Going into my fourth and final year of the jazz program at CHS, I can’t help but feel excited and sad at the same time. From the talented group of musicians to the dedicated directors, this program has nurtured a valuable progression both in my musicianship and overall character. With that being said, however, there is still one aspect of our jazz program that I think should be reconsidered: its weighting system.

During my freshman year, I was fortunate enough to audition into the second highest jazz band. I was particularly excited because I knew it was going to be challenging. Moreover, I was told that the top jazz bands would be weighted. As the year progressed, I began to think this rumor had to be true; on top of all of our other classes, we were introduced to difficult skills such as improvisation, given little time to perfect a multitude of interesting but also demanding jazz literature and required to spend much time out of and before and after school practicing. I quickly came to realize that succeeding in a top jazz band requires the time and effort on par with the top wind symphonies and other fully weighted classes.

Given all of that I was crushed as a freshman and I will be crushed again this year as senior when my director asks me if I want to be in this class because it is not weighted at all. What constitutes whether a class should be weighted or not should depend on the rigor as well as the effort and time required, all of which our top jazz bands require both in and out of school. At least comparable in difficulty to the other weighted performing arts classes, the jazz program offers not only complex but also intricate literature. Therefore, I stand for a re-evaluation of the value of the jazz program here at CHS; action needs to be taken to give the credit that is deserved to our top jazz band musicians.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Bryce Cheng at [email protected].