A lull in the class is interrupted by a clean line from a trumpet player. The drummer picks up the beat and follows along, as the pianist finds the key and matches the tune with rhythmic chords. Spontaneous jamming in Jazz Band can find even more of a groove this year, as it is now a year-long class.

“A lot of people have been waiting for it to be a year long class,” sophomore Taylor Scofield said.

Jazz band teacher Andria Mullan said the change gives students an opportunity to play together and learn music more often.

“There’ll be a lot more complicated music and a lot more soloing,” Mullan said. “Hopefully the students will get to a higher level of playing by having more time to interact with the band.”

As a semester class, the students in Jazz Band did not have much time to rehearse before their performances.

“With the more time, we’ll have the ability to just play music instead of worrying about sounding good for a performance,” senior Xavi Prospero said. “We’ll be able to gel a little better as a group and get the funk and the groove down.”

Scofield said that there might be more combos – small groups that play together within the band, as well as more performances.

“We want to get the rhythm section to be really tight,” Mullan said. “Only having the class for three months made it pretty difficult to make all parts of the band work well together.”

And with a desire to tighten the instrumentation comes a need to further improve group dynamics.

“Togetherness as a group is necessary in any musical group, but especially in jazz because the groove is so important,” senior Liam Schindler said.

Mullan added that even when there is a soloist, the band is still working together to make a full sound.

“It’s like a conversation,” Mullan said. “The rhythm section is both complementing and responding to a soloist, and that requires a pretty high level of musicianship.”

Mullan said that she hopes the students will be able to gain confidence in their skills and harmony amongst the band mates with the extra time given them this year.

“The friendships you make as a result of music are lasting,” Mullan said.

Aside from learning how to play more difficult music and work together better as a group, students are simply enjoying the class enough to want to take it for a year instead of a semester.

“The group is really fun,” Prospero said. “We get to goof around in a structured and musical way.”

The class did not lose any students because of the change, and will be taking on even more students in second semester.

“Hopefully it will be like exponential growth for us,” Schindler said. “Even though the class is two times longer, we’ll be more than two times better by the end of the year.”