Legalism and Jazz Band

I played trumpet in junior high school and high school.  My freshmen year, I also played in the jazz band.  I played in the jazz band (in addition to the other band) for two reasons: my friends also played in it, and we really liked our teacher.

We moved between my freshmen and sophomore year, so at my new school, I again went out for jazz band (in addition to the other band).  This time, though, I had no clue who the teacher was (and he ended up being  the reason I'd quit band my junior year, but that's for another post) and was hoping to meet some friends!

During class, our teacher would select someone- usually one person each class- to do a solo.  Nothing big there- I had done solos before.  Except this time, there were no notes.  For your solo, you were supposed to  improvise.  Like a real jazz musician.  So our best saxophone player would play something amazing one class and then the next class our top trombonist would also play something amazing.

As the days counted down to my solo, I became scared.  Horrified really.  How was I going to play a solo when there were no notes?!  Doing what everyone wants to do in my situation- avoid public embarrassment and shame- I asked my section leader what I should do.  He said to play notes based off of the chords of the song.  I asked "what's a chord?".  He stopped answering my questions!  Apparently, based on his look of shock and dismay, I should have never made it this far in my band career and not know what a chord was!

The class came for my improv solo and it was terrible.  Not exaggerating.  It sounded horrible.  Because apparently in something as 'free' and 'loose' and 'cool' as jazz music, there's still rules.  And the rules begin with chords and what notes are ok to play with a certain chord (or in  my case, what notes are NOT ok to play with a certain chord!).

We can never get away from rules, even in jazz band.  And while we often think rules are meant to prevent us from greater enjoyment or satisfaction, sometimes the rules are meant to make sure we don't stink up the place when it comes time for the improv solo.