Lesson 1 - Prehistory of the Blues - 40 min

The first lesson will be a teacher led discussion of african-american history and music, since there is a fair bit to cover and it allows us to model what we expect of the students in the remaining lessons. We will start by explaining the layout and major expectations of the unit.

The Blues can trace their roots back to West Africa. There was a fellow called a Griot, who was a traveling minstrel, historian, and wise man. He played an instrument that resembled a modern banjo, and was revered for his talent and wisdom. In modern Africa, there are still a few rich families who have their own Griots. During slavery, many Griots were brought over to the Americas, where they sang songs that reflected their fear, misery and longing for their homeland.
Play for the Students some examples of Griot music: African Griots Live http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQMFN-whbEU Kora music from West African Griot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNl8kIwj1_k
Discuss the features of the music. Point out the call and response structure of this music. This is a pattern that was brought over from Sub-Saharan Africa where it's used in public gatherings, the discussion of civic affairs, religious rituals, as well as music.

Discuss with the students the experience of the slaves during slavery.
The slaves' traditional religions were suppressed and replaced by christianity. Christianities promise of a heavenly reward in the afterlife for the suffering of this world must have held a great appeal for the slaves. Negro spirituals were a way for them to express their hopes.
Play for the Students some Negro Sprituals: Soon I will be done http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKUMvRt4Uag and Amazing Grace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJg5Op5W7yw
Teach the children to sing "Sing Low, Sweet Chariot"

Discuss how in spite of the Civil war and emancipation, life for African-Americans did not improve.

Ragtime is another form of music that developed in this period. It developed during emancipation where self-taught negro musician learned to play European dance and march tunes, and added a distictly African influence with the addition of polyrhythms and syncopation.
Have the students clap out a 2-3 polyrhythm as an example. Play an excerpt from "The Sting" as an example of ragtime, or The Wagon http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Gordon/sideBbandB4.html this recording made in 1925 is the first ragtime ever recorded.

Assessment

Have the students start building a word wall to chart what they've learned of history and the music of the times. They will start writing their listening log where they will map the the influences and structure of the music. They will be assessed on participation and the ability to sing together and in tune for the singing portion.

Historical Background

1619 - 1861 Slavery
1861 - 1865 The Civil War
1865 - 1877 Reconstruction
1865 - 13th Amendment abolished slavery
1868 - 14th Amendment granted equal rights under the law
1870 - 15ht Amendment prohibited states from preventing citizens from voting
rise of white southern paramilitary organizations the opposed these measures using terror and murder - slaves were a significant portion of population of the south, so granting them the right to vote means a major power shift.
1877 - 1900 The Gilded Age
Share cropping, Ku Klux Klan, 1896 supreme court reversed 14th & 15th amendment, rising industrial power.
It is thought that the an early form of the blues came into being during this era with the rise of individualism. It carried forward the call and response pattern with the response being taken up by guitar or harmonica. The earliest forms were thought to be one line repeated 4 times. This gave over to the now standard one line repeated once, followed by a concluding line.

Resources

www.wikipedia.com
www.youtube.com
http://www.livinblues.com/roots.asp

1900 - 1940 Lesson 1

Remind them that they will be presenting a blues song of their own composition as well as a brief presentation on their historical period in two classes.
Lay out the major periods in pre-war American history for the students (The Progressive Age, Roaring 20's, Dirty 30s).
Have them break into groups and research one of these periods each.
Play selections from country and urban blues, as well as dixieland jazz and swing bands, in chronological order.
Have the children learn to sing Handy's "Memphis Blues" (1912) from sheet music.

Assessment

The children will continue to write in their listening log. Remind them to leave room to take notes when they do class presentations. Circulate among the students as they work in groups and help as needed, take anecdotal notes.

Historical Notes

1900 - 1912 Progressive Age
1909 - NAACP formed
1916 - 1930 The great migration and Harlem renaissance
also south side of Chicago became a major destination.
1912 - 1918 WWI
1920 - 1930 Prohibition, Post War boom
1929 - 1940 Great Depression

Blues

First popularized in 1911 - 1914 by the black composer W.C. Handy (1873-1958).
Became a craze in the '20s. Blues influence on jazz brought it into the mainstream, and allowed Bessie Smith and Billy Holiday in the 30's to become big stars
Memphis' best blues artist lfet the city when "Boss" Crump shut down Beale Street to stop the prostitution, gambling, and cocaine trades Blues migrated to Chicago, where it became electrified, and Detroit.
Developed into a 12-bar style, featuring the flatted third, fifth and seventh of the associated major scale. These specialized notes are called the blue or bent notes.

