The jazz band has its first concert (free admission) of the year Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium. To prepare for this, the students have been practicing both in school and on their own time.

“We rehearse every day in class and each of us practices individually at home,” junior Abbey Kjellgren said.

In addition to practicing individually, some students are utilizing other tools to fine tune their skills.

“I listen to the original recordings outside of school so I can learn how to play the music originally because you have to interpret it in your own way,” sophomore Cole Griffin said.

But perhaps the biggest help comes when a musician from outside the school comes in to work with the students.

“Johnny Pate will come in and help us out with rehearsal sometimes,” Kjellgren said. “It’s really cool because he’s actually played with a lot of the people who wrote the pieces that we’re playing for the concert and so we get a really cool perspective on how the music should sound.”