By Vivian Dyer.
Two students competed in the Texas Music Educator Association Region 6 All Region Jazz Band competition on September 19 earning first chair on both jazz guitar and drums.
The jazz band competition is one of the few competitions that high school students are able to do.
“All Region Jazz is where a bunch of different instruments plus drum set and guitar and sometimes bass guitar just come together and play different genres and different styles of music,” sophomore first chair drumset player Brady Lambert said.
Although the tryout process was finished in a day, the preparation for the musicians began far earlier.
“They gave us the music a couple weeks prior to the audition date and then they told us the audition date and then after we practiced the music for the three weeks then you went and auditioned,” Lambert said.
Even though many different instruments were able to try out for jazz, they all followed the same guidelines for tryouts.
“You were given three different pieces of music that you had to learn over a short period of time and then you were judged on those three pieces of music as well as a backing track you had to play over,” junior guitarist Cole Elders said.
The competition was a place where many musicians were able to meet, and bond over music.
“I got to meet a lot of people that you don’t meet because they’re not really in our district anymore, so I met a lot of people from small schools,” Elders said.
Because jazz is such a unique genre, there are many different things that people favor about the music.
“My favorite part about jazz is you have more control over it as opposed to just regular classical music that you have to play exactly what’s written,” Elders said.
There are many different aspects of jazz music that people enjoy.
“It’s really fun. I find it fun to annoy people because it’s really loud,” Lambert said.
