Castle View High School is home to various opportunities for those who want to perform. While the band, orchestra, and choir are the more recognized and well-known programs, many students are unaware that there’s a jazz band program that is also offered at CVHS. The jazz band mainly specializes in different instruments than the normal band, offering opportunities for instruments like piano, saxophone, and electric guitar to shine. 

Like most band programs, you are required to take it as if it were a class. This includes signing up for the program at the start of the year. Many students have differing reasons for joining the class at the start of the year. 

“I joined the jazz band because I wanted to join a community with the same work ethic and experience as me.” Freshman Hutch Hoepner said.

 In the jazz band, a good work ethic is a key trait to have, as reaching deadlines and practicing is essential for having successful performances in the future. The effort it takes to maintain the level of skill with your instrument is paramount, and playing well alongside and with other people is very important to performing well. It takes cooperation alongside the individual effort to really shine.

Playing with other like-minded people with similar skills is essential in developing the skills needed to perform at a high level. The current jazz program helps these kids, but, at times the program can be stressful and can require some resilience and perseverance to get through issues. 

“I’d say the worst part of Jazz Band is waking up early in the morning,” Hoepner said. This is the most common complaint about the Jazz Band, as students involved have to wake up early to get to school at zero hour. “Waking up earlier than everyone else is the hardest part of Jazz Band. The music makes up for it, but it’s still really tough.” Nicholas said.

Upcoming performances are on the mind of every jazz band performer, as the band has worked diligently to practice and perfect the songs learned at the beginning of the year. With performances coming up fairly soon, (December 10th and 15th), emotions are at their peak. Emotions vary from anxious and nervous to very excited and prepared.

“I’m excited to see how well we perform in any future concerts, as well as the scheduled performances in December,” Hoepner said. “I’m confident in our ability to play well, and I think we’re really going to crush it”. 

With feelings about the concert growing stronger and stronger, students are wondering about other events in the future, as well as their future plans for their music career in general.

The current jazz band program helps students tap into their talents and discover the magic behind performing a genre of music that they can enjoy with others. On top of this, the jazz band program helps students build habits that will impact and improve how they go about practicing and performing in the future. The jazz band program often leaves students excited to go further and pursue their interests in jazz even after the program ends.

“I plan on joining a jazz band eventually in college,” Senior Jacob Nicholas said. “I’m looking forward to continuing to do this so that I can eventually transition into that when I graduate.”

Continuing to play and perform music well with other students will help these students grow and become the players that they hope to be in the future, solo or ensemble.