JAZZ: A film by Ken Burns:Classroom

http://www.pbs.org/jazz/classroom/printerfriendlymathimprov.html

Jazz and Math: Improvisation Permutations

Estimated Time of Completion: Depending on prior knowledge of musical notation, the lesson should take between 50-70 minutes. Summary: After an introduction to improvisation through a drama game, a discussion, and a video clip, students e plore how man! different rh!thmic combinations can be improvised in a "a##$blues piece of music. %he! use trial and error techni&ues, derive a mathematical formula, and appl! the formula to calculate the number of possible rh!thmic combinations. 'b"ectives (aterials )eeded *rocedures and Activities Assessment +uggestions , tensions$Adaptations +tandards Obje tives %o make connections between various t!pes of improvisation and uses for improvisation. %o observe that there are m!riad combinations of rh!thms to choose from when improvising "a## and blues music, and recogni#e that while the variations seem infinite, the! are in fact finite. %o estimate the number of possible variations given a number of rh!thms to choose from to fill one - beat measure. %o e periment with creating various combinations in an attempt to verif! estimates .trial and error/. %o derive a mathematical relationship that will allow students to calculate the actual number of possible musical permutations given the limited set of options to choose from. %o compare the number of actual permutations with previous estimates and account for discrepancies. %o gain understanding of scales and chords so that students can estimate the possible number of notes in a given measure of a 01 bar blues progression .an! given measure uses one chord onl!/. %o calculate the actual number of permutations of notes per measure. %o combine calculations for rh!thms with calculations for notes to find the overall permutations possible in one measure of a 01 bar blues progression. %o notate a 01 bar blues progression using a different combination of notes and rh!thms for each of the 01 bars, and then perform it on a ke!board or virtual piano online. Materials !eeded 234, %2, and *5+ 6en 5urns 7A88 documentar!, ,pisode 'ne 9:umbo.9 2erbal cue is 9;a form called the 5lues. And it<s a useful form that is elastic because it is simple; 9 .1-:-= - 15:07/. , amples of improvisations on tape, 3D, or from the *5+ 7A88 >eb

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JAZZ: A film by Ken Burns:Classroom

http://www.pbs.org/jazz/classroom/printerfriendlymathimprov.html

site. +uggestions: ?or an e ample of earl! stages of improvisation, see 9Afro9 on ,r!kah 5adu<s Baduizm album@ for more polished e amples, tr! ,lla ?it#gerald<s Ella Live in Berlin 9Aow Aigh the (oon9 which has a long and impressive scat section. 'ther suggested pieces include: ,lla ?it#gerald<s The Intimate Ella 95lack 3offee9, or The Best of Ella Fitzgerald First Lady of Song 93an<t >e 5e ?riendsB9 and 9C >on<t Dance9 .both with Douis Armstrong/. ?raction )otation 3hart and 4h!thms >orksheet >hite board and dr! erase markers A)D$'4 overhead pro"ector, transparencies and marker ?or the last activit! before assessment: access to a classroom with headphones so students can listen individuall! to a piece of "a## music and tr! their hand at improvising various rh!thms along with the music percussivel! .snapping, tapping, drumming on table/. Pro edures and " tivities Introdu tion Ask students to describe what improvisation means. Discuss improvisation in drama and e plain that to get a feel for improvising, students will pla! a drama game. %he game is entitled 9Eou shouldn<t haveF9 and it involves two people who will be improvising dialogue and pantomime. %he first person mimes passing a gift to the other person .the gift needs to have a definite shape and si#e/, who receives it, opens it and declares, 9Eou shouldn<t haveF9 followed b! an improvised line telling what the gift is. %he actors need to pla! off of each other because the person receiving the gift needs to make up a reasonable thing for the gift to be, considering how the giver pantomimed the shape, si#e, weight, etc. of the gift. )e t link the theme of improvisation to students< lives b! eliciting e amples of improvisation in ever!da! life .e.g., conversations with other people, dancing, etc./. Discuss what the prere&uisites for good improvisation are. ?or e ample, to converse well, one needs to know the language fluentl!Gthink about how hard it is to improvise a conversation in a language that !ou are learning in school. %o dance well one needs to have learned some dance steps and movesGthink of how nerve-racking it can be to get on the dance floor when !ou don<t know how to do a certain t!pe of dance. (ake the link to improvisation in music b! listening to a piece of music that contains improvising, such as ,lla ?it#gerald<s 9Aow Aigh %he (oon.9 Ask for student impressions about the improvisation. Aow difficult do the! think it would be to do thatB Aave the! ever had to make up a stor! on the spotB Discuss how important and difficult it is to make up good details in both a stor! and a scat song. %hen watch the *5+ 7A88 video clip from ,pisode 'ne about the blues being simple and elastic, which allows for an infinite number of variations. After watching, discuss two ke! points: Aow man! different variations can students imagine for ,lla<s scat, their dramatic improvisations, or for how the teacher conducts classB >hat does the concept of infinite reall! meanB Aow man! infinite things can the! think ofB Aow do !ou know if something is infinite or "ust reall! e tensiveB #oin$ The Math %Small &roups' E(perimentation' Tea her &uidan e) Det<s "ust consider the number of different rh!thms that the "a## musician has to decide between when improvising. Dook over the rh!thmic notation and fraction note chart from the lesson entitled 94h!thmic Cnnovations.9 ?or practice, tr! the 4h!thms >orksheet. ,stimate how man! different

