Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My trombone player did a youth orchestra one year when they couldn’t fit school band into their class schedule. The orchestra was fine with it when we explained, mostly because they also kept up private lessons.

But ultimately, they ended up preferring jazz trombone to orchestra or band, because the parts were more interesting. Orchestra tended to be like 50 measures of rest, then a dozen or two of accompaniment. Jazz actually let them have some lead parts, even solos.

That really is the gist of my son’s complaint. He wants to play more and likes the idea of jazz band. Are you saying that youth orchestras be similar in that they won’t have a lot for him to do?

That’s been my trombonist’s experience, both in high school and college orchestras. It’s not so much the age/level, but the type of pieces they’re playing.

There may be the occasional piece with better trombone parts, but in general it’s more of a background instrument in the orchestral compositions. Jazz can often be trumpet-led, or sometimes saxophone, but it’s still more likely than a wind or philharmonic orchestra to feature a full, robust brass section.

Most high schools around here have one or more jazz bands (and a lot of middle schools as well). It probably varies whether kids are required to be in concert band/band class to participate.

If he is really good, he could try for Brass of Peace, which is free. Auditions are in the fall.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My trombone player did a youth orchestra one year when they couldn’t fit school band into their class schedule. The orchestra was fine with it when we explained, mostly because they also kept up private lessons.

But ultimately, they ended up preferring jazz trombone to orchestra or band, because the parts were more interesting. Orchestra tended to be like 50 measures of rest, then a dozen or two of accompaniment. Jazz actually let them have some lead parts, even solos.

That really is the gist of my son’s complaint. He wants to play more and likes the idea of jazz band. Are you saying that youth orchestras be similar in that they won’t have a lot for him to do?

What instrument does your son play? Mine plays french horn, which has some good solos in a lot of orchestral music. But low brass tend to not have that interesting parts a lot of the time in orchestra. Jazz band might be better for those instruments.

Trombone, and he’s been talking about jazz band.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My trombone player did a youth orchestra one year when they couldn’t fit school band into their class schedule. The orchestra was fine with it when we explained, mostly because they also kept up private lessons.

But ultimately, they ended up preferring jazz trombone to orchestra or band, because the parts were more interesting. Orchestra tended to be like 50 measures of rest, then a dozen or two of accompaniment. Jazz actually let them have some lead parts, even solos.

That really is the gist of my son’s complaint. He wants to play more and likes the idea of jazz band. Are you saying that youth orchestras be similar in that they won’t have a lot for him to do?

What instrument does your son play? Mine plays french horn, which has some good solos in a lot of orchestral music. But low brass tend to not have that interesting parts a lot of the time in orchestra. Jazz band might be better for those instruments.

I replied above about maintaining participation in school band in order to do most (not all) outside bands. IME, it's not about what they are learning in band class, it's more about the outside bands not taking the better players from the schools. Most will make exceptions for unsolvable conflicts, but yeah, there are definite schedule sacrifices that might need to be made.

My kid is a serious percussionist, about 3 years older than yours. Early high school is a great time for them to discover exactly what they love to do in music. Percussion is similar to brass in a way - you can do jazz, small group, wind band, orchestra, solo, marching... my kid tried just about all of them. By 11th, she really did have to pare down but she knew what she loved by then - orchestra. Like brass, you won't have the most notes, but if that's the sort of music you love, there's no replacement for a really excellent full orchestra that does classic repertoire. She's been preparing excerpts for summer programs for several years now, and there's a skill to this type of playing that's very different, but no easier than, say, drum set or marching. At this point, she's "good" at drum set and jazz, but she couldn't keep up with kids that focused on that. So there will be choices to be made; but that can wait if he wants to spend more time exploring. Which I would encourage!

Anonymous wrote:My trombone player did a youth orchestra one year when they couldn’t fit school band into their class schedule. The orchestra was fine with it when we explained, mostly because they also kept up private lessons.

But ultimately, they ended up preferring jazz trombone to orchestra or band, because the parts were more interesting. Orchestra tended to be like 50 measures of rest, then a dozen or two of accompaniment. Jazz actually let them have some lead parts, even solos.

That really is the gist of my son’s complaint. He wants to play more and likes the idea of jazz band. Are you saying that youth orchestras be similar in that they won’t have a lot for him to do?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just have him join his high school band and he will develop other interests as well

Leaving band as a low commitment thing since he doesn’t want to pursue it to higher levels gives him the free time to develop elsewhere

He’ll most likely do just that - quit band at school to develop as a musician elsewhere. He also played the piano but really likes the group aspect of brass band.

If he's not doing band and not seriously playing at a high enough level, he may not get into the main groups or it may not be appropriate. You may want to find a private instructor that does groups.