Jazz Methods Lesson: Improv on Blues

Paige Kibbler-Madeline Landgrebe-Curtis Prichard

Middle/High School Jazz Ensemble
April 24, 2015
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Objectives:
Students will be able to:
Improvise on a blues scale
Express certain emotions through improvisation with their instruments
Will be able to play C Jam Blues
Standards:
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments
5. Reading and notating music
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts
Materials:
Lead sheet of C Jam Blues by Duke Ellington for a standard jazz ensemble
Recording of various pieces, some jazz and some not
specifically
St. Thomas Infirmary by Louis Armstrong
Projector and computer
Stereo system with iPhone cord/adapter
iReal Pro app for Apple products
Personal instruments to model for students
PowerPoint slide or document with list of emotions
Emotion flash cards to hand to students for anonymity
one set with simple emotions, another with more complicated emotions
Procedures:
1. Teacher will begin by playing music on the stereo that implies certain emotions. Once class is
ready to begin, the teacher will ask questions about what emotions the song conveyed and how
specifically the song conveyed that emotion. (Examples include Happy, All by Myself, etc.)
Perhaps include Jazz examples as time progresses.
2. Teachers will explain the opening activity/game to the students by modeling it.
a. In this game, each individual will choose an emotion from our list to model to the other
students (First with facial expressions, then instruments). The other students must then
discern what emotion the student is modeling.
3. The teacher will hand out emotion cards, the first set being basic emotions that will be easier to
emote.

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

9.

10.

a. These will be given anonymously, instructing the students to not share with their
neighbor.
The teacher will then ask the students to pull out the lead sheet for C Jam Blues. The teacher will
then lead the students in a run-through of the tune.
The teacher will ask the students to play through the C blues scale to refresh everyones memory
before continuing into improvisation.
The teacher will lead the students in call and response sessions, where the teacher will play a
two-bar call and the students will imitate together.
The teacher will then loop the first 4 bars of the tune and then ask the students go around the
room one by one and play four bars of improvisation using the C blues scale.
The teacher will then remark on the students improvisation, noting any sense of randomness that
might have happened. This will lead to a segue into focusing on expressing specific emotions and
how we might do that.
The Teacher will then repeat the 4-bar soloing activity while asking students to convey an
emotion in their 4 bars with their new, more specific card. The class will all play at once to
practice their ideas during the four bar solo section, and then the students will solo one by one and
after each solo, the class will guess what emotion they were conveying.
Class will end with a mini discussion about what worked in the solo sections, which emotions are
more effective than others, and how they can incorporate these ideas into their own jazz practice.

Assessment:
Teachers will assess informally and aurally throughout the lesson. After each solo section, there will be a
short discussion about what ideas worked best, and which solos were the most effective.