Hello all,

I've been directing a jazz band in a school since November, and am losing my will to do it. Attendance is terrible, musicianship skills are quite poor, I don't have a proper rhythm section and on top of it all I sometimes get a bit of a diva attitude (it's a girls school). Anybody experienced a similar situation? Any advice on how to deal with it? We have a spring concert coming up soon and I'm not looking forward to that experience. I spent a long time writing arrangements which turned out to be "too difficult" (read: nobody was willing to make the effort). Now I've written extremely simple arrangements but I can't seem to get them started. Please help!

Don't depend on a live rhythm section otherwise you're scuppered if any of them don't turn up. Invest in some good backing tracks like the Hal Leonard collections and give them lessons in jazz improvisation before you try anything else. You haven't said what the line-up is - what musicians have you got and how many of them are there? If the whole rhythm section turns up then you don't need to use the backing tracks.

I run a couple of string groups in schools and we do a lot of jazz using backing tracks. They all play the melody and then the ones who want to take it in turns to play solos using scales they've already worked on, like the blues scale or various modes. The last time through, they all play the melody again, or I might get them playing some sparse choppy rhythms while the soloists are taking their solos. It seems to work well although volume (for the soloists) is an issue at concerts - they all need amps and pickups really but dream on... You might fare better if your soloists are horn players or guitarists with amps though.

To get them turning up on a regular basis turn it into a real social thing with a get-together plus food and drink before you start and nice treats like nice chocolate - it all helps to bond the group and make them feel like they want to be there. With one of my string groups (at a secondary school) we all have lunch together first and I always bring some special chocolate for them like a big bar of Lindor (yum!). Every time it's someone's birthday someone brings a cake; we all sit together and read out jokes from a book of musicians' jokes or do other silly things - it all helps with the bonding. It does take quite a lot of effort to make something like this work in a school but it's worth it...

Thanks for the reply.
I have a drummer, but she does have a difficulty keeping time as she's not very experienced yet, and also an occasional pianist and a guitarist, but I can't count on them for keeping the form etc. In the frontline I have flutes, saxes, clarinets and trumpets, about two each usually. My biggest problem is the low morale, so your ideas about group bonding just might work. Thanks!