7 Improvisation Experiences for Young Children

I was looking through one of my old issues of Jazzed magazine and came across a short article for piano teachers and those wanting to help children play the piano better. Specifically, it's on the subject of improvising. I thought I'd share it with you and maybe you'll find some treasures in it, hopefully.

7 Improvisation Experiences for Young Children 

      by Dr. Daria S. Hanley

One of the new components of JEN is our focus on jazz for K-8 musicians. Our intent is to offer sessions at each conference designed to show how to engage young children with jazz music. We have already started putting K-8 educational materials and information on the Jen website. My expertise as a music teacher and music education professor leads me to offer the following activities to try with young children that teach them the fundamentals of improvisation.

1. Replace the Phrase

 

Ask children to create scat syllables to replace a phrase in a familiar song. Example: Have them sing Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho in a swing style and ask individual children to replace the "and the walls came tumbling down" phrase with scat. Ask children to sing Joshua on neutral syllables such as "doo" "bah" and "doot" instead of using lyrics and invite them to add their scat phrases.

2. Call-and-Response Conversations

 

Ask children to create cell phones using cardboard, Styrofoam, tin cans, or other arts and crafts materials. Have them form partners and "talk" to each other using scat syllables. Ask the child who is responding to listen to the sounds his.her partner is making and incorporate some of the same sounds (or similar) sounds in the response. Repeat asking children to converse over a blues progression.

3. Diamond Follow the Leader

 

Ask children to create 4-beat rhythm patterns with body percussion, instruments, found sounds, movement, etc. for others to imitate along with a track such as Rockit (Herbie Hancock) or My Baby Just Cares for Me (Nina Simone). Have them form groups of 4 and ask them to stand in a "diamond" formation. Identify the first leader and have him/her create patterns until you call "switch" where everyone turns to the right and a new leader begins.

4. Make a Chain

 

Provide a 4-beat rhythm pattern as the prompts for this improvisation. Distribute a variety of rhythm instruments and ask children to form a circle. Invite them to perform this 4-beat rhythm pattern on their instrument. Establish a steady pulse on a hand drum. Ask individual children (one at a time around the circle) to create their own 4-beat pattern to add to the chain starting from the top each time so all patterns repeat in preparation for the next/new one.

5. Improvisation Needs Vocabulary

 

List music vocabulary words (dynamics, tempi, rhythm instrument names, etc.) on small cards and place in an empty saxophone case (or fishbowl). Ask children to draw a card each week to add to their class vocabulary. Have them write the words and definition in a journal or on a worksheet. Design an activity for children to improvise incorporating their new word and/or it's meaning each week.

6. Riff off Children's Books, Poems, and Chants

 

Identify children's books, poems, and/or chants that feature jazz sounds, jazz artists, etc. Ask children to use their voices to explore different ways to read and/or sing the text. Have them create their own phrase or use words in the text to accompany the book (Example: Read A Tisket, A Tasket (2003, Ella Fitzgerald, Ora Eitan, illustrator) and guide children to speak "tisket a-tisket, a-tisket, a-tisket" while you perform a swing pattern with brushes on a hi-hat. Read Before John Was a Jazz Giant (2008, Carole Boston Weatherford, Sean Qualls, illustrator) and ask children to speak the repeated text improvising with their voices by exploring vocal ranges, tone colors, and dynamics. Have them improvise bongo accompaniments as you read (or sing) This Jazz Man (2006, Karen Ehrhardt, R.G. Roth, illustrator) Ask children to read Jazz Baby (2006, Carole Boston Weatherford, Laura Freeman, illustrator) and then write their own verses using music vocabulary.

7. Pentatonic Expressions

 

Remove bars from Orff instruments (xylophones) or use step bells to isolate only the notes in a pentatonic scale. Ask children to engage in call-and-response, fill-in-the-blank, or free improvisation within a specified pulse using this scale. Guide children to write a class pentatonic composition with "holes" to provide space for improvisation. Invite individual children to take solos in the "holes."

If you like Jazz, here are some resources you may want to add to your music library:

jazz101 jazz201 JITC (Jazz Intensive Training Center)

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"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

Related articles

• Kindergarten Music: Bingo-March Song
• Ten Tips For Piano Players
• The Story of the Jazz Piano Style
• What Is Jazz?
• Teaching Jazz As A Language

Diana Krall- Fly Me To The Moon

Who wrote Fly Me To The Moon?

