Lesson video

Hi everyone.

It's me again, Mrs. Steele, and I'm really excited to be guiding you through another music lesson today.

In today's lesson, we're going to be putting together all of our learning from this unit and creating and performing an improvised jazz piece.

But before we begin, there's a listening example that doesn't feature in today's video.

So if you haven't already, you'll need to take a moment to find that listening example now.

There's a teacher guidance slide at the beginning of the slide deck to help you with this.

Press pause to find that listening example now if you need to.

Okay, here we go.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to structure, rehearse and perform a stylistic, improvised jazz piece as part of an ensemble.

Here are the key words that we'll need in our learning today.

Structure, the way the music is organized, ordering different sections of a piece.

Solo, a piece or section of a piece performed by a single performer.

Improvise, to create music in the moment, using the voice or instruments alone or with others.

Head, a term for the main melody or theme in a jazz piece.

And bar, a measure of musical time with a set number of beats.

For example, four beats in 4-time.

We know how important it is to warm up our voices, minds, and bodies before every music lesson to make sure that we can sing safely and develop our vocal strength.

Structure your whole body, breathing, and voice warm-ups so that you are ready for music making.

Now, let's join in with these warm-ups to develop our sense of pulse and our ensemble work.

We're going to need both of those today.

First up, it's H.

E.

L.

L.

O.

Here comes the video.

Join in.

♪ H-E-L-L-O ♪ ♪ This is how we say hello ♪ ♪ March your feet to the beat ♪ ♪ Can you feel your heart beat ♪ ♪ H-E-L-L-O ♪ ♪ This is how we say hello ♪ ♪ March your feet to the beat ♪ ♪ Can you feel your heart beat ♪ ♪ H-E-L-L-O ♪ ♪ This is how we say hello ♪ ♪ March your feet to the beat ♪ ♪ Can you feel your heart beat ♪ ♪ This is how we say hello ♪ ♪ March your feet to the beat ♪ ♪ Can you feel your heart beat ♪ <v ->Now, here's "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?"</v> Here comes the video to remind you how it goes.

Then press pause to play it where you are.

♪ Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar ♪ ♪ Alex stole the cookie from the cookie jar ♪ ♪ Who, me ♪ ♪ Yes, you ♪ ♪ Couldn't have been ♪ ♪ Then who ♪ ♪ Lucas stole the cookie from the cookie jar ♪ ♪ Who, me ♪ ♪ Yes, you ♪ ♪ Couldn't have been ♪ ♪ Then who ♪ ♪ Jacob stole the cookie from the cookie jar ♪ ♪ Who, me ♪ ♪ Yes, you ♪ ♪ Couldn't have been ♪ ♪ Then who ♪ ♪ Andeep stole the cookie from the cookie jar ♪ ♪ Who, me ♪ ♪ Yes, you ♪ ♪ Couldn't have been ♪ ♪ Then who ♪ ♪ Izzy stole the cookie from ♪ <v ->And finally join in with "Bate Bate Chocolate".

</v> Here's the music for you.

(upbeat percussion music) ♪ Uno, dos, tres cho ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres co ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres la ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres te ♪ ♪ Bate bate chocolate ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres cho ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres co ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres la ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres te ♪ ♪ Bate bate chocolate ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres cho ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres co ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres la ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres te ♪ ♪ Bate bate chocolate ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres cho ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres co ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres la ♪ ♪ Uno, dos, tres te ♪ ♪ Bate bate chocolate ♪ (upbeat percussion music) <v ->Are you ready for music?</v> Have you got a relaxed singing posture? And does your voice feel warm and ready? Great.

Let's get started.

We're going to begin by learning more about structuring a jazz piece.

Let's return to our listening example, the jazz standard "Sonnymoon for Two" by saxophonist Sonny Rollins.

This time we're going to listen to the ending.

After all the solo improvisations, the head returns and is repeated six times.

Press pause to find and listen to the end of this listening example.

The structure of this jazz standard is like a musical sandwich.

We start with the head repeated six times.

Then the middle or the filling of our sandwich is improvisations from the saxophone, trombone, piano, double bass, and saxophone again.

And then for our bread on the top, we've got the head again, repeated six times.

We can use this structure to perform our minor pentatonic jazz piece too.

We'll start with the head played once through then our improvisations in the middle, six soloists improvising for four bars each, and then the head once through again.

Let's remind ourselves of our piece, five notes in a pentatonic.

Join in and clap on the offbeats as you sing.

Here's the music.

♪ Five notes in a pentatonic ♪ ♪ We go up and we go down ♪ ♪ Five notes in a pentatonic ♪ ♪ What a pattern we have found ♪ ♪ We can improvise, make our own tunes ♪ ♪ We can play what we want ♪ ♪ Starting at the bottom then we move up to the top ♪ ♪ And hear the notes become the same as before ♪ ♪ Five notes in a pentatonic ♪ ♪ We go up and we go down ♪ ♪ Five notes in a pentatonic ♪ ♪ What a pattern we have found ♪ <v ->In the middle of our musical sandwich,</v> each soloist's improvisation will last for four bars.

