Happy National Jazz Month 2014. I know I am super late to the party this year but I thought its better late than never. I have some awesome jazz resources I want to share for National Jazz Month and best of all, they’re F R E E ! ! !
Just in case you didn’t know about National Jazz Month, it happens every year during April and is sponsored by National Association for Music Educators (NAME), the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and a plethora of other jazz partners.
Here are some links and resources to check out:
Smithsonian Jazz at the National Museum of American History
Jazz April 2014 – A project of the Jazz Journalists Association
International Jazz Day – April 30
Jazz: A Film By Ken Burns (PBS)
Jazz Corner: A Great Resource for Jazz Musicians
PBS Kids used to have a great Kids Jazz club that they discontinued. I was terribly disappointed when I discovered this. However, they replaced it with a new series that is pretty ok, not great, but not bad. It is flash-based, so I cannot use it on my iPad lab but it works ok as a class activity on the Interactive Whiteboard.
CHUCK VANDERCHUCK at www.pbskids.org/chuck
He actually covers many styles and genres of music. You can choose which style and there are games and activities to explore that genre. Here are some screenshots so you can see what how accessible it is to kids.
I like the “Lyrical Solarium” and the “What Sounds Like What” activities. They are good experiential and listening tasks for kids in large-group type settings. Or if you have access to classroom computers or a computer lab, it could be a great whole-group computer lab or center activity.
I have tons more resources coming down the pike. Stay tuned for the rest of this series….And keep it jazzy, my friends!!
This is Part One of a Three-Part Series. Here are the other articles in this series:
- Jazz Month and International Jazz Day: Part One – Resources
- Jazz Month and International Jazz Day: Part Two – Playing the Blues on Boomwhackers
- Jazz Month and International Jazz Day: Part Three – Improvising Jazz Solos on Orff
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