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well, if your jazz band is actually going to be playing jazz, and not rock type stuff...work on SWING

if you're going to be doing rock(and stuff like that), you should be working on what you normally should be working on(do this for jazz also)...scales, arpeggios, long tones...you know, all that good stuff.

I would say work on your scales and arpeggios, however do them in different styles, swing the notes one time then forte and bring them down to a soften the next. If you notice in jazz, most of the time, when you play a piece, it usually has some type of scale in the piece. Brass I'm not too sure of, since for jazz I play mostly play Alto. However, I would work on style using scales. That usually helps when it's time to pick up the beat of a certain piece. And it helps in the long run with rhythm and counting beats.

I agree that your best bet would be learning scales, and from that it is dramatically easier to learn how to improvise

there is no such thing as "the jazz scale"....e.o

aren't they called 'blues scales?' because i have a chart of those.
yes, there are BLUES scales (notice "scales" in which the "s" denotes that there are multiple objects, in this case "scales") but not a JAZZ scale(notice "scale" the absence of "s" denotes singularity, meaning that there is only ONE object..in this case "scale")

I was in Jazz my soph, junior, and senior year.

I moved all the way from 5th alternate trumpet to first lead trumpet my senior year. Didn't happen over night obviously lol


Main thing for me: I couldn't always practice everyday and when I did it wasn't even for a full hour sometimes (had a job/senior project/crazy bus schedule/clubs)

When I did get the opportunity, I always made sure to do two things. First, I'd practice whatever songs we were playing in the ensemble (always come prepared, group rehearsal time should never be wasted because you don't know your notes yet) just enough to get through it without wrong notes, the dynamics/accents/etc were always added while playing with the group. Don't bother worrying about whats written because your director will almost always change it or add his own touches.

Second, I would practice improvising during the solo sections of the songs or just improvising whatever I felt like. Make sure to try different styles (swing, blues, latin/salsa, funk, ragtime, cool jazz, anything else you can think of) You never know when your director is going to want to try out a new song, their decision on whether to keep it or not usually depends on the groups ability to adapt. I don't know how your director is but mine didn't like to invest time in something if there wasn't an immediate understanding of the sound he was going for. Plus, you play trombone and judges love a good, confident, trombone player. They're hard to find and the more you improv, the more you enjoy it and improve. If you get the judges tapes back, I guarantee they'll comment on you if you're not nervous looking and you appear to be having fun. That's what its all about anyway. Anyone who doesn't like being in jazz/improvising just lacks confidence.

If you can get this down as a freshman, you'll be a monster by your senior year! biggrin

Good luck with everything!!