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ALL THAT JAZZ


Listening to the Glenn Miller Orchestra playing “Sing, Sing, Sing” just makes me want to get up from my seat and dance. I feel the rhythms of jazz start to pass through my nerves, and I can’t help myself from moving to the dance floor and doing the Charleston. What needs to be thought about though is how these musicians can play jazz so well. Jazz music is so difficult to learn because of the ability to create improvisation, along with a jazz sound, and the swing feel needed to play it.

First of all, my originality and creativity in the thought process of music helps me so much when it comes to playing jazz. Being creative gives me so many opportunities to have fun while playing jazz because it opens up my interpretation to the music. Jazz music is so different from classical because I’m not limited to what I can play. In jazz, I can play any rhythms and notes I want, as long as it stays within the chord changes. Basically, it gives me freedom when I play; I can express myself deeply through improvisation. When I improv on a piece of jazz music, I put my emotions in what I’m playing, which is what makes improvisation so special. I don’t like being limited to what I can play in a piece of music because I am a very expressive person, which is what’s needed for jazz band. Almost everyone that plays jazz well loves to express themselves through their instrument. When I improv on my saxophone, I don’t feel limited to what I have to play, such as looking at a sheet of music. I barely even think about what I’m playing, it just comes out because it’s my emotions and thoughts that are coming through my horn. I personally think that I could not be called a jazz musician if I wasn’t creative.

Second, probably the most important and difficult to learn technique needed in jazz is the swing feel, including accenting the upbeats and jazz vibrato. In 9th grade, when I started listening to my friends who played...