Jazz Lesson Ideas for the Elementary Music Classroom

In today’s blog, I will be sharing all about lesson ideas to incorporate Jazz music into your General Music classes! Also, I’m so excited to be collaborating with Becca over at Becca’s Music Room, who will be sharing 3 more Jazz Lesson ideas over on her YouTube channel!

Take 5 by Dave Brubeck – Bean Bag Composition (Upper Elementary Students)

This is a fantastic song to share with your students, as it is iconic and in an unfamiliar meter of 5/4. This can be a great conversation piece with your kiddos since most of the music that they hear on the radio is in a meter of 4. 

First Lesson: 

• I share with my students this Orff Level 1 video of a Bean Bag composition and teach it to them. For this school year, we adapted the pattern so that we weren’t passing the bean bags to other students.

• Teacher Tip: 
  • To help the students feel a meter of 5, it often helps to break it up into 3+2 or 2+3. For Take Five, specifically, it is a 3+2 feel throughout most of the song!

Second Lesson:

• Have the students create their own Bean Bag composition in small groups or individually! Tell the students that they have 5 beats total to work with in creating their new pattern.
• Teacher Tip:
  • Many students would think a “Toss and Catch” motion was 1 beat when it is really 2 beats (Toss is 1 beat and then Catch is 1 beat)
  • Give the students lots of time to think creatively and brainstorm ideas!

Experiencing Charlie Parker – 3 Lessons

First Lesson:

• Share with students this Read-aloud video of the book, Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop, which combines this wonderful book about Charlie Parker with the song, “A Night in Tunisia”

Second Lesson:

• Isolate the repeating pattern from the book in the previous lesson and add instruments!
  • Part 1: (Spoken) 
  • Part 2: (Orff Instruments) Whi – skers; Whi – skers (Half notes) in C pentatonic or Simple Bordún (C & G; “Chips and Guac”)
  • Part 3: (Shaker) – Never Leave Your Cat! (rest/Meow!); Never Leave Your Cat! (rest/Meow!)
  • Part 4: (Metals; Triangle or Glockenspiel) – Play on the Quarter rest in Part 3 and have the students be thinking “Meow!”

Third Lesson:

• Learn about Scat music using this video!
• Create Scat Improvisation patterns utilizing Football Team names! Here’s a copy of a Scat Improvisation Worksheet for the students!
  • Prompt the students for a football team – “Arizona Cardinals”. Next, determine how many syllables are in that team name, Arizona Cardinals (7). Lastly, utilize the word bank to “translate” the team name into scat by selecting 7 syllables. 
    • Teacher tip:
      • I tell my students that scat singing has a lot of repetition so they don’t need to pick 7 different syllables, but think about repeating ones
      • For “Arizona Cardinals”, it could turn into “Scooby Dooby Scooby Zit!”

Further Extension:

• Have the students perform the Charlie Parker Orff piece as an A section and then have student groups chant their Scat patterns in between to create a Rondo piece (ABACAD….)!

Experiencing Trombone Shorty – 3 Lessons (I love a theme!!)

First Lesson:

• Learn all about Trombone Shorty by hearing a read-aloud of his book. Here’s a great one!

Second Lesson:

• Do a Move-It along with one of his songs! Super fun and engaging!

Third Lesson:

• I LOVE this resource from “Music with Mrs. Dunc” on TpT where the students use Rhythm Cards to create word chains, along with Body percussion, and perform it along with one of Trombone Shorty’s songs! My students had so much fun with this!

I hope you found these lesson ideas helpful as you bring the joy of Jazz music to your classroom! 

Don’t forget to check out Becca over at Becca’s Music Room for more lesson ideas!