Just had my first jazz band concert

Ah! Nice! =)
Well I uh... play the tenor saxophone but i have been playing bass for 4 years as well, can't read the bass clef quick enough. But this year i'm graduating from high school so i'll learn the bass then =)

We have about 4 electric bassists in our jazz band, haha. So what songs do you guys play? Right now, we have Give it all you got, Channel one suite, Fatbacks and greens, Since i fell for you. Have fun playing the bass! I know i regret not picking it! =P

 

Well, Anti... I went to HS a couple hours from you in Martinsburg WV... We had a kickin' band program, and jazz was our bread n butter. We had total package... awesome saxes, and crazy trumpets... I was the bass bone player in them days....

These days I teach K-12 music... my HS jazz band in my current job had no bass player, so I started playing bass just over a year ago. So though I am 36 year old, I am playin gbass at the HS level...

 

Not in HS, but many years ago I played with our college jazz band. They were desperate. I couldn't read music, just played by ear. Which is a lot harder with jazz than with pop/rock.

But I loved it. I learned to read charts, learned to read music (slowly) and it made me a much better player.

Oh, yeah, and I got to go with the BBall team to away games, and hang with the cheerleaders and stuff. It was a great life.

Later, the skills I developed there took me on a USO tour, and I made some good $$ (at the time) on that, and I did some studio work that got radio play and all.

So congrats! You're on a great ride!

 

I'm in the Jazz Band at my middle school. We're doing songs like Evil Ways, Oye Como Va, Theme from Shaft, Rock Around the Clock and Zoot Suit Riot.

 

OMG!! We played that a few years ago! haha awesome!

 

yea im in high school jazz band(s). played trombone one year, piano and bass the next year, and just bass this year.

i dont own an upright bass but i play the school's on about 1/2 the songs.

 

My HS has two jazz bands, last year I played tuba(most songs it was just the 4th bone part lowered. Although some songs had tuba parts like hot hot hot) and this year I play upright in the "better" jazz band and I play electric and upright in the other band. We have two in each band. Last year my friends and I got a solo ensemble started which was a school group, but it quickly evolved into our own band.

 

I'm a junior and I've been in my school jazz band for 6 years (since 6th grade). I used to only play electric but now I play electric and electric upright and I have a fretless on the way.

Jazz is fun. keep at it!

hey maybe this is relevant: My area seems to have a dearth of bassists recently. My only middle school hasn't had a bassist for their jazz band in years and my High school doesn't have a bassist for the 2nd jazz band (we have three; I'm in the top one). I thought this was really weird, seeing as just a few years ago I was trying out against probably half a dozen other guys for one spot.

Have any of you other high school guys noticed this?

 

I play in my college's (UK) jazz band (well really its a 'lab band', but it's essentially the 2nd jazz band) and I picked up that gig just by asking. Went in with virtually no experience reading music on electric bass and basically learned everything I had to within a week. From there it was just dedication to learning to play the changes, arpeggiating, improvising, etc. All the hard work has made me one hell of a better bass player beyond the rock n' roll I used to play. interestingly there are other and more advanced bassists but I think they're all classical snobs

 

I play in the Jump City Jazz Orchestra. We're located in the Philadelphia, near you. Come out and see us some time!

I primarily play guitar in that band, though I was the band's bass player when it started back in 1994, and I still occasionally play bass for the band as the occasional calls for it. Our book calls for both upright and electric bass, though it is primarily upright.

 

Of course. Its always that way. Uncyclopedia had an article on bassists. They said there are two reasons to become a bassist.

1. Nobody ealse wants to.

2. You get gigs.

If it wasn't so true, it wouldn't be so funny.