Year 8 investigation: Blues & Jazz Music
1. Investigating Blues Music
Using information from the following websites to answer the following questions
Bitesize
Jazz
1. Where did blues music come from?
2. Why did it play such an important role for African Slaves?
The best way to complete this sheet is
on the computer. Then you can email it
straight to your teacher without having
to print it.
Remember it is extremely important
to write in your own words—do not
copy and paste!
2.
Investigating your chosen piece
Choose a piece of Blues music – it can be anything as long as you like it! Listen to it as many times as you need, and fill in the analysis
below.
Describe the texture of the music: (underline your answer)
Title of piece:
Title of piece:
MONOPHONIC
Composer/performer:
Composer/performer:
Only one part, no backing
What instruments can you hear? (write a list)
What instruments can you hear? (write a list)
POLYPHONIC
HOMOPHONIC
Lots of different things
going on
Chords: harmony moving
together
List some features particular to the blues style of the music? (i.e.
syncopated rhythms, blue notes)
To which families of instruments do they belong? (underline any that apply)
TRINGS families of
BRASS
OODWIND
PERCUSSION
ToSwhich
instrumentsW
do
they belong? (underline
any that apply)
BRASS
AreSTRINGS
there any voices?
Describe what the lyrics are about in this piece.
WOODWIND
YES/NO PERCUSSION
If YES, what sort of voices are they?
AreMthere
any voices?
ALE
FEMALE
YES/NO
HIGH
LOW
If YES, what sort of voices are they?
Describe the dynamics of the music—what happens when?
MALE
FEMALE
HIGH
LOW
Describe the dynamics of the music—what happens when?
Describe the texture of the music:
MONOPHONIC
Only one part, no backing
POLYPHONIC
Lots of different things
going on
HOMOPHONIC
Chords: harmony moving
together
It is REALLY important that you LOOK UP any words
that you don’t understand from this page!
‘I didn’t know what it meant’ is not an excuse for
missing out questions!
3.
Investigating some specific instruments
Fill in the grid below to answer the questions about these instruments. You may have to research online to find out some of these details!
There is an example for you to follow.
Instrument
Saxophone
Double Bass
Hammond Organ
Trumpet
Famous
Performers
How the sound is made
Additional interesting
information
4.
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Create an extended piece of work about Blues Music.
You can choose how you do this:
 A piece of extended writing (word document) - this should be
over 1000 words
 A podcast (i.e. audio recording)
 A video
 A powerpoint (minimum 8 slides, include diagrams, pictures and
hyperlinks)
 A detailed mindmap or infographic (for more info on how to do
this, visit http://www.mind-mapping.co.uk/make-mindmap.htm, http://www.easel.ly/ or http://infogr.am/ )
You should include:
 The
background and history of the genre
 How Blues music influenced other music genres
including jazz and rock
 Information on some famous pieces of blues
music
 Information about a blues performer
Recommended
websites to find
more info:
Wikipedia
Jazz
Subject-specific
words that
can/should be
used:
Pitch
Melody
Rhythm
Timbre
Harmony
Dynamics
12 Bar Blues
Blue Notes
Chords
Vamp
Improvisation
Horn section