Warm-up Strategy (>1 minute)

 Long tones or scales (variations of modes or blues scale)

 Play the Bb7 scale
o Once up on whole notes, back down again
o MODEL Fp on each whole note (maybe like 3 notes, then have
them start)
 Give feedback. Check for pitch, note duration, growth
duration

Addressing Style (>1 minute)

 Swing
 Play the Chord progression at the bottom of the Bb Blues Abersold
Page
o First line
 Play like straight eighths like the long tone warm up
 Tongue the upbeat, slur to downbeat. Keep it long
o Second line
 Same as the first
o Third Line
 When you get to the F7 – Eb7 – Bb7 – F7, restart at the
bottom of each scale

Teach a bass line (2 minutes)

 Take 5 seconds and look at the first 4 black notes in each of those
scales
o Countdown out loud
 Similar to the style exercise, play them like quarters up (MODEL)
 After playing the actual thing, “let’s think stylistically”
o “So, we have a pseudo walking bass type of line, how should we
articulate it?”
 Maybe ask someone to model their idea (we’re ideally
looking for a smooth line, maybe with an oompf on the
downbeat like a string pluck)
o Be free to try new interpretations, ask class which one they
enjoyed the most.

Teach a melody (2 minutes)

 Workshop the melody to the song (Start at the head!)
 o “What did we work on with the warm-up?” Fp and articulation on
upbeats
 Make sure the warmup is applied! Don’t let it not mean
anything
 “You all understand the general idea of the piece and how to play it,
but I think we can work on style. I know you’re trying but the style
could come through more. If our articulation/style was a color, you’re
trying red but it’s coming through as pink. Think about something you
can change, and let’s run through one more time before we move to
improv.”

Improvise! (4 minutes)
 Group
o “Okay we’re going to improvise as a group. Rhythm section, I
just want you to stick with the chords for now. I promise you’ll
get your chance soon!”
 (To the ensemble) I want you to first try playing the chart
as written but add some flair in whatever way you want.
 Sections
o Improvise as SECTIONS~~
 Students can either do the same thing we did as a group or
can just switch to the bottom lead chart.
 Have students decide when each section/row will improvise
while rest of ensemble plays the bass activity or the root of
each chord
 Rhythm DESERVES to go. Make sure they get to go while
the ensemble accompanies
 Put it all together
o Ask for soloists, try to pick people who usually haven’t gone
o Play the head 2x, solos, head 1x with last measure repeated.