04/21/2021
Hello!
A reminder that Junior High Jazz Band (6-8th graders) will meet tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 8:00 AM! ALL instruments (even flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, French horn, euphonium/baritone, and tuba too!) are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Here are some awesome reasons to play and listen to jazz music from https://jazzandcreative.com/whystudyjazz!
WHY STUDY JAZZ?
1. Because you might fall in love with it.
2. Jazz is a challenging art form that teaches discipline, persistence, and delayed gratification. Nothing about jazz is easy, but it is incredibly fun to play and extremely gratifying at every new level of achievement. Jazz teaches you to respect the process.
3. Jazz is an art form which allows you to find out a piece of who you are through the music that resonates with you to the way that you choose to perform it. The individualistic nature of jazz makes it an incredible medium of self-expression which other forms of music don't have on the same level.
4. When improvising, the parts of our brain that allow us to express ourselves become more active and the part responsible for self-inhibition and control become dormant. By inhibiting the mind's self-criticism, we're able to learn to let go and create "in the zone." The creative brain develops over time, it's not fixed at birth, so studying jazz directly develops your overall creativity. Learn more.
5. "A player has to engage the brain in multiple ways that classical musicians do not. First, there are added technical requirements, such as playing blue notes, swinging eighth notes, and unusual time signatures like 12/8 and 5/4 or complex African or Latin rhythms. Then there is the huge challenge of improvisation, which is basically composing on the fly. When improvising, there is a safety net of knowing the proper chord structure and melody, but players have to have a huge musical vocabulary and realize in milliseconds what new notes will fit. They also have to listen hard so they can interact properly with what others in the band are playing. The "call and response" paradigm in jazz is actually musical conversation. I can't think of anything more mentally demanding, especially for youngsters in early stages of learning music. Early middle school is a particularly time-sensitive period for mental development, and I suspect that middle school jazz bands can have disproportionate beneficial effects on brain development." from the book, Mental Biology, by neuroscientist, William R. Klemm Ph.D.
6. Jazz musicians respond faster to unexpected changes than others, including classical musicians. So, studying jazz trains you to expect the unexpected. Learn more.
Have a GREAT day!
Mr. L
