Let's Jazz-a-Tazz Music Composition Lesson Plan

This lesson is aimed at the piano studio.
Students will compose a piece of piano music based on a well-known melody and follow a step-by-step guide to “jazzify” the piece.
Objectives
Within 4-6 lessons students will prepare a jazzy piece for piano. In the process the student will:
• Acquire knowledge of the different ways in which a piece may be altered.
• Analyze the various parameters that may be altered to achieve a different style, e.g., rhythm, melody, effects, etc.
• Plan the structure of a composition.
• Focus on the interplay between recognizable melodic material and jazz-effect development of the material.
• Learn, review and practice basic compositional techniques such as repetition, sequence and/or ornamentation.
• Practice short “jazzified” melodic fragments on the piano.
• Explore basic techniques of extending a composition.
• Acquire, review or practice melodic and rhythmic staff notation.
Concepts
• Accompaniment jazz bass styles, e.g., boogie bass, stride bass, etc.
• Crushed notes
• Seventh chord
• Syncopated rhythm
• Dotted rhythms
• Melodic “filler”

A 6-step plan is provided to "jazzify" a piece.