To improve their skills, the jazz band rehearses in preparation for the festival season. The group works with three pieces to showcase their talent to a panel of professional musicians and judges.
According to jazz band director Adam Tucker, students utilize the limited time they have in a week to enhance their abilities.
“We try to warm up individually, and then, as a group, we rehearse pieces for festivals and concerts.” Tucker said, “We also break into sections or focus on more specific parts or areas of a piece.”
Junior Carson Kolumber enjoys going to competitions because “everyone is really supportive of each other” and enjoys seeing other bands perform.
“We can see how well other bands are doing and see if there’s anything we can learn from the other bands,” Kolumber said, “It’s helpful to see different people playing and how they’re doing.”
According to freshman Maxwell Rourbough, jazz band can be a great opportunity for collaboration.
“I like playing with other people,” Rohrbaugh said. “So jazz is nice because I get to do that. I’d rather play with other people than alone.”
For junior Kolumber, combining the pieces can bring the pieces to life. “It helps to hear all the parts of something come together,especially in music. It’s cool being able to play together and with other people,” Kolumber said.
Tucker uses the analogy of comparing the bands to sports teams at sporting events to describe the festival season. A competition consists of multiple school jazz programs participating. Each band receives time on stage to play three pieces of music and at the end of the night, the bands receive awards and commentary from judges.
“Festivals are like sporting events but with musicians instead of athletes,” Tucker said, “There are multiple bands there instead of teams.”
At the end of each night, awards are given out amongst the different schools.
According to Tucker, Awards are given to the sections or players that really go “above and beyond.”
For many participants, the takeaway of the night is to improve between each event.
“All the bands get overall rankings and awards but…it’s not too competitive…it’s more like competing against yourself,” Rohrbaugh said. “Generally all the other bands are really supportive of each other.”
According to Kolumber, the experience is one of the most memorable parts of a festival with a “friendly amount of competition.”
“The judges give feedback and advice on how we can get better and improve which is always helpful,” Kolumber said.
According to Tucker, each competition should be an upgrade from the previous show.
“The band should be improving itself between each festival, ratings and awards are always nice but the main idea is to get better,” Tucker said. “If we’re able to walk off stage and feel good, that’s great. If we’re able to play better the next time we play for a festival, that’s a success.”
Kolumber explains that the band focuses heavily on the songs in order to exame possible problems in their play.
“We run through the songs and really focus on cleaning up specific areas so we sound better for the competition,” Kolumber said.