Classics for Kids | Teachers: Lesson Plans

William Grant Still: "Afro-American Symphony"

Twelve Bar Blues Lesson Plans: K-1

Lesson 1. What Is a Bar? Counting in sets of fours

Meets National Standards for Music Education: 6

Objectives
Students will be able to put objects in sets of fours and use them to count measures.

Materials
32 squares of red construction paper (8 sets of 4)
12 triangles of yellow construction paper (3 sets of 4)
4 circles of green construction paper
Recording of Still's "Afro-American Symphony"

Introduction Activity
Have the music playing while the students enter the room. As they are getting situated, begin to pat the beat to the music. They students will naturally follow you. Once you have their attention - begin to switch the pattern in sets of eight. Move this into an echo game in sets of four beats. (You tap your knees four times - they tap their knees four times.) The students are feeling the music in sets of four without being "taught" about measures or counting. It's a natural progression. Then, move into the lesson of grouping objects into sets of fours.

1. Have the students sort the objects into groups - squares, circles and triangles.

2. Have them put the shapes into sets of fours. You might want to have students come to the front and choose four shapes and you can them put them on the board or wall in a grouping. First put them vertically:

3. Have the students count them out - using motions connected with each shape:

Lesson 2. What is a measure? Horizontal reading

Meets National Standards for Music Education: 2,5,6

Objectives
Students will be able to read the measures and do the movements that coordinate with the twelve bar blues pattern.

Information for the teacher:
"The Blues" excerpted from the 6-8th grade lesson plans

A. How to make music sound "American"

Explain that Still (like, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, e.g.) sought material and style that would make music truly "American" in sound
Spirituals and Blues in America after the Civil War mixed with ragtime and European "classical" music to create JAZZ
Jazz may be our only "original" style of music in America

B. Still gained inspiration from the Blues

If your students understand what spirituals are, you may tell them that Still thought even these songs often "exhibit the influence of Caucasian music." He wanted to find something with unique African roots that had retained its purity or ownership by Black Americans.
Still saw musical value in the Blues and even said, "I wanted to demonstrate how the Blues, so often considered a lowly expression, could be elevated to the highest musical level [the symphony]."

C. What are "The Blues?"

(Information taken from The New Harvard Dictionary of Music) Blues began as an "emotive tool" to express the hardships of life in America for people from Africa. Around the turn of the 20th century, Blues refers both to the poetry of these troubles and the setting of the poetry to music.
Although Blues speaks of troubles, some musicians and appreciators of Blues music will tell you that the Blues makes them feel better about their own hardships. Some find the outpouring therapeutic; others say that the hearing the Blues makes them feel that they are not alone, and therefore, uplifted.
In America, in the early 1900s, one also finds "country blues" in the Mississippi delta and East Texas. Students might connect these to modern "country music."
Blues music of black Americans traditionally follows a 12-bar standard form and progression: I-I-I-I | IV-IV-I-I | V-IV-I-I. However, the progression is flexible (lowering the 7th scale degree in bar four, e.g.)

Materials
Aebersold series Volume 44, "Blues in all Keys"

Jamey Aebersold's products can be ordered from: P.O. Box 1244C; New Albany, IN 47151-1244; 1-800-456-1388

Worksheet 1 for lesson 2
12-Bar Blues Worksheet
Unpitched classroom rhythm instruments

1. Explain to the students that they are now creating their own music—they are composers! They are also reading music by following the shapes. Explain that composers cannot write everything in a vertical line so they use bar lines to separate the measures.

You may want to use the classroom shapes and recreate the worksheet on the board or wall.
Follow the shapes that are now set horizontally in two measure sets

2. That's too easy. Let's set up a special pattern called "the twelve bar blues."

One bar is the same as four shapes or four beats. (you have 48 shapes total)
Using the 12-Bar Blues Worksheet as a guide - set up the shapes in the front of the classroom.

3. Add music - Aebersold series Volume 44, "Blues in all Keys". (You may also use another recording of a blues song). "Blues in all keys" is chosen here because it is a jazz rhythm section - but it does not have vocals. It also can later be used so the students can play the twelve bar blues on Orff instruments or other pitched instruments. Students enjoy playing along with a jazz rhythm section. It helps them get the feel of the music.

4. Add unpitched classroom instruments in place of the movements

Lesson 3. Listening for the blues

Meets National Standards for Music Education: 6,7,9

Objective
Students will be able to identify the twelve bar blues in a recording of William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony.

Materials
12-Bar Blues Worksheet - one per student or group of students
William Grant Still Biography
Blues lesson websites
Aebersold series Volume 44, "Blues in all Keys"

Jamey Aebersold's products can be ordered from: P.O. Box 1244C; New Albany, IN 47151-1244; 1-800-456-1388

1. Review the twelve bar blues pattern using class initiated movements and the recording of the blues.

2. Have the students sit and ready themselves to listen for the Twelve Bar Blues in songs. You can use your own recordings of the blues or connect into the PBS website which has recordings of blues.

3. Discuss the differences in these pieces.

4. Play the first movement of William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony. The theme of this movement is an original 12-bar blues, which is first played by the English horn.

5. Discuss how WG Still used the blues style in his classical work.

6. Read William Grant Still's Biography to the students and discuss how many different styles of music were involved in his life.

Lesson 4. Music Around Us

Meets National Standards for Music Education: 8,9

Objective
Students will discuss the influences around WG Still and will compare their own musical influences to his.

Materials
William Grant Still Biography
Musical Influences on WGS worksheet | Answer Key
Musical Influences on Student worksheet

1. Read William Grant Still's Biography.

2. Discuss the various influences of music on his life.

Use Musical Influences on WGS worksheet | Answer Key

3. Discuss the musical influences of today.

Where do you hear music?
What effect does music have on you?
Do any family members play music or sing?
Do you have a talent for an instrument?

4. Have the students take home the musical influences worksheet and have them write down the music they hear or influences they have in their life, i.e.: