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!  

Micah's 1st Real "Strumming Song"

Micah is such a great finger picking guitarist, but we thought he needed to learn some good chord strumming songs to give him a little bit of variety. He listened to a few different songs and in the end chose Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" for his first strumming song.

He got the chords down pretty easily. They are pretty easy compared to what he is usually finger picking on guitar. The tricky part was learning how fast or in what rhythm to actually strum the chords or how often.

He got that down, and then it was a matter of learning the words and how to move around a bit.

Now, Micah isn't much of a wild playing guitarist, but he is slowly learning how to show some more emotion when he plays.

Once we got his new guitar amp and microphone, he was ready to jam!

Here he is performing "Breakfast at Tiffany's":

When the Children Cry

Micah is quite the finger picking guitarist. He seems to do it so naturally. He does it so well and can even sing along with it. The only problem was that you often could not hear him sing over his guitar. So, we saved up and went out to buy a better guitar amp and a microphone stand so he could be heard.

Here he is performing White Lion's "When the Children Cry". Now if anyone know who White Lion is from the late 80's-early 90's, you might be thinking, "Woh, that's a heavy metal band!" Well, you'd be correct, but this actually is a very pretty slower acoustic song they did.

Winter Recital 2011--Dust in the Wind

Micah is now 11 years old, (and quite cute with a guitar if I say so myself) and ready for his second guitar concert.

This time he would be playing with a violin soloist as well as singing along for the first time on stage.

He only had a few chances to practice with the violin solo, but it seemed to go alright during rehearsal, although the timing got a little slipped up during the actual performance.

We still think he was pretty awesome though.

He had been working on Kansas' "Dust in the Wind" and was pretty good. Here is a video of his performance at home warming up:



We think his best take with the violin solo was as they were practicing on stage right before the concert started, so here's a clip of that:

It was tough because the violinist had the music for his part, but he didn't know when to come in, and we didn't have any idea either, so it was kind of a guess in the end. It was a little off, but we think it was close enough.

Micah is really good at finger picking guitar songs instead of just chords. Many of the other students that were pretty good were impressed that he could finger pick so well and sing at the same time without even look what he was playing.

First Musical Duet

Christmas time came around and Micah had the chance to be in a little musical duet with his little brother Caleb. Together they worked together for the first time playing and singing "What Child is This" for a Christmas program.

This was the first time working together, but it actually worked out pretty well. Micah was a good sport as to his brother's over dramatic silliness (particularly during this filming), but they did quite well for the program. Hopefully, this start will lead other duets in the future.