The Color of Music – Jazz Solos, Improvisations, and Similes

Music Lesson

The Color of Music

Similes

Music Standard: 1.3 Identify melody, rhythm, harmony, and timbre in selected pieces of music when presented aurally. 3.1 Identify the uses of music in various cultures and time periods.

Language Arts Standard: 3.5 Define figurative language (e.g., simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification) and identify its use in literary works.

Student Music Objective: Students will learn how instruments have different timbres and various sounds when combined (instrumentation).

Student ELA Objective: Students will understand how similes compare objects or concepts by using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’.

Materials: Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and is Orchestra by Andrea Davis Pinkney, a little red, yellow and blue paint, white paper, paint brush, radio, CD with ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ by Scott Joplin, Take the ‘A’ Train by Duke Ellington

Vocabulary: jazz, instrumentation, ragtime, solo, mute

Teacher Background:

Duke Ellington was born on April 29, in Washington D.C. He was a composer, bandleader, and pianist and was recognized in his lifetime as one of the greatest jazz composers and performers. Nicknamed “Duke” by a boyhood friend who admired his regal air, the name stuck and he became associated with the finest creations in big band and vocal jazz. A genius for instrumental combinations, improvisation, and jazz arranging brought the world the unique "Ellington" sound that found exuberant expression in works like “Mood Indigo,” “Sophisticated Lady,” and the symphonic suites “Black, Brown, and Beige” (which he subtitled “a Tone Parallel to the History of the Negro in America”) and Harlem (“a Tone Parallel to Harlem”).

Beginning keyboard studies at the age of seven, Ellington's earliest influences were the ragtime pianists. He taught himself harmony at the piano and at 17, made his professional debut. Encouraged by Fats Waller, he moved to New York in 1923 and, during the formative Cotton Club years, experimented with and developed the style that would quickly bring him worldwide success and recognition. The group's characteristic "jungle sound" began to develop with the Miley/Ellington collaboration. In April 1927 came the unprecedented use of multiple themes, key changes, and richly colored textural effects and harmonies. By 1930, Duke Ellington's Orchestra was becoming a household name. With “Mood Indigo”, he had a worldwide hit: the engagement of brass alongside reeds, and the enhancement of a simple melody through elegant arrangement, revealed the emergence of a jazz-composing colossus. Ellington would be among the first to focus on musical form and composition in jazz using ternary forms and "call-and-response" techniques in works like Concerto for Cootie (known in its familiar vocal version as Do Nothin' till You Hear from Me). To many, he was and still is the greatest musician of all times.

Lesson Development:

1. Hold up the three paints to show the students. Ask, “What would happen if I mixed the red with the yellow?” Have the students pair share and then have a student predict in front of the whole group. With the paintbrush, mix the yellow color with the red color and paint on the white paper. Have the students discuss what happened. Repeat with the blue and red or blue and yellow. Say, “Well just how two separate colors can become a totally new color, music can be the same way! I would like to introduce you to someone who was a master at mixing different instruments’ sounds like an artist mixes colors.”

2. Bring out the book, Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra by Andrea Davis Pinkney and ask, “Has anyone heard Duke Ellington?” Show the cover of the book and have the students pair share as to who they predict Duke Ellington was. Prompt with questions, “Who do you think he was? What do you predict he did? Why did they title it, The Piano Prince and His Orchestra?” Discuss responses with students.

3. Read the first few pages and discuss how Duke did not want to pursue his piano lessons but wanted to play baseball instead. The next page shows how Duke heard a style of music called, ‘Ragtime’ which caused him to retake an interest in the piano. At this time play a small section of the song, “Maple Leaf Rag’ by Scott Joplin while showing the page of Duke playing ragtime.

4. As you continue to read there will be many figures of speech to describe the solo performances for the saxophone, trumpet and drums. Explain that a simile is a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind in order to make the description more vivid. Focus and discuss the detailed similes the author uses, such as, “Curling his notes like a kite tail in the wind.” Have the students pair share with their partner to discuss why the author compared those objects with the sound of those instruments. Reiterate when the author introduces jazz as a new style of music that Duke helps pioneer.

5. In the section where Duke and his Orchestra have been playing together at the New York clubs and broadcasted through the radio to go into the homes of families, play “Take the ‘A’ train’ on your radio. Let the students hear the solos of the trumpet, saxophone and drums. Before explaining a muted trumpet. Ask, “Does this first trumpet solo sound like the second trumpet solo?” Discuss that the first trumpet is muted and the second trumpet is not. If possible repeat a few of the similes during their solos so the students can hear the music while imagining the similes. Have the students listen to the music and create similes in their minds. Once the musical piece is completed the students can share their similes with their partner.

6. The page with all the colors discusses how Duke mixed the different sounds of instruments together to create a new sound. Listen to the rest of ‘Taking the ‘A’ Train’ and have students discuss the difference in sound as the trumpet plays with the saxophone. Have the students compare that sound with the muted trumpet and the trombone.

7. At the end of the book, have the students summarize the story, either in partners or whole group by using prompts to guide their responses.

- Prompting Questions

-1.  How did Duke Ellington feel about playing the piano as a boy?

-1.  What changed his mind about the piano?

-1.  What kinds of instruments did Duke Ellington have in his band?

What was the name of the composer's special tribute to African Americans?

-1. 

Assessment

Rubric
4. / Student can write 3 creative similes that compare an instrument with another object of a different kind in order to make the description more vivid. / Student can perfectly recognize the instrument that is playing the solo, can identify improvisation and distinguish between a muted trumpet and a non-muted trumpet.
3. / Student can write 2 creative similes that compare an instrument with another object of a different kind in order to make the description more vivid. / Student can recognize the instrument that is playing the solo, can identify improvisation.
2. / Student can write 1 simple simile that attempts to compare an instrument’s sound with another object. / Student can recognize a few instruments that are playing the solo but cannot identify improvisation (or vice versa).
1. / Student did not write a simile that compared an instrument with another object of a different kind in order to make the description more vivid. / Student cannot recognize the instrument that is playing the solo and cannot identify.

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