And in 4-time, four bars is 16 beats.

To keep track of where we are, we count in bar numbers like this.

1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2, 3, 4.

That means we can get all the way to the end of 16 beats without losing track of where we are.

Let's practice that with the backing track of "Five Notes in a Pentatonic".

First up, sing the head, then count the beats and the bars as you move between the actions you can see on the screen here.

Hold each action for four bars, 16 beats.

Then start your count again.

Then we're going to finish by singing the head again at the end.

Here comes the backing track.

Get ready.

("Five Notes in a Pentatonic" backtrack plays) ("Five Notes in a Pentatonic" backtrack continues playing) ("Five Notes in a Pentatonic" backtrack continues playing) ("Five Notes in a Pentatonic" backtrack continues playing) ("Five Notes in a Pentatonic" backtrack continues playing) ("Five Notes in a Pentatonic" backtrack continues playing) ("Five Notes in a Pentatonic" backtrack continues playing) ("Five Notes in a Pentatonic" backtrack continues playing) ("Five Notes in a Pentatonic" backtrack continues playing) Now form groups of six to create a new ensemble.

First up, you need to decide on who performs what for your head.

Two of you are going to play the melody of the head, two will play the rhythm of the head, and two will play on the offbeats, beats 2 and 4.

Then you need to decide on the order of your soloists.

Make sure that your first and last soloists are those who play the melody in the head as they are already be prepared with their instruments.

Let's take a look at how you might plan this together.

In your new ensemble groups, complete this plan so you know the structure of your performance.

I'll leave an example on the screen for you to look at while you do this.

Here's an example plan.

Now it's time to press pause and complete that plan with your ensemble of six.

Now that we've made lots of important decisions, let's move on to learning about performing as part of a jazz ensemble.

First, we'll need to spend some time rehearsing the head because we are going to need to all be able to play this confidently and accurately and all at the same time as an ensemble.

Before you start your rehearsal, let's think about some of the effective ways to rehearse together.

Try playing the head at a slow tempo first, then play it at a fast tempo before you choose your final tempo, which will probably be somewhere in the middle.

Choose one person to not play.

This person has an important job.

They need to listen to the others and give feedback to improve everybody's performance.

Focus on the trickiest parts of the head and practice the tricky parts first.

Try different way to rehearse, all sing the note names or clap the rhythms together.

And you need to decide on a signal or count in for starting so you all know when to begin and at what tempo.

And finally, try sitting or standing in different layouts to experiment with what works best for this piece and why? It's time for you to rehearse the head in your six-piece ensemble now.

Make sure that you all agree on a tempo.

Check that you can all start at the same time, so count yourselves in to do that and make sure that you can all play the notes and rhythms accurately.

You need to try to create a balanced sound too, with no parts too loud or too quiet.

Work together as an ensemble to achieve this.

And when you are ready, you can play alongside the supporting track.

Press pause to rehearse the head in your six-piece ensemble, and then try playing it with the backing track whenever you are ready.

Now that you and your ensemble have mastered playing the head, it's time to rehearse the structure of your improvisations.

This part is tricky and there are a few things that you'll need to know.

You need to know to only use the notes of the D minor pentatonic scale.

That's D, F, G, A and C, nothing else.

You also need to know how long four bars or 16 beats is, and what your individual improvisation might feel and sound like within that space.

You need to know when it's your turn to improvise, and you need to know when it's time to return to the head.

It's time to take turns to improvise.

As one performer is improvising, the other ensemble members can gently whisper the counts so they know when their improvisation is coming to an end.

So one person's going to play their improvisation and everybody else will whisper 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2, 3, 4.

And then that person's improvisation comes to an end.

Press pause to try that with or without the backing track, whichever is more useful for you.

Let's give your piece a title and your ensemble a name.

I wonder what you'll choose.

Then perform your piece to an audience.

This could be to your class, during assembly time, or to your wider school community.

Use the backing track to accompany your playing.

Good luck, happy performing.

How did your performance go? I wish I could have heard it.

After we've performed something, it's always a good idea to carefully and critically appraise and evaluate your performance or the performance of others.

Press pause to evaluate your performance and share your thoughts about the other performances that you heard.

You can use these sentence starters on the screen to help you to make sure that your feedback is specific and carefully considered.

Then it will be really helpful the next time you play.

Press pause to consider your performance and to critically appraise others.

We've come to the end of our lesson together today and the end of this unit.

So let's take a moment to think about everything that we've been learning about creating and performing an improvised jazz piece.

We know that jazz music is often structured like a musical sandwich with the head opening and closing the piece and improvisations in the middle.

We know that bars in 4-time can be counted as 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 3, 4, 4, 2, 3, 4 to help us keep track of where we are.

And we know that improvisation is created in-the-moment musical composition.

However, there are many parts to an improvised performance that can be rehearsed just as we've done today.

Thanks so much everyone.

I've really enjoyed guiding you through this lesson and through this unit.

And I'm looking forward to seeing you again soon for another music lesson.

Bye everyone!.