Improvising in the Birthplace of Jazz

Students identify musical characteristics of blues music and define the term 'scale.' They identify chromatic, major, pentatonic, and blues scales and label each key on a keyboard using letter names, sharps and flats.

The backbone of Latin American music is the beat! Young musicians work on blending Afro-Latin rhythms and beat patterns before incorporating the major pentatonic, minor pentatonic, and blues scales in their own compositions.

Young scholars discover the difference in major and minor tonality after a brief introduction to Louis Prima. They discuss swing dancing and Louis Prima's role in the "Jungle Book" as the character King Louis. Students listen to the...

Students engage in a study of music that includes the Blue Jazz scale. They listen to pieces of music in the targeted style while becoming familiar with the scale. Students then describe how the scale is built and demonstrate by playing...

Students watch a video on improvisation. They improvise original melodies over given chord progressions. They develop criteria to evaluate the merits of improvisational performances and apply the criteria in their personal listening and...

Students compare and contrast classical piano style with jazz piano style. They watch a segment of the video, "VH1 Driven: Jamie Foxx," participate in a class discussion of the music from the video, and develop a list of adjectives for...

Music is beneficial for all learners. Help your learners with special needs learn about different styles of music, as well as the ways that music is represented on paper, with 30 different worksheets. 

Young scholars investigate the mathematical patterns of the Fibonacci Sequence. They determine how math is connected to music, specifically looking at music the uses the pattern sequence found in the Fibonacci Sequence.