Jazz

Jazz is hard to define because it spans the gamete from 19th C ragtime waltzes to modern fusion. The style's West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, and the swung note. One of the key elements are improvisation.
1910s Dixieland Jazz, performers took turns playing the melody while the other musicians improvised a counter melody. 1930's and and 1940's swing bands, however, relied more on set arrangements
During prohibition, jazz bands became very popular in the illegal speakeasies.

Resources

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ftvhtml/ftvhome.html - Now What a Time - Blues and Gospel from the Fort valley music festivals 1938-1943
www.wikipedia.com
www.youtube.com

1900 - 1940 Lesson 2

Overall Expectations

• Identify and perform music from various cultures and historical periods.
• Communicate their understanding and knowledge of music in appropriate ways.

Specific Expectations

• create musical compositions that make use of elements of music studied in this grade, write them in standard notation, and perform them.
• Describe some aspects of the historical context of music that they sing, play, or listen to

Development

Introduction - 5 min

Remind students of the upcoming lessons and expectations.

Body - 35 min

Have the children re-form the groups from yesterday and compose an "authentic" blues song, based on the what they've learned of history of their period. They should also prepare a short presentation on the history of their period.

Assessment

The teacher will circulate and monitor the progress of the groups work and offer help where necessary. Anecdotal notes should be taken.

Materiel

Musical score paper, whatever art supplies the students may want for their presentation, or access to a computer and presentation software.

Assessment

Circulate among the groups and offer formative assessment and take anecdotal notes. Formal assessment will occur during the presentation in the next lesson.

Remediation

They may use any classic 12-bar blues song as their melody. Appropriate blues songs will be made available.

Enrichment

Students who show particular ability can add embellishment appropriate for the period they are working on, for example, boogie-woogie or urban blues. They may then accompany the performance using whatever instruments they choose.

1900 - 1940 Lesson 3

Overall Expectations

• Identify and perform music from various cultures and historical periods.
• Communicate their understanding and knowledge of music in appropriate ways.

Specific Expectations

• create musical compositions that make use of elements of music studied in this grade, write them in standard notation, and perform them.
• Describe some aspects of the historical context of music that they sing, play, or listen to

Materiel

Development

Introduction - 5 min

Remind students of the upcoming lessons and expectations.

Body - 35 min

Have the children re-form the groups from yesterday and deliver their presentations and performances

Conclusion - 10 min

As a class, add to the word wall based on what we've learned.

Assessment

The presentations will be assessed based on the attached rubric.

Remediation

None

Enrichment

None.

1940 - 1960

The students will research the history of the era while chronologically listening to music of the era. The students will break into groups create venn diagrams to compare and contrast how the music of the era reflects the zeitgeist of the times. Each group can select one type of music. We will continue to build our word wall and update our chronological listening log.

Assessment

Students will be evaluated on their venn diagrams and listening logs

Historical Background

1940 - 1945 WWII
1945 - 1960 Post War Boom, Red Scare, MAD
1955 - 1960 Civil Rights Movement

Rhythm & Blues

Was the new name for "race music" coined in 1948 by Billboard Magazine. It covered all black music except classical and gospel.
Partly based on boogie-woogie rhythms of '40s.
Exemplars
Wynonie Harris' "Good Rockin' Tonight", Sonny Thompson's "Long Gone", Chuck Berry's "Maybellene".
Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Big Joe Turner, The Treniers, The Platters, The Flamigos, all made it onto the big screen in the '50s
Two Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock"/"Treat Me Nice" and "All Shook Up" showed an unprecedented acceptance of a non-African American artist into a music category known for being created by blacks.

Rock & Roll

In 1951, DJ Alan Freed started calling the rhythm & blues he played "Rock and Roll".
Like Rhythm & Blues, Rock & Roll is a big bag of various styles, and tends to be a synonym for popular music. Its immediate origins lay in a mixing together of various popular musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues, gospel music, and country and western.
popularity of the electric guitar, a rock and roll style of playing, recording technology such as multitrack recording, and the electronic treatment of sound.

rock and roll influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language. In addition, rock and roll may have helped the cause of the civil rights movement because both African American teens and white American teens enjoyed the music.

