Teaching the Blues
Earlier in the year I taught a lesson about the Blues to my Grade 8s. I really wanted to show a video about the Blues but had a hard time finding a good one on youtube and the worksheet I used to accompany the video was confusing. It wasn't a great lesson. When it came time to teach the 12 Bar Blues Progression to my Grade 7s I knew I needed to change something so I pretty much changed everything.
Day 1: I ordered History of Jazz from MusicPlay (my favourite!). There are reproducible pages, listening activities, and PowerPoint/Quick Time videos. We started off by watching the Lesson 1 Roots of Jazz video. The students filled out the Lesson Assessment form that comes from the book. I really wanted them to understand where jazz came from so this lesson took the whole period. The authors of this book recommended having them listen to Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin. Click here for a link to the youtube video. I also found this video about the player piano which I showed before we listened to the Maple Leaf Rag. (WARNING: This video has a shot of the videographers bare legs as he shows himself stepping on the pedals. I always warn my students by saying that there is a scene where you see the legs of the man who is filming the video. He is wearing shorts.) Once the students have an understanding of how the player piano works we listened to Maple Leaf Rag and they completed the Listening Assessment.
Day 2: I skipped ahead to Lesson 4 The Blues. We watched the Quick Time video like last time and the students responded to the Lesson Assessment that comes with the book. The authors recommended listening to Bessie Smith's Backwater Blues. Afterwards, we spent a little bit of time playing Task 7 in their GPS books. This task is the 12-bar blues progression (I I I I IV IV I I V IV I I) in whole notes.
Day 3: I started off by showing them this pin I saw on Pinterest:
Day 1: I ordered History of Jazz from MusicPlay (my favourite!). There are reproducible pages, listening activities, and PowerPoint/Quick Time videos. We started off by watching the Lesson 1 Roots of Jazz video. The students filled out the Lesson Assessment form that comes from the book. I really wanted them to understand where jazz came from so this lesson took the whole period. The authors of this book recommended having them listen to Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin. Click here for a link to the youtube video. I also found this video about the player piano which I showed before we listened to the Maple Leaf Rag. (WARNING: This video has a shot of the videographers bare legs as he shows himself stepping on the pedals. I always warn my students by saying that there is a scene where you see the legs of the man who is filming the video. He is wearing shorts.) Once the students have an understanding of how the player piano works we listened to Maple Leaf Rag and they completed the Listening Assessment.
Day 2: I skipped ahead to Lesson 4 The Blues. We watched the Quick Time video like last time and the students responded to the Lesson Assessment that comes with the book. The authors recommended listening to Bessie Smith's Backwater Blues. Afterwards, we spent a little bit of time playing Task 7 in their GPS books. This task is the 12-bar blues progression (I I I I IV IV I I V IV I I) in whole notes.
Day 3: I started off by showing them this pin I saw on Pinterest:
My blues name is Pretty Eyes Jenkins. I love it! My kids had a lot of fun figuring out their Blues Names and I had them write it down on the front of the their Music Folder.
I created this Blues Organizer to help students come up with their own 12-bar Blues composition.
First, I modeled how to use the organizer and as a class we came up with a 4 beat rhythm pattern for each bar. I recommended that they repeat patterns and use at least 4 whole notes. I then split students in to groups of 5 using the Pick-a-Stick strategy. Before I let the students grab their instruments they had to show me their rhythm patterns.
By the end of Day 3 all the students had composed their Blues song and had started practising.
Day 4: The students had most of the period to practise with their groups. I emphasized how important it was that everyone in the group participated. In the last 15 minutes of class we had our very own Blues concert!
***Update: The Blues Organizer has gotten a new look. Come check it out! It's still free.
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