John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Blues Journey
Trace the history of the blues in America through the play, Blues Journey, based on the book by Walter Dean Myers. You can see video clips of the stage play, listen to blues radio shows, and learn about different types of blues music.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Learning the Blues
This lesson plan introduces students to the blues. The origin and development of the blues is explored as well as its distinctive structure.
Yale University
Yale University: Open Yale Courses: Listening to Music
Twenty-three university-level lectures on how to listen to and how to appreciate Western music. Emphasis is on classical music but jazz, pop, the blues, and rock are also considered.
PBS
Pbs: Sweet Old Song (The Music of Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong)
Learn about and listen to jazz, blues, folk, and country musician Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong and his roots in America's musical past. "Sweet Old Song" tells the story of the music and art partnership between Armstrong and his...
Read Works
Read Works: Program Notes Rhapsody in Blue
[Free Registration/Login Required] This PDF is the Program Notes from The New York Philharmonic's production of "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin. It provides information about Gershwin and his writing of the "jazz concerto." It is...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Women and the Blues
This collection uses primary sources to explore the impact of women blues performers.
Other
History in Motion: Boll Weevil Blues
This scenario shows the spread of the weevil and a few of the songs that singers such as Charley Patton, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and others created in the wake of its devastation. Click on the events to see the details of the...
Read Works
Read Works: Beating the Winter Blues
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the winter blues and how to lift your spirits. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
PBS
Pbs: American Roots Music: Lesson Two: Desegregating the Airwaves: Blues on the Radio
This lesson deals with the emergence of the blues as a form of popular music on the radio, beginning in Helena, Arkansas in 1940. Students will understand and discuss the relationship between technological and social change, discuss how...
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: How to Blues
This site has ten lessons to teach about the blues in which students learn the geography, historical events and performers associated with the blues. The unit has been recognized by the American Music Education Initiative as one of the...
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Robert Johnson
A brief biography and photograph of legendary blues guitarist, Robert Johnson.
Other
Old Time Victrola Music: Blackface Minstrel Music
This website from Old Time Victrola Music, which sells victrola recordings of minstrel music from 1918, provides samples of several minstrel songs in Real Audio format.
Other
Down Beat Magazine: Billie Holiday
Jazz singer Billie Holiday is featured on this Down Beat website with a biography, pictures and a discography of her recording career.
Indiana University
Archives of African American Music and Culture
Contains resources on black culture and music from the early 1900s to the present.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Sti Lesson 2: Langston Hughes and the Blues
Explore relationship between music and poetry in this African-American history lesson on Langston Hughes, the Harlem Renaissance, and other artists such as Bessie Smith, John Hammond, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones.
Other
Banjo Tablatures
This comprehensive site covers many aspects of bluegrass banjo music. It includes bluegrass news, information, history, trivia, and multimedia. Also includes lesson plans for banjo, sample tablatures, bibliographies, workshops, and...
Other
The Bluegrass Guitar Homepage
Source of information about the acoustic flat-top guitar and the playing styles used in bluegrass music. Recommendations for instructional materials to learn to play; history of Doc Watson, discussion areas, links.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Teachers: Classroom Activities: Mardi Gras
With these fun classroom activities, teachers can help their young scholars to learn about Mardi Gras traditions. Make Mardi Gras masks and gumbo while enjoying blues, jazz and other traditional Mardi Gras music. Includes book...
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: A Guide Through the Culture of the Blues
An extraordinary curriculum unit to teach blues and all its cultural implications.
Other
Stax Museum of American Soul Music
The Stax Museum of American Soul Music is all about Stax Records, and features a timeline and lists of hit singles.
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Influence of Folk
This site, which explores the influence of musical folk traditions in the poetry of Langston Hughes and Nicolas Guillen, provides lesson plans, a biography, examples of Hughes' poetry, and details about his meeting with Nicolas Guillen.
Other
Bo Diddley: The Originator
Biographical information on Bo Diddley, popular musician of rhythm 'n' blues and rock 'n' roll. Provides highlights of his 50 years in the music industry.
Varsity Tutors
Varsity Tutors: Web English Teacher: Langston Hughes
This resource focuses on the works of famous African-American author, Langston Hughes.
Open Curriculum
Open Curriculum: Scales That Are Not Major or Minor
To explain the various musical scales that cannot be classified as major or minor such as chromatic, whole-tone, pentatonic, blues, and scales from non-Western music
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