Myths about teaching can hold you back
- Year 6
Creating and performing an improvised jazz piece
I can structure, rehearse and perform a stylistic improvised jazz piece as part of an ensemble.
- Year 6
Creating and performing an improvised jazz piece
I can structure, rehearse and perform a stylistic improvised jazz piece as part of an ensemble.
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Lesson details
Key learning points
- Jazz music is often structured like a musical sandwich.
- The head opens and closes the piece, with improvisations in the middle.
- Bars in 4-time can be counted as 1 2 3 4, 2 2 3 4, 3 2 3 4, 4 2 3 4 ...
- Improvisation is creative, in-the-moment musical composition.
- However, there are many parts to an improvised performance that can be rehearsed.
Keywords
Structure - the way the music is organised, 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 jazz music
Bar - a measure of musical time with a set number of beats (e.g. 4 beats in 4-time)
Common misconception
Improvised music has no structure.
Jazz pieces are heavily structured around chord sequences, the head and order of improvisatons.
To help you plan your year 6 music lesson on: Creating and performing an improvised jazz piece, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 6 music lesson on: Creating and performing an improvised jazz piece, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 music lessons from the Compose and rehearse: improvising with the minor pentatonic scale unit, dive into the full primary music curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
Claves - four per ensemble. Unpitched percussion - two per ensemble. Pitched percussion - two per ensemble minimum (C, D, F, G, A, C', D').
Licence
Lesson video
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