In February of this year, I organized a month-long, studio-wide composition project based on the 12-bar blues.

I got the idea for this project from a session I attended at NCKP last summer, led by Leila Viss and Bradley Sowash. Leila shared how she's structured a blues composition project for her students and I thought it would be a good way to acknowledge and celebrate Black History Month and incorporate composition for my elementary and intermediate students.

Today, I'm sharing a behind-the-scenes look at how I organized this project in my studio, how I structured and guided the composition process each week, some blues examples we studied from the repertoire, and a few of my students' final compositions.

For show notes + a full transcript, click here.

Resources Mentioned

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Key Ideas with Leila, Ep. 017 - The 12-Bar Blues

Rock Around the Block (Sam Holland, Music Tree, Part 1)

Jazz Blast (Faber, Piano Adventures, Level 2A)

Captain Hook's Rockin' Party (Faber, Piano Adventures, Level 2B)

Black Bear Boogie (Chee-Hwa Tan, Circus Sonatinas)

Slide Easy (Robert Vandall, Celebrated Jazzy Solos, Book 1)

Surfboard Boogie (Martha Mier, Jazz, Rags, and Blues, Book 1)

Spiderman Theme (old-school theme song)

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (U2)

Stuck in the Middle With You (Stealers Wheel)

Hound Dog (Elvis)

Be Cool and Play the Blues by Leila Viss (digital resource)

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