Jazz Band Practices Together From Home

The Oak Forest High School Jazz Band was looking forward to its annual jazz night scheduled for April 4th, but when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, like many other groups, they were forced to postpone.

Still, the Bengals wouldn't let the pandemic get in their way from practicing what they love - music.

"When we were given the task of creating some e-learning lessons for the students, I did not want to depart from the performance aspects of our music classes," says Oak Forest High School Band Director, Nick Rojek. "We are fortunate to have a strong performing arts program in our district and I wanted the students to keep up their skills rather than having them answer questions online. After posting some new music for the students to work on and submit, the idea just came together. With the uncertainty of the next few weeks and the potential of having to delay or cancel our annual jazz night fundraiser, we thought it would be nice to at least perform a few of our numbers for the parents and community over the internet."

The class first connected via Google Classroom where Rojek posted and discussed the assignment with the students. The students then used their school-issued iPad or personal cell phone to film and record their individual parts. When finished, they uploaded to Google Classroom and Rojek combined the recordings using GarageBand and iMovie.

The rest, was music to their ears (and ours).