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Blue Jazz Scale
Learners 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...
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Red, White, and Blue Notes
Students explore the history of major American music genres. Then, through mock radio shows, students examine the distinguishing features of each genre and how each has changed throughout the years.
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TE Lesson: Energy Transfer in Musical Instruments
Students study concepts of energy and energy transfer. They look at how these concepts apply to musical instruments. They study the law of conservation of energy. They use the concepts studied in the lesson plan to design a musical...
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VH1 Driven: Jamie Foxx, Lesson 3
Young scholars examine the blues, poetry, the Harlem Renaissance, and the 12-bar blues form. They watch a segment from the video, "VH1 Driven: Jamie Foxx," participate in a class discussion, and listen to songs by Ray Charles and a...
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Sing the Blues
Students explore examples of this musical form, then write their own lyrics for a blues song.
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Satchmo's Blues
Students work cooperatively to create a jazz composition using the computer program GarageBand and incorporating the musical stylings of musician Louis Armstrong. Internet access is required for this lesson.
ESL Kid Stuff
Toys
The world is a rainbow of colors in a set of lessons for English learners. Kids review colors with matching games and hide-and-seek, before singing songs about colors and reading a class story.
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Blues Improvisation
Students practice playing and improvising while playing the 12 bar blues. They practice compositional skills, evaluate and perform musical pieces focused on the blues.
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Audio Engineers: Sound Weavers
Students explore audio engineering. In this career education and "sound" science lesson, students define related vocabulary and make connections between the music they listen to and the job an audio engineer does after listening to...
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Gospel Beginnings - Lesson 1
Students identify genres of music that influenced musical style of Aretha Franklin. They identify musical characteristics of gospel and sing a gospel selection. They pay particular attention to the call and response style.
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From Sacred to Secular: Exploration of Vocal Styles/Crossing between styles - Lesson 2
Learners identify some of Aretha Franklin's vocal qualities and techniques. They have a discussion of styles of music they heard on the video, including gospel, jazz, pop, rhythm and blues, and opera.
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Musical Roles
Students watch a videotape on the musical career of Aretha Franklin and explore the different careers in the music industry.
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Music Education, Playing the Blues
This lesson enables young scholars to gain a broader awareness of the basic blues scale and the harmonic structure of the standard blues progression. Students will be given introductory exercises on blues improvisation and will also...
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US Geography, The Blues
This lesson enables teachers to use blues styles and performers to think about various geographical regions of the United States. By studying different blues styles from the Mississippi Delta, Texas, and the Piedmont region of the...
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The Beat of the Blues
This lesson plan focuses on how students can learn basic blues percussion patterns by considering the polyrhythms of African drumming and investigating how and why such drums were banned during slavery. Students will listen to several...
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Whites, Blacks and the Blues
This lesson enables students to explore and measure the distance between blacks and whites in the past and present United States. By thinking about the intersections of whites, blacks, and others around the blues, students will deepen...
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Language Arts, Music, Poetry: Blues Style
This lesson focuses on how the blues both operates as poetry and informs the poetry of many prominent African American poets. Students consider the poetic devices and recurring themes in blues lyrics and the significance of the poetry of...
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Improvising in the Birthplace of Jazz
Learners recognize significant developments in New Orleans jazz music. They improvise blues licks using notes from a minor pentatonic scale.
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Folk Traditions in the Blues
Click here to download a PDF of this lesson. (2.8 MB) Overview This lesson will enable teachers to use the blues to explore selected topics in African American folklore. Students will learn about some of the African American cultural...
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Language Arts, African Americans, Oral Tradition and the Blues
When slavery took Africans from their land, they were separated from the rich musical and oral traditions native to each country and region. While working as slaves, Africans found they had two places where they could use these musical...
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The Blues . Writing . Biographies/Profiles . The Soul of a Man
This lesson, focused on profile writing and its unique characteristics, considers the profiles developed in the film The Soul of a Man while also asking students to consider other profiles they are familiar with and to write some of...
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Jazz Talk
Students 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...
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Music Styles
Young scholars identify many genres of music and connect styles of music with various cultures. They watch "The Greatest TV Moments: Sesame Street Music A to Z" and list music styles: folk, jazz, rock, etc.