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The Princess and the Frog
Students study the sounds of New Orleans jazz, its origins, and its influences. In this jazz music instructional activity, students listen to various jazz songs and discuss the songs. Students use the worksheet 'Jazz: the Universal...
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Music and Lyrics
Eighth graders analyze lyrics from songs from a variety of genres. In this musical analysis lesson, 8th graders write an essay about their life plans in which they discuss the lyrics of U2's song, "One." They tell how the writings of Dr....
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Learning the Blues
Students become familiar with the characteristic form and sound of the blues, then learn about the history and evolution of the blues in relationship to the African-American experience. Students examine the structure and language of...
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Making Music and Playing the Blues
Students research how musical instruments have changed over time. They discover how math is used in music. They describe musical instruments from photographs as well.
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Blue Jazz Scale
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...
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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 activity to design a musical instrument.
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VH1 Driven: Jamie Foxx, Lesson 3
Students 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 poem by...
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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 instructional activity.
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 plan, 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
Students 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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Writing the Blues
Students assess the blues as musical poetry. They place the writing of blues music in historical context and write (and read) their own blues lyrics. They perform for the class and others.
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Music Education, Playing the Blues
This lesson enables students 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 instructional activity 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...
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The Beat of the Blues
This lesson 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 blues...
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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. Learners 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.