One of the jazz groups at Fair Grove High School called the Swingin’ Eagles, had a jazz clinic on February 6th at Southwest Baptist University (SBU) to prepare for their competition on February 15th.
The Swingin’ Eagles compete twice throughout the jazz season. They use the clinic as a way to get help from an outsider that has not heard their pieces before. This is their first time going to this specific clinic. Natalie Palomo, the band teacher at Fair Grove, said, “This is a new event Southwest Baptist University is offering and it is really great that we can get out our “first performance nerves” out of the way in a more relaxed environment.”
Fair Grove High School students in the Swingin’ Eagles collectively agree that this clinic has helped them a lot. Freshman, Harlynn Irvine, said that the clinic has prepared them for their real competitions.
Jayden Rice, who is a senior this year at Fair Grove, said that it also helps the students that have solos get help on them if they need it. Judges tell the students what to do to make them sound better.
Palomo said that they also got to watch the Southwest Baptist University jazz band perform. She said that watching them perform will also help the students by listening to other people do their solos.
Since it is their first time going to a jazz clinic instead of someone coming in to help them, students were nervous but excited. Irvine commented, “I’m really excited about the clinic and think me and the rest of Swingin’ Eagles will learn a lot of things from the clinic and get a lot better at our songs.” At the clinic while they performed they had someone that came up on stage and told them to repeat a part in one of their songs and told them as a whole how to fix it or how one person could improve to help their solo.
Being in jazz is a rewarding experience and a great thing for people who want to expand what type of music they play or play a secondary instrument. Anderson Teaster (9) said, “I love being in jazz band, it’s a opportunity to show people that I’m here and they should talk about me and us, it feels so rewarding to sound good in front of people that they give us good scores or a standing ovation”
After the jazz clinic, Fair Grove Jazz had a competition at Parkview High School in which they scored a one. One is the best score that Fair Grove could have scored in the competition and they then went on to place 6th overall.