"Mr. Howard's best-known song was "Fly Me to the Moon," introduced in 1954 under the title "In Other Words."

"One publisher wanted me to change the lyric to 'take me to the moon,' " Mr. Howard told the New York Times in 1988. "Had I done that, I don't know where I'd be today."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/02/28
Who sang Fly Me To The Moon?

From Frank Sinatra to Nat King Cole to so many others...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_Me_to_the_Moon
Lyrics to Fly Me To The Moon
Fly Me To The Moon Lyrics
Diana Krall - Fly me to the moon (live with john clayton) posted by emruk

Free Piano Chords to Fly Me To The Moon
Am7 Dm7 G7 Cmaj7
Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars,
F7 Bm7/b5 E7/b9 Am7
Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and mars,
A7/b9 Dm7 G9 G7/b9 Cm9 Am7
In other words, hold my hand!
Am9 Dm7 G7 Fdim7 Cmaj7 Bm7 E7
In other words, darling kiss me!
Am7 Dm7 G7 Cmaj7
Fill my heart with song, and let me sing forever more
F7 Bm7/b5 E7/b9 Am7
you are all I long for all I worship & adore
A7/b9 Dm7 G9 G7 Em7/b5
In other words, please be true!
A7/b9 Dm7 Dm7/C G7/b9 C6 Bm7 E7
In other words I love you
A7/b9 Dm7 G7 G7/b9 C6 Bb6 B6 C6/9
In other words I love You!
View chord structures

http://www.e-chords.com/guitartab/idmusica/4000/keyb/true/aba/2.htm
I do love Diana Krall's style of playing and singing. I have read many of her reviews.
Here's a bit of her background to share.

“Music was not something I wanted to do. It was something I had to do,” said Krall in a telephone interview from Singapore.

“I grew up in a family where both my parents were jazz pianists and music is like a culture in my house.
“I don’t remember not playing the piano or having music around. My mother sang in the church choir, my father plays piano and my grandmother sang. My mother used to hold me in her arms and sing when I was a baby.”

Although this songstress has been recognized as the world’s best-selling female jazz artiste, she says she is still learning.

“I don’t feel like I’ve mastered my craft. I feel like I’m on a constant journey. There’s always room for creativity in this ever-growing industry.”

Krall started her career as a pianist. It took some years before she decided to sing.

“I didn’t think I was good enough initially to sing,” she says. “When you’re listening to Sarah Vaughan or Ella Fitzgerald, it’s pretty evident there’s a difference between them and me.

“It was only in 1996 that I felt comfortable with singing, so yeah, it was a long process.”

She draws inspiration from Nat King Cole and from piano-playing singers, particularly Carmen McRae.

Krall, 43, began studying piano at the age of four, and subsequently played in her high school’s jazz band. At 15, she began playing regularly in restaurants and bars around her hometown.
The New Straits Times


http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Features/20080928151736/Article/indexF_html

At 17, she won a scholarship from the Vancouver International Jazz Festival to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Krall’s playing attracted the admiration of legendary bassist Ray Brown, who suggested that she move to Los Angeles to study with seminal pianist Jimmy Rowles. It was during this period that Krall began singing as well as playing.

In 1990, after a three-year stint in Los Angeles, she relocated to New York, where she began performing. Krall achieved both a musical breakthrough and a commercial watershed with her 1999 release When I Look in Your Eyes.

They had an expanded instrumental ensemble as well as orchestral arrangements by Johnny Mandel.

When I Look in Your Eyes became an international sensation, going platinum in the United States and spending an entire year in the No. 1 position in the Billboard Jazz Chart.

In addition to winning Krall a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, it also became the first jazz album in a quarter of a century to receive a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.

Krall’s crossover success was further reflected in her participation in the historic Lilith Fair tour in 2000, and the prominent presence of her songs on the soundtracks of TV’s Sex in the City and such films as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.


I also enjoy hearing Fly Me To The Moon Bossa Nova-
sinvalfonseca
The musician and composer Joe Harnell won a Grammy for the classic ' Fly me to the Moon', done in bossa nova rhythm. He reached fame as musical producer when working with the jazz singer Peggy Lee and with Frank Sinatra.
It died in the last July 15, 2005 to the 80 anose in Los Angeles,após to suffer a fall and to enter in coma.
My na me is Sinval Fonseca I am plastic artist and amateur musician, that it likes the good music. I make a simple presentation here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSYyw1F5FgA
More bossa nova sounds

http://ladydpiano.com