Bethany Jazz/Pep Band

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Photo by Alicia Thomas (’16)

Big news in the music department here at Bethany: the jazz band is back! There was no jazz band last year, but in previous years Barbra Slagel directed the band. Sherry Good, band director at Bethany, brought the jazz band back this year with a new special function. The jazz band will also be a pep band for high school basketball games.

The band will play at a majority of the boy’s and girl’s home games. Sherry Good wants the jazz band to perform in upcoming concerts and to get a feel of the jazz style by taking the band to hear other jazz musicians at different festivals.

At this point, the band has worked on a variety of songs with styles from a hard rock beat to the blues and swing. Some of these songs include “Wild Thing,” “Born to be Wild,” “Wooly Bully,” “The Loco-Motion,” “The Swingin’ Shepherd Blues,” and more! At basketball games they will be playing other “pump up” songs during time-outs and other pauses in the game.

This is Sherry Good’s 6th year teaching music. She received her undergrad in music education at Indiana State University and eventually a masters of arts in music. There were two reasons she wanted to get the jazz band back at Bethany. The first is that she loves playing in her own jazz band and she knows there was already an interest in jazz from students at Bethany. She also feels that the opportunity to play different styles of music is necessary in music education. She stated, “It is good to experience this style with your instrument.”

Good’s favorite part about jazz band is that it is a small group and it has a laid back feel to it. She also likes the various styles in jazz and allowing the students to take the lead into developing their skill in jazz.

“I feel like it’s going well,” Good states, “because the interest is there and many of the people involved are returning to jazz band. They understand the style and improvisation.” At this point Sherry Good’s favorite pieces that the jazz band is performing are “Gospel John” and “Birdland.”

Members of the 12 person jazz band:

Alto Saxophones