College Jazz Band?

[Phalanx]

well, like many people im sure, i'm off to college after the holidays and I recieved a letter a while back asking if I was interested in the College Jazz band. At secondary school I really enjoyed jazz band but i'm not sure.

It's quite a big (popular) college and no doubt there are going to be players much better than I am. I really want to be in the jazz band but I doubt I can improvise my way through College jazz band like I did in the last one.

My main problem is that i'm simply not good enough at reading, slow songs are fine but when they're more upbeat songs I usually get lost.

What I want to know is, from your experiences, are College jazz bands more intense than your secondary school ones? Obviously people will s****** at poor reading skills but im hoping with the practicing im doing now and the free lessons the college offers i'll be able to improve. Also, do College jazz bands necessarilly pick the best players or are they happy to take anyone with an interest onboard?

Thanks

[Akira]

Just practice. Reading isn't that hard to learn if you work at it. Find all the music you can. Just anything you can get. Bass clef, treble cleff, whatever. As long was there are notes, you can practice. Just work at it and you will get better.

[MuRd0K]

Every school is quite different, the system changes a lot between schools, so I think you would be better off asking that at school. Try contacting one of the jazz band faculty members so they can inform you about it.