That one just stood out. It’s got a cool rock, sort of funk beat behind it. From what I’ve gathered, it seems to be a favorite,” Griffin said.
