All That Jazz

It pleases me to no end that A auditioned for a place in the jazz band at school. She is hoping to play guitar or bass, but the key is to get a spot and just get a feel for free-form jamming with other musicians. Plus, it's a way to find her clan. We had learned about the jazz band over the summer before school began, and of course my OCD kicked in and I went to great lengths to contact the music teacher, who happened to be new to the school. He was very cool but couldn't really answer all my questions because this was all new to him, as well. Needless to say this made me all the more neurotic.

When school started I even paid him a visit. He mentioned that he was still figuring things out and that he had all sorts of ideas of having a jazz band, including a more casual setup in addition to the formal arrangement. He did mention two things - that freshman did not usually take part because the auditions were at the end of the school year, and that jazz band members were required to be in regular band, as well. I wasn't sure what role A could play in that, but figured we'd cross that bridge when we got there.

Well, as the school year wound down, the music teacher, MP, contacted us and told us about the auditions coming up. There was a spot for a guitarist and A was going for it. MP also mentioned that he had some ideas about how she could fulfill the role in regular band, so we'll see how that one works out. The most important thing is that she's interested and she's going for it. It's a bit of a challenge because a lot of kids are auditioning, and it will be a reasonably competitive process, bit A does well in both camps. She's not intimidated by performing in front of an audience, and she's not put off by competition. I like to think it's her confidence in her abilities, but only she can answer that question. We'll see how things turn out.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to hippi16508 for the pic.