MUE 6080 Module 6: Creative Activities in Middle School and High School Band

Jazz band is still a new concept at my school. Currently the jazz band has full instrumentation for the first time in its three year existence. It is made up of grades 6^th through 12^th and we meet once a week after school. There are a few creative activities that we already do, but there are also more that I would like to try. For example, we begin every class by warming up with the B flat blues scale. Since improvisation is such a foreign concept to them right now I encourage students to find a new way for us to use the blues scale to warm up. We begin by playing swung eighth notes with 4 counts for each note and continue to reduce the amount of beats each note receives until we are playing one eighth note per pitch. Next the students make suggestions to add some variety to the scale. Previous suggestions have included playing it in “thirds”, were we play the root followed by the 4^th, then the flat third followed by the sharp 4^th, and so on. The only other creative activity that we do in jazz band currently is improvising while trading two measure phrases using a melodic line found somewhere in the piece. It is way too overwhelming to say “ok student, improvise totally on your own for 12 bars.” By reducing it down to 2 measure phrases and requiring them to use previously learned material, the idea of improvising seems much more attainable. Additionally, I encourage them to repeat what I play that way they don’t feel the need to focus on the music as much and begin to trust their ear.

A creative activity that I think would strongly benefit several students in jazz band would be to transcribe a short jazz solo. This would really get the students using their ears while also learning new patterns or licks that sound good on their instruments. So much of improvisation success comes from being properly trained and proper training usually comes from a variety of activities. One last activity that I would like to try with the jazz band students is for them to take a melody and rewrite it by using the techniques of ornamentation and reinvention. This is a pretty basic concept but one that I was recently retaught at our state’s music educators conference in a session by Mike Steinel from North Texas. I plan to provide students each a different 4 bar melody for them to rework twice; once with ornamentation and once with reinvention. The following is a picture from the materials from the conference session.

In 6^th grade beginning band I sometimes play the call and response game with the class. I play a melody using the first 5 notes of concert B flat scale and they repeat it back. It usually takes about 3 attempts before the majority of the class feels comfortable with the melody. After the class is in a comfortable groove I ask for student volunteers to make up a melody. Lastly, students in the combined 7^th and 8^th grade band and in the high school band like to “jam” on the piano. While one or two of them know enough about the piano and the internet to be able to play something recognizable, most students do not. To help guide the students I could teach them the most popular chord progression in popular music (I, V, vi, vi) in the key of C. From there they could learn how to transpose the chords to a desired key for a new song.