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JAZZ: A film by Ken Burns:Classroom

http://www.pbs.org/jazz/classroom/printerfriendlymathimprov.html

combinations of rh!thms could be made to fill one measure. Aave students work in small groups to e periment with writing various combinations of rh!thms. ,ncourage them to look for an efficient and s!stematic wa! to find how man! possible permutations e ist. +uggest that the! begin b! breaking down the measure into beats and tr! to figure out how man! different wa!s one can notate a single beat. %he! should come up with a fairl! comprehensive listing of all the possible wa!s to notate one beat. Cf the! miss something, supplement their list .a Dist of >a!s %o )otate 'ne 5eat ma! be printed and distributed/. %his list should go up on the board and be copied down b! each group. .This list will act as the finite number of rhythmic possibilities that will be considered in making combinations of measures./ 'nce there is a class list of the different wa!s to notate one beat, the groups are to e periment with combinations of four different beats to create uni&ue measures of music. After the groups have worked for a while, but before the! are thoroughl! frustrated, ask groups to read off their measures to the teacher or a scribe who will write them on the board. )udge them along through the problem solving process b! beginning to organi#e t!pes of combinations. ?or e ample, when students give measures starting with a &uarter note, write those on one side of the board separate from measures that start with 1 eighth notes. %hen begin to ask the class, 9how man! of !ou have measures that start with &uarter notesB Det<s put all of those together...9 .and so on/. Discuss an! observable patterns in the measures. Ask, 9Aow man! different wa!s can a measure be completed if it starts out with a &uarter noteB >hat about if it starts with two eighth notesB9 .%his is rather overwhelming to figure out, so tell them that we can break it down and make it a simpler version of the same problem so that we can figure it out./ E(pli it Problem Solvin$ +how students how to break the problem down into smaller chunks, and how to create a simpler mathematical model to test the concept. ?or e ample, tell them that we will concern ourselves with onl! - different wa!s to notate a beat and then figure out how man! different combinations are possible for a 1 beat measure. ?our simple wa!s to notate one beat are: a &uarter note, two eighth notes, four si teenth notes, or a dotted-eighth si teenth. Cf we label the four different notations for a beat A .&uarter note/, 5 .two eighth notes/, 3 .four si teenth notes/ and D .a dotted-eighth si teenth/, then we can arrange them into groups of two s!stematicall!: A-A A-5 A-3 A-D 5-5 5-A 5-3 5-D 3-3 3-A 3-5 3-D D-D D-A D-5 D-3

,ssentiall!, there are 1 beats and one can choose between - different notations for each beat@ therefore to find the number of possible combinations !ou multipl! - -H 0I. 'r -1 . )ow that the problem has been broken down and we have created a mathematical model and tested it out, we can appl! our model to the problem at hand.

