Jazz Music
Fifth grade
Purpose – To introduce students to jazz music, its history, characteristics and
its importance as an American art form
Equipment Required – CD/Player
NOTE: with most of the songs, you won’t play them in their entirety.
Script:
Today we’re going to talk about and listen to jazz music. Unlike a lot of the music you’ve
heard about in Music Appreciation before, Jazz is uniquely American. It’s one of America’s
greatest cultural achievements, it’s known throughout the world, and it has united people
across different races and countries.
What is Jazz Music? Can any of you come up with what jazz is? Or what make music
sound jazzy? Anyone have any ideas?
(perhaps particular instruments or artists will be mentioned, or someone might say
improvisation or swing)
Well, some very famous Jazz musicians have been asked this question about what Jazz is,
but they’re answers aren’t always very helpful.
Thelonious Monk, a great jazz piano player, said, “I don’t have a definition of jazz…you’re
just supposed to know it when you hear it.”
And Louis Armstrong, a trumpet player and singer who many consider the king of jazz,
said, “Man, if you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.”
So even though Jazz musicians can’t always define what exactly Jazz is, I think we can
come up with some definitions here today.
WHAT IS JAZZ?
Jazz is a style of music, just like rock or hip-hop or folk. Almost any piece of music can be
jazz if it’s played in a certain way. Like Thelonious Monk said, sometime you know jazz
when you hear it. For example, let me start by playing a song and see if you can identify it:
PLAY TRACK ONE: Happy Birthday by Wynton Marsalis
What song was that? It sounded quite a bit different than what we’re used to hearing.
What was different about it?
(possible answers: notes other than the melody were played, the rhythm was different, the
notes were improvised)
The notes we all know to sing when we wish someone happy birthday were played, but
those weren’t the only notes we heard. The trumpet player, Wynton Marsalis, took the
familiar melody, and then improvised other notes around it. And that’s one of the biggest
things to know about jazz: Improvisation.
(Write down Improvisation)
THE ELEMENTS OF JAZZ
There are many things we could talk about to help define Jazz, but we’ll just focus on four
of them today. The first is Improvisation, playing notes that are made up on the spot.
How many of you play an instrument? When you play, do you usually play notes written
down in a book? With jazz, you might start a song by playing notes that are written down,
but then improvise – or make up - your own melody. Have any of you tried improvising
before?
It might not be easy to do at first. It requires considerable skill. But you don’t have to play
an instrument to improvise. You can use your voice, something we’ll talk about later.
Let’s listen to Wynton Marsalis improvise a bit more to Happy Birthday. You’ll hear a
saxophone playing the melody we all know, and the trumpet will be improvising on top of
that melody.
PLAY TRACK TWO
So improvisation is one key element of jazz music. Of course, you can improvise in rock
and rap and other forms of music as well, including classical. But with jazz improvisation is
more essential. Sometimes you’ll have a ten minute song and only a minute of it is actually
written down – the rest is improvised.
Another key element in jazz music has to do with rhythm, and it’s called swing.
(Write down swing)
Swing has to do with creating forward momentum, a drive that makes you want to dance to
the music.
Let’s see how much you’ve learned in music class. Do you know the different types of
notes: whole, half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth?
I’m going to say a rhythm out loud, and you tell me what types of notes I’m using.
SAY 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
What type of notes were those? They were eighth notes. So for those of you who play an
instrument, or if you’ve done this in music class, you know that for each beat, you can play
two eighth notes.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.
In Jazz, those eighth notes are almost always “swung.” When we swing eighth notes, the
first part of each beat is a little longer than the second. So you’re not playing “pure” eighth
notes.
Let’s listen to a melody you all know with very straight eighth notes:
PLAY TRACK THREE (Old MacDonald with straight eighth notes)
Now let’s listen when the eighth notes have a swing pattern.
PLAY TRACK FOUR (Old MacDonald with swung eighth notes)
Can you hear the difference?
That song still didn’t sound very jazzy – or swinging. That’s because we need another
element of jazz.
(Write down syncopation)
Syncopation has to do with surprise. When notes begin before or after a strong beat, you
have syncopation. It can make a melody sound more interesting, because we hear notes in
unexpected places.
So, for example, in Marches, we hear very strong beats, and marching bands step to those
beats. We count: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4
But of course we can put notes in between those strong beats. Just like before, we can
use eighth notes.
We could say, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. When notes land on those “ands” unexpectedly
instead of the strong beats, it’s called syncopation.
SO let’s listen to Old MacDonald again, played with swing notes, just like we did before.
PLAY TRACK FIVE (Old MacDonald again with swing eighth notes)
But now, let’s listen when we add some syncopation.
