From fifth grade to twelve grades, I was in concert band. I learned how to play the alto saxophone and fell in love with it. I would always practice at home and went to every lesson. I remember seeing other people play instruments, and wanting to do what they were doing. When I first got my saxophone, I kept taking it out and putting it together, even though I had no idea how to play it. As I kept playing through the years, I would fall deeper in love with music. I would listen to our music that we were playing all the time, so I knew exactly how I should be playing it. I learned a lot while playing in the concert band. In concert band, it requires being precise. I remember our director would always be on us about playing the right notes.
We would always be told to sit forward in our chairs. When we were all slouching, the teacher would tell us all to take a deep breath in, and the whole class would shoot up to a straight posture. It was funny to see. In concert band, you play a lot of well-known songs. Many of them from movies and musicals. I think that’s why I liked concert band more than any other band I was in. Im really into musicals, and so was our director, so whenever we got pieces from musicals I would get very excited. I really liked concert band because we also did a lot of beautiful, more classical, pieces. I loved listening to them. Although our band wasn’t the best, I still enjoyed playing it because I know I was doing the best I could. Another thing that we did plating in the concert band was we went to the region contest. At contest, we always played three pieces as a whole band. You could also
I was really confused at first because I wasn’t used to playing the notes in swing form. After practicing a lot, I really enjoyed playing in jazz band. While being in the band, I noticed many differenced between jazz and concert band. Jazz band is more upbeat. In concert band, the music is normally is more classical and sophisticated. Jazz music is full of life. It’s a lot of improvisation and rearranging regular songs to a new song using the same scales. In Jazz band, there is a thing called the blues scale, and it’s used a lot when soloists get to freestyle. They are given the scale and play whatever they want using the notes in the scale. A jazz band can be made up of three people to fifty people. A jazz band normally has saxophones, trumpets, trombones, clarinets, and a rhythm section. Some bands use singers and violins and double basses. You wouldn’t normally see instruments such as a flute or an oboe. I play the alto saxophone, and it is usually an instrument that is featured in many jazz songs. When I started in jazz band, I didn’t think that I would be playing a lot of melody like in concert band, but it was quite the opposite. I got more solos, where in concert band I would get a solo once in a blue moon. It is a lot of fun when you have more stuff to play and more music that is suited for your
Large bands, full of unique instruments and amateur musicians, were required to play at festivals and ceremonies. Similar to the evolution of the Wind Ensemble, the Concert Band is derived from military purposes. Instruments, such as the trumpets, horns, and drums, were often used for signaling. In contrast to Wind Ensemble musicians, these Concert Band musicians never played their instruments for military enjoyment.
Swing music was mainly popular in New York clubs, because it is fast music with a steady tempo easy to dance to. This style was the start of big band music with an ensemble of 15 to 18 members. Most of the performers in the ensemble were formally educated and they could read music, so swing music is written down and is performed the same way every time. Because there were so many more people, more than 1 person would play the same type of instrument. They had a rhythm section, a saxophone section, trombone section, and trumpet section. There was only solo improvisation, while others would play 2 or more melodies, because there were too many people for more than one person to improvise. This style of music thrived, because people loved to dance, and because the radio was more popular, which made the music more
Swing, the predecessor of bop, was big, sweet, and hot. The performers were big bands, fronted by a charismatic bandleader, yet the success of a piece depended mostly on the unity of the ensemble as a whole, rather than on the showcasing of prodigious individuals. The requisite instrument was the saxophone, which was often smooth and mellifluous. Songs were old favorites, or simple jazz standards, that had been arranged to suit a large ensemble. Swing bands played in large venues, such as ballrooms, and to large audiences, who seized the opportunity to not just tap their toes, but to "jump, jive, and wail." The swing era became the most popular form of jazz, as it catered to audiences as a form of social and interactive entertainment.
I have had many special experiences while playing in band. Just in this semester alone, our band has played in two concerts and a CMEA festival. Our band has also been privileged to have a session with Mr. Smith. Overall, I would like to say that playing in concert band had been a great and learning experience.
Jazz was a unique form of music, there had never been anything like it before. It was rebellious, rhythmic, and it broke the rules- musical and social. It started a musical revolution, “With its offbeat rhythms and strange melodies, jazz was blamed for everything from drunkenness and deafness to in increase in unwed mothers.” Jazz was seen as immoral and worried the older generation that their kids would lose interest in classical music. It was also seen as against society because it came about from the African- American culture, but despite all of that, jazz led to a new era of music that still prevails today.
An important aspect to playing the piano are the musical components that go into each piece. These components being harmonies, underlying tones, etc. When playing in a jazz band, the piano works in tandem with the other sections, specifically the rhythm section. In this setting, the piano works with the other sections to create harmony and
Jazz is the kind of music that makes me want to do one of two things. Depending on the mood of the jazz, sometimes I feel like relaxing and just listening to the music and letting it run through me. Other times I feel like getting up and dancing as if I have not a care in the world. The jazz concert I attended on at SLO Brewing Company on October 6, 2001 inspired me to do both of these due to the variety used by the musicians in dynamic, rhythm, tempo, and many other aspects of music.
