This is a website that uses videos and games to teach students about jazz and instrument identification. Is definitely geared toward younger students, probably in a general music setting. However, I could see it being used with middle school jazz band students as well.
This site offers a 10 part series of 75 interviews and over 500 pieces of music on the growth and development of jazz. Begins in the New Orleans and takes the viewer through to Lincoln Gardens, Southside Chicago.
Jazz is one of the greatest things Americans will be remembered for? That is a pretty weighty statement/
Jazz has offered a precise prism through which so much of American history can be seen — it is a curious and unusually objective witness to the 20th Century. It is the story of two world wars and a devastating Depression — the soundtrack that helped Americans get through the worst of times.
nd Jazz is also a story about race and race relations and prejudice, about minstrelsy and Jim Crow, lynchings and civil rights. Jazz explores the uniquely American paradox that our greatest art form was created by those who have had the peculiar experience of being unfree in our supposedly free land
In a filmed interview for a documentary history of our national pastime we made several years ago, the writer and essayist Gerald Early told us that "when they study our civilization two thousand years from now, there will only be three things that Americans will be known for: the Constitution, baseball and jazz music
"Composition is slowed down improvisation," and both disciplines deal with the same challenge — how to organize and present ideas in a coherent fashion.
One of the most common misconceptions about jazz is that it is spun out of the air in a totally impromptu manner. This notion exists because many small jazz groups do not read music when they play. The truth of the matter is that what those musicians are actually doing is spontaneously creating a very sophisticated form of theme and variations
The framework is flexible so that the soloists may shorten or lengthen their improvisations depending on the inspiration of the moment. The other players, then, have a responsibility to react to what has preceded them
To many, composed music and improvised music seem to be opposites, but in jazz, they merge in a unique fashion.
But improvisation is not the be all and end all of jazz. Composers such as Duke Ellington and Eddie Sauter wrote, on occasion, jazz compositions practically devoid of improvisation. But the real challenge comes when a composer integrates improvisation into a
Complete units for music classes that talk of the history behind many aspects of the music industry. Units include music technology as well as music genres and how they started. Lesson plans have links to all necessary handouts, videos and pictures.
This is a wonderful, interactive website appropriate for grade levels Kindergarten through 5th grade, with "Jam Sessions" on various genres in music. It uses videos and interactive games to teach students about the instruments, rhythms, and lyrics often used in that particular genre. Genres include hip-hop, country, salsa, reggae, jazz, blues, classical, and rock and roll.
Chuck Vanderchuck is a fantastic resource for teaching students about different genres found in music (not just classical!). Kids love the different sounds that genre-based instruments make, fun catch phrases that Chuck repeats throughout the site, and different historical facts about how each genre originated. Students are invited to move to music, arrange their own combos with different instruments, and engage in memory games to help them learn the content provided.