TEMECULA - Gardner Middle School students have learned that when it comes to jazz, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.

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It's been the biggest lesson for the students as they have undergone an extreme crash course in playing jazz, learning eight songs in a little more than two weeks, band director Carlos La Farga said.

Up until 2 1/2 weeks ago, most of the students enrolled in La Farga's elective band course had only played concert music, which is what they are taught all year as part of the class.

The spur-of-the-moment learning frenzy took place so the students could perform some upbeat music during the school's Parent-Teacher-Student Association's annual family night event on campus, scheduled for tonight, he said. The students will play while the families eat dinner, he said.

"The first week we were rocky, but we just got better and better," said Amanda Garcia, 12.

La Farga, a jazz musician and lover of the genre, said he wanted to expand the students' horizons.

Lesson one - getting them to understand that when it comes to jazz, it's all about loosening up and having some fun, he said.

"I taught them they were not supposed to perform like a concert band, that jazz is an entirely different type of music," he said. "It has to be played with a certain feeling. You have to make it swing. If they played it like a concert band, it would sound corny."

At practice Monday, two days before their debut, La Farga continued to hammer that point home.

"You're playing it still like a concert piece," he said. "You've got to punch the notes."

In the past, students have played concert pieces such as Paul Lavender's "Russian Sailor's Dance," and pieces from the musicals "The Sound of Music" and "Phantom of the Opera."

Some of the songs on tonight's roster are Van Morrison's "Moondance,"

Billy Strayhorn's "Take the A Train" and Maceo Pinckard's "Sweet Georgia Brown." The band includes two classes for a total of 70 seventh- and eighth-graders.

"We've pretty much learned everything in two weeks," said seventh-grader Lauren Ruiz, 13. "Before that, we just played concert music."

Seventh-grader Kaci Miller, 12, said the process has taught her the difference between concert music and jazz.

"Concert music is just pretty basic," she said. "Jazz music you have to really get into and go with it. To me, it's a lot harder, but really fun."

Seventh-grader Paul Kelsey, 13, said students have practiced after school and at home, in addition to class, to memorize the flurry of songs for the performance.

"He's given us a bunch of songs and we are actually able to play them," Paul said.

Seventh-grader Garrison Dizon, 12, said La Farga is what made their learning possible.

"We have come a far distance, and Mr. La Farga is such a great teacher," he said. "He can tell us how to play it, and how it's done right."

- Contact staff writer Jennifer Kabbany at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2625, or jkabbany@californian.com.