Could you introduce yourself and how you would like to be addressed? 

“Hello I am Catherine Bussard, and you can just call me Catherine.”

How would you describe having to wake up earlier in the morning?

“Well, I don’t think anyone really likes waking up super early in the morning. I think school starts too early anyways. But I kind of like having jazz band first because it sets my day right since it’s not like an academic class. It’s like I choose to go to that. So it’s kind of a nice way to start the day actually.”

Can you walk me through the process of what you do during jazz practice?

“We always actually end up getting there like 10-15 minutes early, so our class starts at 6:50, but generally 6:35-6:40 is when we all start showing up. So we use that time to warm up and then we always basically until the very last day of school, we’re working on sets to play for stuff so we always get our pieces to go through those. A lot of the time though, we go through our pieces and we stop a lot of the way to fix things throughout. There’s not a lot of like running through our pieces until we get to like the actual gigs.”

Would you prefer jazz to be after school? Why or why not?

“Um, honestly since I have such a busy schedule, it wouldn’t work for me. After school, anyways. So I’m glad that I have the option to have it fit into my schedule in the morning.”

Does having jazz early in the morning interfere with anything?

“I think it obviously makes me sleepier in the morning because I have to wake up like an hour earlier. I don’t usually eat breakfast before band so I don’t usually get breakfast on jazz days, which is a bummer, but snacks. But I mean, other than that, I think it leaves me in a good mood.”

How do you think there would be a difference in your academic and personal life if practices were after school?

“Probably not, I mean, the nice thing about playing instruments is I can play it anytime I want and I still basically get the same effect academically, I’d find time to play it anyway. So it doesn’t really interfere with my work. I choose to do it. So I choose to find time to work on it.”

What are your strategies for dealing with the stress that it gives you?

“I think we have a really good environment in jazz band. We’re all really good friends. I think finding friendship and that has allowed me to, you know, talk about what stresses us out in that class. And I think building those bonds has really helped us feel comfortable in that environment.”

What are the other effects of doing practice early in the morning?

“It sets me up for a productive day. I’m really not sure I haven’t thought about that question. I don’t know if I can give you a lot. I don’t think it really changed that much honestly. I kind of treat it like a normal class.”