Jazz Band: High School Christmas Concert, 1 December 2011

            For this concert I was hoping to further develop my skills as a saxophone player. I also wanted to build my experience with performing on stage in front of a large crowd. This semester I was only able to go to the Friday morning practice sessions because I was had football training on Wednesday mornings. Therefore I was not able to play with the entire band as much as I might have liked. However, this was a challenge that I had to face and my experience with the saxophone and with playing in concert bands allowed me to cope with this challenge. This is my third year in Jazz Band so I was able to still play to a high level even though I had less band practice.

            The High School Christmas concert included all the High School choirs and bands. The Jazz Band played last and we played four songs. These were all fun Christmas/Jazz songs. I believe we played quite well as a band and that we were successful as a band to entertain the audience. I therefore gained more experience as a saxophone player and as a performer. This helped build my confidence as a Jazz saxophone player and it further prepared me to improvise and play solos as is required in a Jazz Band. My experience and confidence with playing the saxophone prepared me for playing solos in the next performance we had in Village Market. It also has prepared me to hopefully play many solos in the next semester of Jazz Band and to become very comfortable with improvising.

            However, I do believe that the band could work a bit better together to become a truly good band. This could be done by practicing more often as an entire band. Since this year many people were unable to make both practice sessions, the band was unable to reach its maximum quality level. I therefore believe that if everyone in the band could attend all the Jazz Band practice sessions, the band could develop into a very good band that would be recognized countrywide. For this to happen, it would be good to organize more performances in different places like the Village Market to develop our experience and to build our recognition around the country.