Category: Band

hahaha!! I have no idea what they’re doing – the band director posted this on Facebook.

I know kid, I feel the same way. (HA! That is a classic Jazz expression, let me tell ya).

This is it. The last year of band starts today. Jazz will have a full week of grueling band camp, then we’ll get to hear the music next Monday at an ice cream social, then we’ll go to a few football games to watch them at half-time, and then it will be a race to learn, and perfect, as much as possible before the first competition, which I believe is September 22nd this year.

(The band is participating in Webb City’s Webbstock – which is more of a critiquing sort of workshop than it is a full-blown competition, at least, according to the band director. I’m sort of looking forward to it, just to hear what the judges have to say on how we can improve our show).

I’ve been dreading Fall 2012 since Jazz began his musical “career” in sixth grade. I’ve enjoyed every single moment of his music years and I’m going to SORELY miss them.

BIG TIME.

I have no idea if he’ll go to college and if he’ll want to participate in college marching band, he volleys back and forth on that, all I know is, I’m going to milk this last year like never before. I’m taking a ton of pictures and I’m going to video tape quite a few performances (even though our band director really discourages that – but it’s my baby’s senior year! I have to have something to pull out years from now and cry over!)

Jazz is not too terribly excited about band camp. It’s hard work. He comes home sore and exhausted every night – and it only gets progressively worse as the week wears on. He actually took this summer off (he had to take summer classes the past two summers), so he’s done nothing but sit around and laugh at YouTube videos.

I’m being totally serious.

So the mere fact that he’ll be out of the house and walking around will be hard enough. Ha!

He’ll drive himself to camp. He’s also supposed to pick up his class schedule and pay for his parking permit on Wednesday, too. Jazz will have some pretty challenging classes this year – he’s been used to sort of coasting along so far, so he’s going to be pretty busy just keeping up with his classes in addition to trying to stay on top of his band obligations.

I’d like to apologize up front for the sheer number of band posts you’re about to endure. Since this is his last year, I’d really like to document every bittersweet moment. Poor you. Ha!

So here we go. Let the 2012 band season begin!!!

Wish us luck!!

So we went to Jazz’s band banquet a few weeks back …

We didn’t really know what to expect, since Jazz has refused to go to previous band banquets. He actually didn’t want to go to this one, but I remember how much he regretted not going to last year’s, so I sort of forced him to go this year.

And I’m glad we did. It was actually pretty fun. The food was pretty mediocre, but we weren’t really there for the food anyway. It was lasagna, salad, breadsticks and some sort of Alfredo dish (with green noodles. I’m just going to pretend they MEANT to serve us green noodles).

There were three sheet cakes … two of them were pretty plain but I thought this one was pretty cool …

“Life’s Directions” was from the 2011/2012 marching band show.

The night wore on and a lot of kids got awards. Jazz actually won something: “The Most Improved Soloist” for jazz band. And I have to admit, I agree with this award. It’s like it suddenly clicked this year and his solos in jazz band have been more cohesive. Jazz was pleasantly surprised with the certificate and was all smiles when he went up to accept the award.

Next year’s banquet will be hard – since he’ll be a senior he’ll be honored and recognized and I know I’ll be fighting back tears.

In fact, I have a feeling this last year of band is going to be very emotional … for me, at least. I LOVE the band program and I’ve had SO MUCH FUN watching the kids, and the show, grow with every performance. I know Jazz has had a blast and it’s one of the biggest reasons why school has been tolerable for him.

We went to the 2012/2013 band parent meeting the other night and found out what contests the band will be participating in this year.

We’re going to something called Webb Stock this year on September 22nd. This will be a new contest for our band and it’ll be interesting to see where we fit in WHEN we make finals (I’m that optimistic). We’ll be competing with a lot of local bands and it’ll be early enough in the season that it’ll be interesting to see how they can make the show better so that by the time we perform at Bands of America in October, we’ll have a near-perfect show. Apparently, that’s the main reason our band director wants to participate in Webb Stock this year – because of the constructive criticism. It’s really more about growth than the prize.

Though winning a top spot is a pretty sweet perk. 😀

We’ll be participating at the 2012 Broken Arrow Invitational as well as the Renegade Review again this year.

And then, of course, we’re playing at the mother of all competitions, Bands of America in St. Louis.

I’m insanely excited for this year – one, because it’s Jazz’s last year to play with the band, and two, the show sounds like it’s going to be a lot like the “No Strings Attached” show the kids put on a few years back. It was my absolute favorite and they did very well with it. It’s going to be a fun, light-hearted show that (hopefully) allows every single band member to do something fun and unusual.

We’ll see what the band director comes up with.

Kevin and I are talking about becoming involved with the band parent organization this year. I think it would be really fun to be on the field and helping the band during competitions. Since this is our last year participating (notice I didn’t just say “our last year” because I fully intend on talking Jazz into going to some competitions next year), I’d really like to savor every last delicious moment.

Here’s to a dynamic, fun, and SUCCESSFUL marching band season!!!! *chink*

The Jazz Band teacher openly admitted this was the most challenging jazz song she’s ever taught one of her classes and as you can hear, the kids picked up on it pretty quick.

We have some pretty talented young musicians in our area. 🙂

(And yes, Jazz has gotten bonked in the head a few times by the trombone player behind him. 😀 )

Jazz performed his Spring Concert in both Advanced Band and Jazz Band these past two weeks.

Here’s one of the songs from the Advanced Band concert:

And here’s a video of Jazz’s solo in the Jazz Band concert:

I’m actually trying to talk Kevin into uploading the last song the Jazz Band played – it was fast paced and quite good. The kids all played really well. Hopefully, I can post that one soon.

Jazz LOVES jazz band. (Hence the reason I call him Jazz on this blog. Ha!) I mean, he LIVES for the spring when he can play his favorite type of music.

What made this year’s jazz band concert cool was the fact that they had a professional jazz player accompany them. The gentleman’s name is Kim Park and he spent a lot of one-on-one time with the kids teaching them the tricks of solo playing.

After the concert, everyone had a chance to purchase Mr. Park’s CD, which we did, and have him autograph, which we did, and when we asked him to make it out to Jazz and told him Jazz was our son, he immediately brighten and complimented us on what a great player Jazz was. “He wasn’t afraid to play,” he said. In fact, Mr. Park liked Jazz so much, that he gave Jazz one of his business cards and encouraged him to contact him for lessons this summer.

(And no, he didn’t give one of his cards to every student).

Which we will likely do, actually. Jazz will not have a summer class this year (the first time in three years he won’t be taking a summer class), so these lessons will be something that Jazz can do to keep himself busy this summer since Kevin and I will be working and Dude will be taking a summer class and HOPEFULLY land a part-time job somewhere.

It really warms our hearts to see Jazz taking his playing so seriously.

This is the first year he has really acted pretty serious with his playing. In the picture above, you can see how he’s preparing for the upcoming song. He’s actually tapping his knee in rhythm and mentally preparing himself to play it.

I told Jazz, after the concert, that we are going to have some serious discussions this summer about applying for music scholarships/grants and to make a game plan for whatever college he chooses to attend. He wants to go to Mizzou (Columbia, Missouri), but I’m not sure if we can make that happen since he hasn’t taken all of the courses they require for admission. He may have to attend a few semesters at OTC first to earn his credits before transferring, but that’s just one of many things we’ll have to look at this summer.

There are big changes for both my boys on the horizon, I can see those changes, it’s just a matter of how long it’s going to take us to reach that horizon now.