Standards Site

 
 
Schemes of Work
QCA

Music at key stage 3    (Year 8)

Unit 8: Jazz improvisation (exploring improvisation)

QCA
About this unit

This unit develops pupils' ability to identify, explore and make creative use of musical devices found in jazz.

During this unit, pupils learn some basic approaches to improvisation. They develop blues scale motifs within a 12-bar blues, improvise using chord/scale relationships and apply that understanding by developing patterns in a diatonic sequence. They analyse and develop riffs aurally, use ICT as an aid to practice, and begin to understand the importance of improvisation to jazz genres.

This unit is expected to take 5-14 hours.


Sections in this unit

This unit is divided into sections. Each section contains a sequence of activities with related objectives and outcomes. You can view this unit by moving through the sections or print/download the whole unit.
1. Introduction: what is improvisation?
2. Exploration: how can we improvise? (1)
3. Exploration: how can we improvise? (2)
4. Exploration: how can we improvise? (3)
5. Exploration: how can we improvise? (4)
6. Exploration: how can we improvise? (5)
7. Application: creating an improvised composition
8. Application: creating an improvised composition (2)