Jazz In Elementary Music Ideas & Activities


by Sherry Luchette Editor’s Note: This article appears as one of a series written especially for Ala Breve by experts in the field of music education.


opens up an introduction to improvisation is what I call “Scat Echoes.” Using some simple scat words, the teacher begins by saying a scat word such as “bop,” and the students echo it back. It’s really that simple. There are many ways to elaborate on this to make the activity more challenging. Try changing your inflections, using a high or low voice, adding a string of scat words, using a faster tempo, or more syncopated phrases. Naturally from this point,


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In the world of Elementary music teaching, the idea of teaching jazz to young children can be a mysterious undertaking. What does it mean to “teach jazz” to young children? How does a music teacher include meaningful activities that are age- appropriate for their students? It’s not quite as mysterious as you might think. America’s classical music is jazz, and it contains some distinct features: melodies are primarily learned by ear, lots of improvisation is used, and there is a swing style rhythm with emphasis on beats 2 & 4. We can use these three characteristics of jazz music as a spring board to teaching children jazz activities in the music classroom.


Let’s first look at the aspect of jazz music being passed down by ear and the swing rhythm. Because much of the music is experienced and heard rather than written down in note form, listening and movement activities are key in understanding jazz melodies and the swing feel. A simple activity is to pick a “Jazz musician of the Month” for the music classroom. The teacher can make a poster with the musician’s picture, and share some basic biographical information with the students. For the entire month, the same song is played as students walk into class that is


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performed and/or written by the jazz musician being featured. The teacher can lead students in tapping out steady beats to the music on their bodies, and create fun body movements (such as pretending to play different instruments) to the music while singing along to the melody and/or lyrics. Repeating this activity for the month allows students to become familiar with the song. Children will soak up the music and swing feel like sponges, and begin to talk about the musician they are learning about in school. This is a simple, yet powerful and age-appropriate way to engage younger students in to jazz melodies and swing. Below, I have listed some jazz musicians and tunes for you to consider using for this activity. Big band music in particular works well because the steady swing beat is very easy to hear.


Jazz Musician of the Month Duke Ellington - “Duke’s Place” Count Basie - “Shiny Stockings” Benny Goodman - “Sing, Sing, Sing” Ella Fitzgerald - “A Tisket, A Tasket” Louis Armstrong - “Potato Head Blues”


Another activity that works well in using the ear, experiencing the swing feel, and also


May/June 2015


teacher and students can then tap the rhythm of the scat word on their bodies while saying the words out loud (body percussion.) After echoing and body tapping of the words is comfortable, teachers can add pitch with their voices, and blues track CD accompaniment (See last page for materials.) By adding vocal pitch, we now have some built-in ear training and improvisation delivered by the teacher to the students as a start. With practice, students can become the leader and begin to originate their own scat phrases for others to echo. A blues progression track is highly recommended to practice the “Scat Echoes” activity with for two reasons. One, the 12 bar blues form is a very common progression and is one that is used heavily in jazz,blues, and pop music. Being familiar with a basic blues form as a teacher and student is very valuable because of the common use of this form in so many styles of music. Secondly, it makes more sense harmonically to one’s ear to be able to scat and/or scat sing with accompaniment. It’s adds dimension to to the activity when a student can rhythmically and harmonically hear their scatting with an open blues track played by a rhythm section. This allows easy practice, and it’s fun. “Scat Echoes”can be added easily into a lesson plan for 5 minutes during class time. A Basic Blues Form Progression


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