PLAY TRACK SIX (Old MacDonald with syncopation)
Hear the difference? Notes were played either before or after we expected them to land.
That’s syncopation.
Let’s talk about one more important element of Jazz, and that’s “blue” notes.
(Write down blue notes)
Blue notes are notes played lower than the normal major scale. Have you all sung a major
scale before or played them on an instrument? It goes like this:
(sing Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do)
OR PLAY TRACK SEVEN (major scale)
You’re all familiar with that scale, right? In a blues scale we replace some of those notes
with “blue” notes. We change the scale. The third, fifth and seventh note of the scale, are
lowered. So the resulting scale sounds like this:
PLAY TRACK EIGHT (blues scale)
Playing these blue notes can really change the feel of a song. I’m going to play some
piano improvisation that swings and is syncopated, but it’s played in a regular major scale:
PLAY TRACK NINE (piano solo over a major scale)
Now I’m going play piano that includes “blue” notes:
PLAY TRACK TEN (piano solo over a blues scale)
Here the difference? Very often Jazz will include these blue notes that make not only the
melody, but the chords underneath the melody that sound more interesting.
So, we have improvisation, swing, syncopation and blue notes. We could talk about a
lot more, but that’s enough to help recognize jazz music when you hear it.
Let’s test our skills by playing a game called “Jazz or Not Jazz.” I’ll play a song, and you
tell me if this is jazz.
PLAY TRACK ELEVEN (“Take the A Train” by Duke Ellington)
Jazz or not Jazz? (JAZZ) Why? (see if the kids can use the words swing, syncopation
and blue notes, as this song certainly has all three)
Now let’s listen to another song.
PLAY TRACK TWELVE (“Steppin’ Out” by The Bluesbreakers)
Jazz or not Jazz? (NOT JAZZ – this is straight ahead rock blues)
PLAY TRACK THIRTEEN (“Freddie Freeloader” by Miles Davis)
Jazz or not jazz? (JAZZ – this is also blues, but done in a jazz style)
PLAY TRACK FOURTEEN (“My Favorite Things” by Julie Andrews)
Jazz or not Jazz? (NOT JAZZ) Why? It’s played very straight. No syncopation. No swing.
PLAY TRACK FIFTEEN (“My Favorite Things” by John Coltraine)
Jazz or not Jazz? (JAZZ) Did anyone recognize this song? It was the same as the
previous song, but this time done in a jazz style.
Here’s one more.
PLAY TRACK SIXTEEN (“I’ve Got Your Love to Keep Me Warm” by Ella Fitzgerald)
Jazz or not Jazz? (JAZZ)
Remember when I said you could use your voice to improvise? Well, the last person we
heard was the singer Ella Fitzgerald, and she was a great scat singer. Scat singing is
improvising with your voice, but without saying any words. Rappers can improvise using
actual words, which is a whole different skill. Scat singing is something all of you could do
with a little practice, though maybe not as well as Ella Fitzgerald.
PLAY TRACK SEVENTEEN (One Note Samba)
What did you think of that?
So now that we know a bit about what Jazz is, I’d like to give you just a little background on
the history of Jazz and play a few different types of Jazz. Not all jazz sounds the same,
just as with rock or pop or any other genre.
Jazz music evolved over time from a combination of different types of music, but it really
emerged in New Orleans around the turn of the last century. After slavery ended, African
Americans moved to the city and often found work as entertainers in bars, shows or small
marching bands. Over time, they were able to purchase instruments, but not necessarily
able to afford lessons. They experimented. Over time, music called ragtime developed and
Dixieland started, which eventually evolved into swing jazz.
Eventually Jazz spread to the north, including Chicago, where jazz greats like Louis
Armstrong played for a while.
Jazz ended up sounding very different over the decades. Just to give you a flavor for some
of the different jazz styles, I’d like to finish by playing three famous jazz songs, but from
different eras.
First, traditional jazz. Here is Louis Armstrong from way back in the 1920s
PLAY TRACK EIGHTEEN (Star Dust by Louis Armstrong)
Next big band swing. This is Benny Goodman from the late 30s
PLAY TRACK NINETEEN (Sing, Sing, Sing by Benny Goodman)
Finally, a song that some would call “cool” jazz. This is the Dave Brubeck Quartet with the
song, “Take Five” from 1959. This song is interesting because it has five beats to a
measure instead of three or four. See if you can count silently the five beats per measure.
PLAY TRACK TWENTY (Take Five, The Dave Brubeck Quartet)
Do any of you recognize that last song? It’s one of the best-selling jazz songs of all-time.
So that’s Jazz!