Improvisation Teacher Resources

Students practice playing and improvising while playing the 12 bar blues. They practice compositional skills, evaluate and perform musical pieces focused on the blues.

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 are introduced to the process of creating story from movement through improvisation and invention. When the music is playing, they move. When the music stops, the students freeze. A discussion on the role that music plays in the...

Students compare two versions of Macbeth and participate in improvisational acting.  In this improvisational lesson, students read and discuss the text before watching two different versions of the film.  Students roleplay...

"A wise person knows when and how to: make the exception to every rule, improvise, and use these moral skills in pursuit of the right aims. A wise person is made and not born." Impress upon your learners the importance of leading lives...

Young drama pupils will perform a number of expressive speaking exercises as they consider the themes of responsibility, consequences, and justice in the very modern Australian play The Stones. With a lot of role playing and...

Figurative language is the focus in the book Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia. After reading Peggy Parish's book, class members dramatize idioms from the text, using dramatic strategies such as characterization, exaggeration, and...

Young actors willingly suspend their disbelief as they improvise a scenario in which they are workers at a clothing factory and must decide their attitude toward the actions of co-worker Rosa Parks. 

Students culminate a humanities project by improvising music to accompany a video of a particular era in US history.

Students observe and demonstrate pantomime and improvisation. They define and discuss improvisation and pantomime, then in small groups discuss and brainstorm ideas using a bag of props. Students then create and present a scene using...

Students create a dance study based on the growth cycle of a flower. They improvise movements that relate to each stage of growth. They create artwork on the growth cycle of a flower. They perform their dances for the whole class.

Second graders interpret and transform drawn lines into locomotive movements. In this improvised movement lesson, 2nd graders draw a line on a piece of paper and use the elements of dance to interpret and transform their draw line into...

Students work cooperatively to explore and practice dialogue improvisation.

Students react to a planned dramatic scenario in which someone is caught red-handed and then they improvise a similar scene based on wither guilt or innocence.

Learners get to encounter simple musical notations, basic keyboarding and improvisation. Students exercise on creative thinking skills. Learners create their own musical notes.

Students examine the percussion sounds used to create percussive sounds and identify the instruments that Bobby McFerrin imitates in his scat vocals. A scat version of the musical piece "So What" is improvised in this lesson.

Upper graders having skills in music performance will extend their abilities through creative musical composition. They'll use Finale 2000 to explore facets of music composition, they'll then compose a piece for their instrument in C, F,...

Students listen to an original recording of Louis Armstrong and discuss instrumentation. They identify an AABA song form as they listen. They list similarities between the following: traditional meets modern and small group vs. big band.

This is a terrific resource for practicing the scientific method or for examining the claims of different sunscreens when learning about electromagnetic radiation. You may have to improvise, however, as it was written to accompany a...

A collection of videos directs viewers through a series of seven videos detailing all things jazz. Video topics include how to play, its forms, rhythm, syncopation, swing, improvisation, and explores the rhythm, horn, and wind sections....

American music is the result of the influence of many cultures, including the traditions brought by the African slaves. Young scholars study the polyrhythms, the call-and-response format, and the vocal improvisations of the Gullah...

Hone those musical ears to identify consonance and dissonance in music being played live or on a recording. Learners will work through four activities where they will listen to consonant and dissonant notes being played first by the...

Students explore movement in dance routines. They observe movements and transform everyday gestures into choregraphy. Through activities, students develop improvisational skills. They evaluate and critique work.

Students write a script, planning and recording improvisations based on personal experience and heritage, imagination, literature and history.