Lesson 5: Improvisation and the Blues

Children use the notes from the Blues scale, learned in the previous lesson, and improvise their own Blues music by playing the notes in different orders.

Learning objective

  • To be able to improvise with notes from the Blues scale

National curriculum

Pupils should be taught to:

  • Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the inter-related dimensions of music
  • Use and understand staff and other musical notations

Success criteria

Cross-curricular links

Before the lesson

Classroom resources

Attention grabber

Main event

Differentiation

Pupils needing extra support: Add coloured sticky dots to the notes that need to be played. Give them the short sections of pre-prepared improvisation using Activity: Blues improvisation.

Pupils working at greater depth: Encourage them to have a go at improvising without any prompts. Get them to try and improvise for the duration of the 12 – bar Blues backing track.

Wrapping up

Assessing pupils' progress and understanding

Vocabulary

Created by:
Laura Barr,  
Music specialist
In her 14 year teaching career, Laura assumed the role of Music Lead, and was Head of Music in a large secondary school. Laura has a passion for working with children with a disadvantaged background, either through deprivation or disability,…
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