Jazz Music Lesson Plans

Students explore development of jazz music in the 1930s by forming imaginary jazz bands which tour several cities in Depression-era America. Jazz band members create imaginary identities for themselves, develop publicity for their tour, and keep diaries of their journey.

Students appreciate the civil rights movement with a focus on Little Rock, Arkansas. They acknowledge Louis Armstrong's unparalleled contributions to American music.

Learners analyze the origins of jazz music by examining work songs, spirituals, blues, and gospel songs as well as works of poetry from African American artists. They create their own poems from either the narrative, dramatic, or lyric style.

Students view video and become familiar with the type of movement in jazz dance.  In this jazz dance lesson, students write a cinquain about jazz dance.  Students recognize the elements of jazz dance and the type of music associated with it.

Learners watch a segment of the PBS Ken Burns JAZZ documentary about Buddy Bolden creating the "Big Four." They compare and contrast the rhythms of marches and jazz based on the examples in the film, and explore notation, subdivision of notes and the altered and innovative rhythms found in jazz music.

5th graders listen to a piece of Jazz music before writing a short story that tells what they feel the music is about. They listen to the song once and take notes. Next, they answer questions about the musical piece that become the basis for their three to six paragraph short story. As they write they listen to the music play softly in the background.

Students recognize significant developments in New Orleans jazz music. They improvise blues licks using notes from a minor pentatonic scale.

This lesson has learners explore the various rhythmic combinations in jazz and blues music. They watch a video segment, apply a mathematical formula to calculate the number of possible rhythmic combinations, and perform a combination of notes and rhythm on a keyboard.

In this lesson learners examine the effect of music on society. While listening to music, they identify the beat, rhythm and write down their reaction to it. Listening to longer selections, they assign a color to the music and share it with the class. They create a piece of art using that color reflecting on the music pieces to end the lesson.

Students listen and analyze various samples of genres of music. After reading an article, they discuss the fate of New Orlean's Jazz after Hurricane Katrina. Using the internet, they investigate the life cycles of musical genres with roots in the United States. They share their information with the class in an oral presentation.