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JAZZ: A film by Ken Burns:Classroom

http://www.pbs.org/jazz/classroom/printerfriendlymathimprov.html

>e created a finite and comprehensive list of all the wa!s to notate one beat. Cnstead of "ust four wa!s, now we have as man! wa!s as are on our class-created list .(/. Also, we want to make measures with - beats instead of 1. ,ssentiall!, there are four beats and one can choose between ( different notations for each beat@ therefore to find the number of possible combinations, ( ( ( (, or (-. )ow students will appl! this method to the problem at hand. :iven a certain number of wa!s to notate one beat, how man! different wa!s can one notate one measureB +tudent Cmprovisation And 4eflection .Cndividual >ork/ %he final part of the lesson will be for students to tr! their hand at improvising. %his should be done with headphones so each student ma! listen closel! to a selected "a## piece and improvise rh!thms b! clapping, tapping, humming, etc. .%he headphones allow for less distraction./ +tudents will process this e perience in part b! writing a reflection piece about how a "a## musician must decide on rh!thms in a split second when the! are improvising. >hat does this tell us about the base of knowledge that gifted "a## musicians must haveB "ssessment Su$$estions 4eappl! the method to the problem after adding the condition that an! and all t!pes of rests ma! be used .whole rest, half rest, &uarter rest, eighth rest, and si teenth rest/. +tudents will need to figure out how man! wa!s one beat can be filled with rests and then e tend that to all four beats in the manner that the! have been taught. E(tensions*"daptations ?or students who benefit from more visual and$or hands-on activities, the possible wa!s to notate one beat can be written on notecards. %hen the students can rearrange the cards to create different permutations while another student, a scribe, or an aide records the permutations on a sheet of paper. ?or students with poor motor control, the notecards can be mounted on a thicker medium to make them easier to pick up and rearrange .foam core board or "ust thin foam rubber are two suggestions/. Cf students have difficult! organi#ing their combinations, the teacher can suggest creating a chart and model how to do it, or if need be offer them a pre-made chart to fill in .9'rgani#ing *ermutations9 handout attached/. Standards %his lesson correlates to the following math and technolog! standards established b! the (id-continent 4egional ,ducational Daborator! .(c4,D/ at http:$$www.mcrel.org$standards-benchmarks$inde .asp: ?ormulates a problem, determines information re&uired to solve the problem, chooses methods for obtaining this information, and sets limits for acceptable solutions. :enerali#es from a pattern of observations made in particular cases, makes con"ectures, and provides supporting arguments for these con"ectures .i.e., uses inductive reasoning/. Jses formal mathematical language and notation to represent ideas, to demonstrate relationships within and among representation s!stems, and to formulate generali#ations. Jnderstands various sources of discrepanc! between an estimated and a calculated answer. Jses recurrence relations .i.e., formulas e pressing each term as a function of one or more of the previous terms, such as the ?ibonacci se&uence or the compound interest e&uation/ to model and to solve real-world problems .e.g., home mortgages, annuities/. Jnderstands counting procedures and reasoning .e.g., use of the Addition 3ounting *rinciple to find the number of wa!s of arranging

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JAZZ: A film by Ken Burns:Classroom

http://www.pbs.org/jazz/classroom/printerfriendlymathimprov.html

ob"ects in a set, the use of permutations and combinations to solve counting problems/. Jnderstands that mathematics is the stud! of an! pattern or relationship, but natural science is the stud! of those patterns that are relevant to the observable world. Jnderstands that theories in mathematics are greatl! influenced b! practical issues@ real-world problems sometimes result in new mathematical theories and pure mathematical theories sometimes have highl! practical applications. Jnderstands that science and mathematics operate under common principles: belief in order, ideals of honest! and openness, the importance of review b! colleagues, and the importance of imagination. Jnderstands that mathematics provides a precise s!stem to describe ob"ects, events, and relationships and to construct logical arguments. %op

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