high school jazz band

[Mavis]

my school has had a jazz band for about three years(before that the administration wouldn't let them.) Last year was the first year i was old enough, but i couldn't fit the class into my schedule. About 3 weeks before the concert my director said, "wanna be in jazz band". Basically, they needed another tenor sax, so i learned the music and missed a lot of english class! :D

So this year i was all excited cause the class actually fit into my schedule. Unfortunately, it didn't work for a lot of people, including my brother(the first trumpet), two trombones, a guitar, and a tenor sax. Basically, it left us w/ a band that is lacking a LOT. My director's solution is to get "combo charts". He explained to us what this is, but it sounds like it's not gonna b very good. I just wanted to know if u guys thought that our jazz band was probly just not gonna be very good this year w/ the combo charts, or if there is another better solution.

Also, my director doesn't think i'm very good. All he's heard me play is the school's tenor sax, which is leaking(i think). I keep telling him it's broken, but i have the sneaking suspicion that he thinks it's just me, which i'm positive it's not. The other tenor sax is NOT good, and she doesn't really care about band that much. But she's a senior. I'm afraid he's gonna have her play the first part and all the solos even though I'm WAY better than her(it's not just me saying this either, the saxes last year all agreed she was terrible). If he gives her first part, should i say something, or just let it go?

[awholley]

Combo parts could actually be more interesting, depending on what your director gets, though it's definitely a bummer to miss out on a big band.

As for the politics of first chair, my two cents is that you let your horn
do the talking....

Alan

[bariman]

If you feel that you are getting cheated, then find an ok sax (borrow from a music store, or even another High School), and play something semi-difficult. Prove to him that you are better.

Bariman

[Brendan Muse]

Combo charts are usually alright. If you've got sufficient drummers, bassists (we never have! ARRG! :evil: ) and pianists (good ones, who can improvise), you can have several bands, thus eliminating the defective senior problem.

If that doesn't go away, go digging in your school's instrument room. If you can find a working bass clarinet, take it out during practice. When your band director asks what's going on, tell him that, for whatever reason, the school tenor doesn't work well enough, and you'd like to continue the long, distinguished and rather unknown tradition of jazz bass clarinet.

Edit: As far as thinking it's you and not the horn, I had the same problem on bari. With two defective bundies, and an aging Mark VI that the senior player used, I didn't get much chance to prove my worth. However, my school was cheated out of a Yamaha 52 because Yamaha thought we were supposed to get ` 62. (real bummer there! :roll: ) I got to try it for a jazz rehearsal before he sent it back, and the improvement was so marked that even he couldn't help but say that I don't, in fact, suck.

Moral of the story: try a decent horn, even if you have to buy one.

[saxyclarinet]

Do you guys have the opportunity to do challenges? If you don't, this might be a good time to start. If she gets first part, talk to your band director and ask him if it would be all right to have a fair judgement of the both of you as far as your playing goes. My director auditions and ranks the horns on scales and modes in swing and straight patterns, then he has us improv 12 bars over F and Bb blues, which would be G and C blues in your case and mine. You might want to try that out if you don't already have some sort of process in place, so the both of you have to know the same material and share your improvisational skills.

As far as your sax goes, at least have it checked by a good, reputable repairman if your director won't do it. Fixing a leak here or there isn't expensive. If the repairman says there's no leak, then there's no leak. I take it you're not seeing a private instructor? If I'm wrong, then it's really up to your teacher. If you're not, you should at least stop by once if you don't start to do it now. You can prove even more to your director that you're good if you have a good sax player to learn from. If it's you that's the problem, your teacher can diagnose it and fix it.

[Mavis]

Do you guys have the opportunity to do challenges? If you don't, this might be a good time to start. If she gets first part, talk to your band director and ask him if it would be all right to have a fair judgement of the both of you as far as your playing goes. My director auditions and ranks the horns on scales and modes in swing and straight patterns, then he has us improv 12 bars over F and Bb blues, which would be G and C blues in your case and mine. You might want to try that out if you don't already have some sort of process in place, so the both of you have to know the same material and share your improvisational skills.

It's not that formal w/ first chair, second chair etc. It's just like my director gives whoever he thinks is best the first part and all the solos. Plus NO ONE in my band can just improvise. Last year there was a song where a couple of people had improv solos, but it wasn't anything good, and half of them had the director help them write something. The thing is, no one is all that dedicated to band. They don't know scales, or really anything about music. THat includes me to some extent, just because that sort of thing isn't taught.

I'm glad to hear the combo charts thing isn't gonna suck. We have two piano players, both on keyboards. We don't have a bass, so one of them will play the bass part,and the other will play piano. They're both good piano players, but as i said, NO ONE improvises.

And someone said we can have several bands? what do you mean? we've barely got enough for one band!

As far as fixing the sax goes, i do take private lessons, but that really has nothing to do w/ it. The sax belongs to my school, so my director has to get it fixed. BUT he doesn't seem to think it's very necessary-i can't even play low C#, B, and Bb! and that's definitely not me, cause i tried it on a sax that's exactly the same only not broken, and it worked(w/ my mouthpiece).

[Brendan Muse]

As to multiple bands, all you need is a full rythmn section (drums, bass, piano if you must) and horn players. That's it, really. And knowing how to improvise, so I guess that that idea is shot down.

But, if your horn sucks, pick a different horn. You're going to be doing combo stuff, which is totally different from big band jazz, and there's a lot more leeway as far as instrumentation goes. Bass clarinet is the easiest, since you don't even need to get new reeds, but just about anything will work. Your band director probably has first and second Eb horn part, Bb horn part, low horn part (in bass clef and Eb), drums, bass and piano. It's obvious that you're going to get shafted on this deal if you stick to a crappy horn in the section with a lesser, favored player, so, rather than keep that hand, play a new one.

Horray for rambling! :duckie:

[JazzyMercedes]

I would speak up, but I wouldn't get my hopes too far up. Just like you like certain people better than others, it's the same with band directors. Like at my arts school the band director plays huge favorites all the time, even against the entire school's educated judgment. It's an unfortunate fact of life that people don't play fair at all. =( Sorry to hear your dilemma, it sounds a lot like last year for me.