In the 20’s, the era right after World War I, music and dancing became a focus. Many musicians were moving Northward from southern cities such as New Orleans, which was a main focus for what would become jazz music. As these musicians came up to more urban cities, they introduced the country to a world of music based on Caribbean music tones and southern blues. Syncopation was common in the songs that were known in this area, as were the common bluesy sounds and rhythms of those gospel songs and old hymns. This would all greatly influence the jazz creation. Jazz began as a music type that was focused more on orchestral sounds and bigger bands than smaller bands, such as seen with Whiteman, and this was evident in the types of dances and music the people listened to, with large piece orchestras. In this time period, there were big bands, but few solos or focus on jazz technique individually, as the bands showcased the overall sound of the band’s polyrhythmic and polyphonic sound more than its homophonic solo sounds. People such as Louis Armstrong began to be interested in focusing more on chords than melodies and on solos than group collective improvisation, and this started the move to a new wave of jazz: swing.
Where I learned how to become a leader through the leadership ensemble within the marching band. Where in my senior and fourth year of marching competitively, I became the Drum Major, and earned the Best Drum Major Award at the Roxbury Marching Band Classic Competition. From marching band I progressed into jazz music, where I became the lead alto saxophonist in the top jazz band at my school during my junior and senior year. I was also one of three saxophonists in the top band at my school. I picked up the clarinet, the flute, and the soprano saxophone on my way through high school, and have played all three as well in my performing ensembles. I played in the pit orchestra of the theater production of “All Shook Up”, and was the principal saxophonist at my high school. Too be short, I am very involved in all things music in the past and currently. Band and music have been a place for me to rely on, something that brings me joy when sad. Allows me to express myself through sounds and through instruments. It is truly a talent and a hobby that I hope to continue through college and through life because of the joy it brought me and creative outlet it was throughout my
As a freshman in high school and band, I was nervous, and very unconfident. But band changed it all for me. I found that helping people out was much more rewarding than just being a good player or marcher. Leadership is the best skill I've learned from band, and it will
Merriam Webster dictionary defines Jazz as “a type of American music with lively rhythms and melodies that are often made up by musicians as they play (Webster, 2015). Music is extremely powerful and has the ability to change people’s feelings; in fact, music therapy has recently become a popular method of helping people deal with problems such as stress, anxiety, and pain (Music Therapy Makes a Difference, 2004). Vocal Jazz is rhythmic poetry tied with powerful instruments and the lyrics behind it, all are a key component of what makes it a powerful
Beginning in the mid-1920s, big bands, then typically consisting of 10–25 pieces, came to dominate popular music. At that time they usually played a form of jazz that involved very little improvisation, which included a string section with violins, which was dropped after the introduction of swing in 1935. A few bands also had violas and cellos, usually one or two along with them. The dance form of jazz was characterized by a sweet and romantic melody. Orchestras tended to stick to the melody as it was written and vocals would be sung (often in a tenor voice) and in tune with the
Jazz was portrayed through different styles of writing throughout each story. The first author focused on telling a story based on a time period of revolution while the second, focused on writing an interview-formatted story. Both stories did display sense of Jazz as a catalyst to feeling different types of ways no matter the situation. The group mentioned in the first story was able to revolt and share their beliefs of Jazz through performances. The author showed how Jazz affected even the people who were against it. Jazz touches everyone in some way like many other types of music. The second story didn’t mention Jazz a lot, but gave way to the feeling that Jazz heals people. As soon as the protagonist heard Jazz music, he was cured from his disease. Not everyone will view Jazz in the same way, but Jazz affects everyone as seen in the passages before.
Jazz music has got a lot of importances as much as it lacks a correct definition. It plays a role in the entertainment sector. It entertains the listeners who are passionate to the art. They get a special entrainment especially for the working class who find listening to jazz as an activity done during the leisure time. Jazz on the other hand is very educative and informative of the past and the current issues. Since it is a long time art, it can be used to safeguard and protect the cultural practices of the people of the community. The culture is stored in the jazz songs and easily passed from one generation to another. It can also be transferred from one community to another since jazz music listeners are all over the world. Hence jazz music is a store of culture of a people of a particular social locality or geographical location.
Jazz music emerged from the city of New Orleans at the beginning of the 20th century. By the 1920s, jazz music had swept through the nation and became one of the most popular genres of music in the country. There were many different forms of jazz, and in the 1930s, a new form emerged known as "swing". The swing era lasted from 1935-1945, and was arguably the most popular era of jazz in the U.S. The Swing Era also known as the "Big Band Era" is characterized by the large size of the bands or orchestras. There were many popular and successful big bands that arose, and in New York, one such band was known as the "Duke Ellington Orchestra". Ellington's orchestra lasted over fifty years, and recorded some of America's