Don Gatz

Kecoughtan High School

Impact on Student Learning Project

For this project, I plan to teach students in the jazz band about the bass player’s role in the band

in swing music and its primary function of improvising. For this project, my hope is to strengthen the

students’ abilities in music theory and their ability to improvise through music theory, as well as giving

them the opportunity to compose basslines to certain chord structures. With this project, there will be

no “pre-test” due to the assignment being composition-based, but will result with a final composition.

Lesson Plan 1:

Objective: Students will understand the role of the bass player in the jazz ensemble and begin

composing basslines with specific criteria.

Procedures:

1. Show video for “Take the A Train” by Duke Ellington and have students focus on

listening to the bass player.

a. What do they notice?

2. Explain how the rhythm section of jazz ensembles are constantly either comping or

improvising, not always relying on written music.

3. Review Chord Extensions and qualities

4. Learn the steps of composing a good bassline

a. Constant quarter notes

b. Every chord starts on the root/bass note
c. Roots can be preceded by a mix of:
i. V-I motion
ii. Whole or half step below the root (half step is leading tone)
iii. Whole or half step above the root (half step is tritone substitution)
iv. Middle of the bar should be a mix of stepwise (scalar) motion and leaps
from notes in chord of the moment.
 5. Composition Assignment: 12 Bar Blues, each measure will contain the root of the chord
repeating while beat 4 will follow one of the rules of preceding a new root.

Assessment: I will assess students’ understanding by analyzing their compositions and how they

achieve the goal of the assignment. If there are any misunderstandings, I will log them and

address them with the student to help them better understand.

Reflection:

Prior to this lesson, I had begun introducing different music theory topics (including modes, intervals,

qualities, chord types and minor scales) in addition to their daily routines. After multiple days covering

these topics and giving the students more opportunities to apply their knowledge, they have gotten

much more familiar with building the different chords and scales, as well as identifying interval numbers

and chord qualities. This lesson focused on students identifying the root of the chord and intervals of a

second or fifth. The students had little difficulty completing this assignment. One issue that occurred in

some students’ work is choosing to navigate to a new chord by an arpeggio rather than by the methods

outlined in the assignment. I informed the students about the choice but elected that it was still a valid

choice due to being a smooth transition to a new chord. One student with more jazz theory experience

elected to use a tritone substitution for certain changes and while they did not follow the rules of the

assignment by labeling chords with their roots, they used their relative tritone and as this is a natural

occurrence in jazz music I chose to let that be correct but let them know that wasn’t the proper solution

to the assignment.

Lesson Plan 2:

Objective: Students will understand the role of the bass player in the jazz ensemble and begin

composing basslines with specific criteria.

Procedures:

1. Have students share their examples or I will pick some of their examples to show how

they preceded new chord voices.

 a. Play on the piano so students can hear their parts interacting with the chords, or

I play chords while students play their compositions on their respective

instruments.

2. Review rules of bassline construction and focus on rules of basslines during the middle

of the bar.

3. Review chords extensions, qualities, and scales.

4. Composition Assignment: Same 12 bar blues example, Notating all the of the notes of

each chord.

Assessment: I will assess students’ understanding by analyzing their compositions and how they achieve

the goal of the assignment. If there are any misunderstandings, I will log them and address them with

the student to help them better understand.

Reflection:

This assignment allowed students to review chord tones of multiple different chords. Students

had no difficulty labeling the letter names of the 4 notes involved but some had difficulty on the

accidentals or would be quick and carelessly mislabel certain pitches as they would see the same root

and assume it was the same chord (ex. F7 versus Fm7). I would comment on each submission or help the

students in class to realize their mistakes and guide them to fixing their answers to find the solution. I

gave students permission to research any chords online or in their method books to be sure of their

answers before they submit in order to promote self-assessment and checking their answers rather than

hope they understand.

Lesson Plan 3:

Objective: Students will understand the role of the bass player in the jazz ensemble and begin

composing basslines with specific criteria.

Procedures:

1. Have students share their examples or I will pick some of their examples to show how

they preceded new chord voices.

a. Play on the piano so students can hear their parts interacting with the chords, or

I play chords while students play their compositions on their respective

instruments.

2. Review all rules of bassline construction and answer any questions students have.

3. Final Composition Assignment: Swing piece example from their method book. This

composition should feature all rules of bassline construction covered thus far with

additional opportunities to be as creative as they wish.

Assessment: I will assess students’ understanding by analyzing their compositions and how they achieve

the goal of the assignment. If there are any misunderstandings, I will log them and address them with

the student to help them better understand.

Reflection:

While I had certain guidelines to push students in a certain direction, they achieved the goal of

composing an improvisation for a swing bassline. This project gave me the opportunity to dive into the

music theory side of improvisation with these students as well as give them the music theory class they

were missing as the class was cut due to not enough students wanting to enroll in it. If I were to do this

project different, I would be sure to introduce the fundamentals of music theory (intervals, chords,

qualities, etc.) and be sure everyone is comfortable with the topics long before I begin the assignment to

apply their knowledge. I was happy seeing students so entertained with creating their own compositions

and wanting assistance or being so proud to share their creations with their peers and myself.