Blues

In Chicago and Detroit, Mississippi Delta blues became electrified by Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, and Elmore James among others. They were backed by bass, drums, piano and occasionally harmonica, and began scoring national hits with blues songs. At about the same time, T-Bone Walker in Houston and B.B. King in Memphis were pioneering a style of guitar playing that combined jazz technique with the blues tonality and repertoire. B.B. King also invented the concept of lead guitar, now standard in today's Rock bands. Bukka White (cousin to B.B. King), Leadbelly, and Son House, left Country Blues to create the sounds most of us think of today as traditional unamplified Blues.

Resources

All info from www.wikipedia.com

1960 - 1970

The students will research the history of the era while chronologically listening to music of the era. The students will break into groups create venn diagrams to compare and contrast how the music of the era reflects the zeitgeist of the times. Each group can select one type of music. We will continue to build our word wall and update our chronological listening log.

Assessment

Students will be evaluated on their venn diagrams and listening logs

Historical Context

1959 - 1975 Vietnam, peak deployment 1965 - 1968
1955 - 1968 African-American Civil Rights Movement
massive resistance, freedom marches, Brown vs the Board of Education.
death of Martin Luther King in April of 1968
1964 - 1970 Counterculture, Hippies, Free Love, Woodstock
Increasing economic power among Blacks,

Blues and Rock & Roll

urban bluesmen "discovered" by young white American and European musicians. Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Canned Heat, and Fleetwood Mac brought blues to white audiences.
Exemplar - early 60's Sam Cooke‘s "Chain Gang", Chubby Checker's "The Twist".
In the early 60's rock and roll devolved into teen idols, dance crazes, and lightweight teenage pop music.

Soul

1959 - birth of motown records
early 1960s rhythm and blues was now being called soul music.
Soul music roots in gospel music and rhythm and blues. created in northern inner cities, particularly Chicago. Detroit and Memphis quickly followed, creating their own soul music styles.
Exemplars
Ray Charles "I Got A Woman", as well as Little Richard, Fats Domino and James Brown. Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me", "Just Out of Reach" and "Down in the Valley".
Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)", "Respect" (originally sung by Otis Redding), and "Do Right Woman-Do Right Man", apogee of soul

Funk

Originated in mid- to late-1960s
blended soul music, soul jazz and R&B
Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony
complex groove with instruments such as electric guitar, electric bass, Hammond organ, and drums playing interlocking rhythms.
extended vamp on a single chord.
horn section plays rhythmic "hits".
"slap bass technique." mixture of thumb-slapped low notes and finger "popped" high notes allowed the bass to have a drum-like rhythmic role, a distinctive element of funk.

James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Curtis Mayfield, The Meters, The Funk Brothers, Bootsy Collins, and Prince.

mid-1960s, James Brown developed his signature groove that emphasized the downbeat starting with his 1964 hit single, "Out of Sight" and his 1965 hit, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag."

"Cold Sweat" (1967), "Mother Popcorn" (1969) and "Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine" (1970),

Resources

All info from www.wikipedia.com

The students will individually pick a period of time and write a paper describing how the music of the African-American community reflected the zeitgeist of the times, and its influence on culture, if any. They will be given 2 lessons in class to work on this paper. Since they have been creating the word wall and their journals, this should be an easy assignment.

Assessment will be based on a rubric and reflect their understanding of the interaction between music and culture.

Blues

Alabama Blues Project - education http://www.alabamablues.org/educationprograms.htm How to play Blues Harmonica http://www.bluesharp.ca/lessons/harmonica_lessons.html A short History of the Blues http://www.history-of-rock.com/blues.htm A lesson plan for Blues (at the bottom) http://www.teachersnetwork.org/TeachNet/arts.cfm Music of cultures and countries - http://www.sbgmusic.com/html/teacher/reference/cultures.html

Spiritual Music

http://www.negrospirituals.com/ old negro siritual Soon I will be done http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKUMvRt4Uag

Mahalia Jackson - Amazing Grace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJg5Op5W7yw

Follow the drinking gourd - http://www.followthedrinkinggourd.org/ supposedly encodes the map to freedom from memphis up the ohio river

Griot Music

African Griots Live http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQMFN-whbEU

Kora music from West African Griot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNl8kIwj1_k

Fanna Soro building a bellophon http://www.bctf.ca/GlobalEd/music/yamo2.html and playing it http://www.bctf.ca/GlobalEd/music/balaphon56.html