concepts covered: improvisation & ensemble playing …2018/vmt... · on the right of the piano...

CONCEPTS COVERED: Improvisation & ensemble playing STUDENT LEVEL: Late beginner and up

© Copyright Colourful Keys 2017www.vibrantmusicteaching.com


Vibrant Music Teaching

HOW TO USE• Talk about the 12 bar blues pattern and explain it to your stu-dents. You can use the pattern sheet on page 3 or 4 for this. • Explain or review the chords you will need and the blues scale. Use page 5 as an aid for this.• Assign one student to be the "bass player" and allow them to draw a card at random from the 6 bluesy bass cards. This student will sit on the left side of the piano and play their pattern in the 12 bar blues.• Assign one student to be the soloist and allow them to draw a card at random from the bluesy sparkle cards. This student will sit on the right of the piano and improvise using the scale, adding the "sparkle" in whenever they like. • Assign one student to be the rhythm piano player and allow them to draw a rhythm card. They will sit in the middle of the piano and play the chords in this rhythm pattern in the 12 bar blues.• The rest of your students will complete your rhythm section. Give each a rhythm card and a rhythm instrument. • Make sure to swap student around so they get to try different parts and different pattern combinations.

Optional extra: If you have keyboards or digital pianos in your studio you can create more of a band experience using the different instrument sounds.

ASSEMBLYTo assemble:

• Print out a copy of the 12 bar blues pattern for each student. You can choose to use either the Roman numeral version (page 3) or the chord version (page 4). • Print out a 2 copies of the scale & chords sheet (page 5) for your soloist and rhythm piano player.• Print out the bluesy cards (pages 6-17) double-sided. Cut apart along the dotted lines and laminate if desired.

LEARNING OBJECTIVESThere's so much we can do with the blues. This set of cards explores some different combinations and teaches students not only about the 12 bar blues, but also about how to listen to each other and play as a team.

Bluesy Sounds Cards

I I I I

I

V I

I

I

IV

IV

IV

V

12 Bar Blues Pattern

C C C C

C

G C

C

C

F

F

F

G

12 Bar Blues Pattern

C Minor Blues Scale

I IV V Chords in C

q q q q \© Copyright Colourful Keys 2017www.vibrantmusicteaching.com



Bluesy Sparkle: Acciaccatura

Bluesy Rhythm: Steady

Bluesy Bass: Broken Chords

ryryryry\© Copyright Colourful Keys 2017www.vibrantmusicteaching.com



Bluesy Sparkle: Shmush

Bluesy Rhythm: Running

Bluesy Bass: Boogie Sixths

h h \© Copyright Colourful Keys 2017www.vibrantmusicteaching.com



Bluesy Sparkle: Crunch

Bluesy Rhythm: Strong

Bluesy Bass: Tum Tum Ti

q. q. q \© Copyright Colourful Keys 2017www.vibrantmusicteaching.com



Bluesy Sparkle: Bam

Bluesy Rhythm: Tum Tum Ti

Bluesy Bass: Boogie Sevenths

q q Q q \© Copyright Colourful Keys 2017www.vibrantmusicteaching.com



Bluesy Sparkle: Psych

Bluesy Rhythm: One Blank

Bluesy Bass: Walk-Up

Q q Q q \© Copyright Colourful Keys 2017www.vibrantmusicteaching.com



Bluesy Sparkle: Falling

Bluesy Rhythm: Two Blanks

Bluesy Bass: Octaves

concepts covered: improvisation & ensemble playing …2018/vmt... · on the right of the piano...

Documents