Micah's Debut Jazz Band Performance

Last week Micah had his first Jazz Band Concert.  They had the band members dress in all black with a white bowtie.

Micah sat on the left side of the stage.  

The band was to play 4 songs.

It seemed as if you couldn't hear the guitars that much over all the horns, but it looked like he was doing alright.  On a couple of the songs performed, for a moment Micah jammed all out, bobbing his head and getting into the music.  It was quite entertaining.  It would be awesome if all the band members got into it a little more.  Here is a little clip:

There were a lot of solos for the students who played trumpet and trombone, but no guitar solos.  Micah says that's because he is part of the "rhythm section" and they don't do solos.  

Bah!  I think they should have solos anyway.  That, and maybe turn up their amps a little more.  

Overall, a great first Jazz Band performance!  

It's Gonna Be a Bright, Bright Sun-shiny Day!

While Micah has been focusing a lot of his time recently on learning jazz chords and practicing songs for jazz band, he has still had some songs he's been working on the side.  

One song he began learning a while ago is an good oldie by Johnny Nash from 1976!  I'm sure everyone loves this one!

Here is Micah playing and singing "I Can See Clearly Now":

Micah Makes the Junior High Jazz Band!

Micah started 7th grade this fall and so that meant entering Junior High School!  He had heard they had an audition only Jazz Band you could be in, and so right away he began preparing for his audition.

After his audition, the instructor told him there were mostly 8th and 9th graders auditioning, so he might not make it.  There were only 4 spots open for guitarists, and 1 of them was for a bass guitar.  

Lucky enough, Micah made it!  Out of all of the students who auditioned, they only selected 2 students who were 7th graders, and Micah was one of them.  He had won a slot alongside 2 other lead guitarists who were at least 2 years older than he!

After the first day of rehearsal though, Micah was roughly awakened to how little he knew about jazz music and jazz guitar chords.  Also, his instructor wanted him to play on an electric guitar rather than his accoustic/electric, and so that was another problem since he didn't have one.  It was a little stressful and a bit intimidating for the boy, but he was determined to figure things out and make things work.  

Micah began working very hard learning chords he had never even seen before and we looked into finding an electric guitar.  We learned that a hollow body or semi hollow body guitar was best for jazz music, so in the end, Micah found a great guitar in this Ibanez Artcore semi-hollow body electric guitar.  It is quite a large guitar, but as always, Micah will grow into it.  

As the weeks have gone by, Micah has learned a lot and improved on his new jazz chords.  He really enjoys being in the jazz band and looks forward to his first performance coming up this week!