Curated OER
Audio Engineers: Sound Weavers
Learners 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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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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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
Learners 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 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 instructional activity 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...
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Whites, Blacks and the Blues
This instructional activity 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,...
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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
Students 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
Middle schoolers 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,...
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Music Styles
Students 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.
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Say It Loud!: A Celebration Of Black Music In America Music In America
Students study early New Orleans Jazz music and recognize Louis Armstrong as an early jazz artist. They recognize the elements and roots of Jazz.
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Music of African American History
High schoolers examine role spirituals have played in African American history and religion, examine Harriet Tubman's use of spirituals in her work, explore power of spirituals in Civil Rights Movement, and work with oral tradition,...
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Singing The Blues with Garage Band
Young scholars 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.
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100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll - Lesson 4
Students analyze the genres of folk and country music and the importance of the singer/songwriter. They compose their own lyrics based on an inspiring event.
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Poetry through Jazz, Rap, and Hip Hop
Students explore poetry through jazz, rap, and hip hop music. They discover the common threads that run through the poetry and music. Students design their own lyrics to a jazz, rap, or hip hop selection and share their songs with the...
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Patriotic Music: Three Cheers for the Red, White & Blue
Students examine the patriotic songs of the 1940's and compare them to those of today. They identify elements that classify a song as patriotic, listen to several examples and complete Venn diagrams contrasting different examples.