Listening and Responding
Uses technologies to transcribe a chord chart in a piece that uses the 12-bar blues structure (PK)

The teacher plays (through the classroom network) a pre-recorded sequenced chord chart based on the 12-bar blues structure and using chords I, IV, and V⁷ in the key of F major. The students listen through their headphones and colour in an empty 12-bar chart. (This could be done on paper with a live playing of the chord chart. However, the technology allows the students to follow the sequenced track on their screens with the chords changing colour to reinforce the audio.) Their teacher has given them three colours for the three chords and told them to fill in each bar with one of the assigned colours (that is, red for Chord I [F], green for Chord IV [B^b], and blue for Chord V⁷ [C⁷]).

She asks them to check their work (now completed, as seen on the computer screens) by clapping each time a new colour appears. The two students at the end of the clip have used their aural and problem-solving skills to complete the task correctly. This is largely a revision and warm-up aural exercise before improvisation, and is based on the 12-bar structure they will work with.

Reading and Recording
Interprets the notation of a piece that uses the 12-bar blues structure (PK, CI)

The teacher instructs the class to play along with a previously learned 12-bar blues chord chart, now in the key of C major. The students play and read the chart as a warm-up to the task ahead. Many are able to read and play, whereas others are playing by ear or reading the notation with some difficulty.

Repeated practice is needed in small groups or pairs where the students take turns to play while their partners read. They can do this with or without the backing track, gaining peer support at moments of difficulty and dealing with problems collaboratively, as in the real world of group performance.

Listening and Responding
Uses instruments and technologies to play back short musical ideas (PK)

The teacher provides short playback motifs based on the three chords to give the students ideas for creating a hook that fits the underlying chord. In this clip, the teacher plays one motif based on Chord I (F) and gives the students time to work it out by ear on their keyboards. Some students help their neighbour by playing the work to them, demonstrating that they have worked it out themselves and are ready to peer teach.

Teacher modelling is important because it gives the students ideas from which to develop their own. Student modelling is also desirable in this type of activity. It is a vital part of the learning process and an important way to recognise the wide range of abilities in music classes.

Creating
Selects, combines, and structures original musical ideas to compose a 12-bar blues melody (DI, CI)
Creating
Improvises musical ideas around the 12-bar blues structure (DI, CI)
Reading and Recording
Represents an original 12-bar blues melody, using Sibelius technology (CI)

Heta and Jesse perform their completed improvisations, having worked on these for some time. On the keyboard, Heta plays a simple yet effective melody, which fits over the chord chart. She incorporates features of jazz that she has heard, including "blue" notes: a flattened seventh (in bar five) and third (at the end of bar 11). Her short piece is well structured and repeats melodic and rhythmic ideas. In bars five and six, she also uses a variation of the syncopated melodic hook she started with in bars one and two and then branches out into a contrasting idea to add interest. She repeats this at different pitches in bars 10 and 11. Bar 12 is a rest for the turnaround (when repeating) or a held note for the final bar, where chord I, F major, is played. Heta completes an edited score of her composition using Sibelius and saves her work as a MIDI file for assessment.

Jesse improvises a technically demanding and musically complex break as he backs Heta. His performance skills are well developed, and he picks up the style in a very competent improvisation over the 12-bar blues structure. He did not notate his music as this is beyond his theoretical and editing skills at this stage. He recorded his work as an audio file.

NB: A teaching example based on the twelve-bar blues can be found in the playing chapter of Into Music 3, page 51.