Blues Improvisation

Bring the sounds of the deep South vocal blues to the classroom with a Smithsonian Folkways instructional activity. In preparation, scholars listen to and count the 12 bar blues patterns in several works and identify the I, II, IV, and V...

FACE it. Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit! (And so do girls.) Provide young musicians with music worksheets that enable them to practice musical notation. The six boards included in the packet are templates that focus on notes, rests,...

Music composition can be easy with a little software assistance. The class uses Garageband to listen to, write, sing, and record a blues song. They listen to the song provided through the software, write their own lyrics to the song,...

Here's a collection of unit plans for middle school musicians. Topics include the mbira, opera, rhythm and culture, music in Africa, music in the movies, music theory and notation, blues and jazz, and the ocarina. Definitely worth a look.

Get to know the meaning behind the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" from the legendary 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Groups of two take the roles of performer and questioner. Performers sing lines of the song while questioners...

Do you know the dance moves, but just need some tunes to rehearse to? Then put on your dancing shoes, grab a partner, and let the rehearsal begin! Practice a wide variety of popular ballroom dance rhythms from around the globe at a tempo...

After learning the 12 bar blues progression, students will practice their improvisation skills. After performing their solo, they will also transcribe it.

For this blues music worksheet, students read a brief description of this genre of music and then respond to 6 short answer questions regarding the information presented in this worksheet.

Learners demonstrate writing lyrics for a twelve-bar blues pattern by writing two verses of a blues song and then recording themselves singing over a stock blues pattern using Apple's Garage Band. Requires a networked keyboard lab.

In this playing the 12 bar blues music worksheet, learners follow 4 steps outlined to introduce the 12 bar blues to them and then respond to 3 short answer questions.