I cannot emphasize enough that all music teachers and their students should be very familiar with a basic 12 bar blues progression. Above is an example of a basic progression that is designed by me in poster form, color-coded and easy to follow. Roman numerals are used so that the blues progression can be formed in any key. Note that in a blues, there are many different chord progressions that are possible. This is not the only one, but I find that it is helpful and easy for students to hear the beginning and end of the form when the IV7 chord is placed in the second measure, and the V7 chord is placed in the last measure of the form. Also note that this blues form uses all dominant 7th chords: I7, IV7, and V7. There is no longer a reference to building chord types off of the major scale, all chords are dominant 7ths. This is part of the distinct sound that you hear in a blues.
Once students are familiar with a basic blues form, and have practiced scatting and singing with body percussion over a blues track, students can use non-pitched percussion, such as small hand drums, sticks, or shakers to play the rhythm of the scat words while singing them out loud. This replaces the body percussion. Students are now learning how to play simple jazz phrases on percussion instruments. Instruments can be passed around in a circle, an
activity I call “Switch-a-Roo.”
This is a fun way to give students a chance to play various percussion instruments during music class time, and work together as a group, honing some basic jazz improvisation ideas, while still hearing and feeling the swing feel and blues form.
For the ultimate challenge, non-pitched percussion can be replaced with pitched instruments such as classroom xylophones or recorders. When dealing with pitched instruments, the scale choices and key used over the blues form are now an issue. The idea is to provide safe note choices for the students so they can continue to focus on playing and feeling the jazz phrases. In the general music classroom, we are limited with the scale choices that work best over a blues form. This has to do with the fact that the classroom xylophones are C major scales with F# and Bb bars (if you can find them :) And with recorders, most students are familiar with B, A, G, continuing on with D, E, C, etc. With this is mind, the suggestion is to use what we call in jazz a
ala breve
minor pentatonic scale (also known as a “la” based pentatonic scale) or a blues scale. Both scales work over the entire blues form starting at any point in the form. The best key choices for the general music classroom would be E minor or B minor. This is because of the limited bar notes available on the classroom xylophones. E minor in particular is ideal because it contains the notes “B-A-G” which are also easily played on the recorders:
E Minor Pentatonic : E-G-A-B-D-E E Blues Scale: E-G-A-Bb-B-D-E
If you have a Bb bar available, you can add it to the scale (don’t remove anything) and use a blues scale. The Bb is known as the “blue note” because it is a tritone away from E. It adds tension, a lovely color, and bluesy sound that is very distinctive in jazz and blues improvisation. Try the “Scat Echoes” activity again after setting up the xylophone bars with these scales. (They do not have to be in this exact order, the low D bar can be on the bottom, the only requirement is to remove the C & F bars.) This time, the teacher will say a few scat words (no pitch from the teacher, because we are now working with pitched instruments) and the students say the scat words out loud and play the rhythm of the scat words on the notes of the scale of the xylophone. The students can play any of the notes they want, even two at a time in any order. Because you have a scale that will work anywhere over the blues form, there are no “wrong notes’ to play. Students can focus on their jazz phrases and swing feel, which is way more important to develop at this stage of the game than worrying about playing “correct” notes.
Using recorders is a similar process, except it is key to use one note at a time. For example, the teacher says, “Using only the note “B,” play Shooby bop wop.” Students echo the rhythm of the words using the note “B” on their recorders. This type of practice continues, and then the note “A,” for example, is added into the mix. Now students can play either “B” or “A” in any order they want, focusing on playing the rhythm of the words “Shooby bop wop.” Adding the a blues accompaniment track in E is very helpful with this activity, and opens up all kinds of fun playing ideas for your recorder players.
So there you have it, some fun ideas to open 27
up your young students into hearing, moving, singing, playing and improvising in the jazz style. Remember to keep it simple and have fun!
Sherry Luchette currently teaches Bass and Jazz classes for children at the Pasadena Conservatory, and freelances as a jazz bassist in the Los Angeles area. She is the author of three Book/Cd sets titled The Flying Jazz Kittens. All Book/CD sets include blues track melodies and play-a-long tracks for the activities shared in this article. The blues poster is also available.
For more information:
www.flyingjazzkittens.com,
www.peripole.com,
www.jwpepper.com,
www.westmusic.com,
www.musicmotion.com,
www.musick8.com
Need in ormation about y
fM
Need information about your NAfME membership?
n E
ContactNA
t NAfME
Member Services a 1-800-336-3768 or
fme2.or
r Services at or
MemberServices@
nafme2.org
Orchestrating Success
Music Education chestr ting Suc
www.nafme.org Music E
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44