Last year, I joined jazz combo and performed during the Grade 12 graduation night. It was my first time playing jazz as a pianist and I learnt a lot about playing in a small group, listening to other instruments, and also soloing. This year, I undertook the challenge to join jazz band as the second pianist.
One of the main challenges I faced was again coping with a bigger group. There is a lot more people playing together this time and listening out sometimes can be a bit hard. Since I am still rather unfamiliar with playing as a whole band, I am the second pianist and I play chords accompanying the song (and sometimes the melody), while the main pianist plays exactly what is written on the sheet (mostly the melody). Since it is also led by the teacher, I have less control as to when to rehearse as a group and when to solo play. I also get less time to sight read and get familiar with the piece so I often find it very hard to keep up with the band in the beginning when we were learning new songs. I think to overcome this challenge, I need to spend more time getting familiar with the song just as I have with jazz combo last year. I also think that it may be worth my time to talk to my jazz band teacher about questions I have as I have done so last year with a smaller group. I feel that it is more of an intimidation factor that is restricting me from going out of my comfort zone. The performance will be in December and I feel that I have a lot to learn especially because the performance will be in front of a lot more people – and it is not just background music but proper music people listen to.
