Jazz & Blues Music Project

Introduction

As part of your ongoing work about Jazz and Blues music, this project is designed to deepen your understanding of the two styles and extend your knowledge.

By the end of the project, you should have created a PowerPoint (or similar) document for your presentation in your own words, that explains what you have learnt in and outside of the classroom. You can structure your work using subheadings, use graphics and insert videos that are relevant to your learning.

Project Content

Below is a range of ideas you can choose to research, feel free to expand on any of these areas as you find out more about the topic.

The Blues - Types of Blues music:

  • Early blues including songs and spirituals
  • Delta Blues
  • Chicago Blues
  • Country Blues

Blues musicians and examples of their songs such as:

  • Muddy Waters
  • B B King
  • Robert Johnson
  • Big Bill Broonzy
  • Ma Rainey

Jazz– Types of Jazz music

  • Bebop
  • Early jazz
  • Cool jazz
  • Big Band
  • Modal jazz
  • Latin jazz

Jazz musicians and examples of their songs:

  • Louis Armstrong
  • Ella Fitzgerald
  • Billie Holiday
  • Charlie Parker
  • Miles Davis
  • John Coltrane
  • Thelonious Monk
  • Chet Baker

Organising your project

You may choose to structure your project as follows:

Section 1 Blues music and musicians

  1. Describe the key musical features of the style
  2. Give examples of important musicians in the blues style and why their music is important
  3. Video and/or audio examples of blues music

Section 2 Jazz music and musicians

  1. Describe the key musical features of the style
  2. Give examples of important musicians in the jazz style and why their music is important
  3. Video and/or audio examples of blues music

Extend your learning further

You can deepen your analysis of the music using the acronym MAD T SHIRTT to focus on specific elements of music.

M = MELODY

A = ARTICULATION

D = DYNAMICS

T = TEXTURE

S = STRUCTURE

H = HARMONY

I = INSTRUMENTATION

R = RHYTHM

T = TEMPO

T = TIME SIGNATURE

Try to include lots of visuals and a selection of videos/recordings to support your work.