Ideas for teachers
Here are some ideas on how to participate:
- Each year, a different global city is selected to host International Jazz Day. Present a geography lesson on this year’s city and discuss how jazz is being celebrated on this special day. Watch the webcast or re-broadcast of the concert.
- Design a record album cover inspired by a field trip to a local record store or a classroom listening session.
- Play jazz recordings or video clips and have students write or share their reflections.
- Discuss how jazz inspires peace, unity, teamwork and communication.
- Organize a jazz-themed performance by your school band or choir.
- Create a class mural or decorate your classroom with jazz-inspired drawings or posters (of instruments or musicians, for example).
- Explore the mathematical basis of the swing rhythm.
- Research the history of jazz in your town or city. What makes jazz in your area unique?
- Watch one of the virtual education sessions that took place as part of International Jazz Day 2020, available in five languages!
- Develop your own lesson plan centered around jazz – and let us know how it turns out!
Share the vibrancy and vitality of jazz music with students and educators from around the world on April 30th – and all year round. International Jazz Day brings together communities, schools, artists, historians, academics, and jazz enthusiasts on all continents to celebrate and learn about jazz and its roots, future and impact.
Once you have planned your activity, please be sure to register your event or email us and see how others are participating.
For additional ideas, visit our Toolkit or see some sample educational resources below.
Resources
Activities
- Drake Music Scotland (English, Learning Support Needs): Seven Figurenotes Arrangements
- New Orleans Jazz Museum (English): Jazz Day Arts & Crafts Activity
- PDX Jazz (English): Jazz Day Learning Packet
Analysis
Essays
- Association des Enseignants de Jazz (English and French): What Jazz Means to Me by Dave Liebman
- Guitar Junky (English): Jazz Music: Playing a Key Role Against Racism
Handouts
- Drake Music Scotland (English, Learning Support Needs): Introduction to Figurenotes
- JazzUV – Universidad Veracruzana (Spanish & English, Beginner to Advanced): Introduction to Afro-Caribbean Performance by Professor Tonatiuh Vázquez Vilchis
- JazzUV – Universidad Veracruzana (Spanish & English, Beginner to Advanced): Big Band Counterpoint by Professor Tonatiuh Vázquez Vilchis
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Advanced): Linear Bass Line Construction (Part 1)
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Advanced): Linear Bass Line Construction (Part 2)
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Advanced): Piano Voicings Mnemonics
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, All Levels): Getting the Big Scholarship
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Beginner): What Is Jazz and Why It Is Important to the World
Lectures
- Andy Jaffe (English, Advanced): Symmetry as a Compositional Principle in the Music of John Coltrane
- Andy Jaffe (English, Advanced): The Compositional Techniques of Duke Ellington
Lessons
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Year 5): Introduction to Jazz Lesson Plan Pack
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Year 8): Introduction to Jazz Lesson Plan Pack
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Year 11): Introduction to Jazz Lesson Plan Pack
- Jazz Education Network (English, Beginner): Playing 12-Bar Blues in the General Music Classroom by Natalie Wilson
- Jazz Education Network (English, Beginner): Writing Blues Lyrics by Natalie Wilson
- Math, Science & Music (English, Beginner to Advanced): Scratch Jazz (Music + Coding)
- Math, Science & Music (English, Beginner to Advanced): Mathematics of Music
- Math, Science & Music (English, Beginner to Advanced): Groove Pizza
- Math, Science & Music (English, Beginner to Advanced): Academic Music
- Math, Science & Music (English, Beginner to Advanced): Indian Rhythms and Math
Playlists
Sheet Music
- Petrucci Music Library: Pieces in the “jazz” category
- Petrucci Music Library: Pieces in the “blues” category
Teacher Tools
- Guitar Junky (English, Beginner): History of Jazz Music – A Detailed Timeline
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Advanced): Career Opportunities in Jazz Education
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, All levels): Getting the Big Scholarship
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Advanced): Guide to Tune Learning
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Advanced): Guidelines for Directing a Jazz Combo
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Advanced): Jazz Fundamentals
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Advanced): Jazz Nomenclature Packet
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Beginner to Advanced): Jazzing up Jazz Band
- Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz (English, Beginner to Advanced): Tour Etiquette for Young Musicians
- Jamey Aebersold Jazz (English, Beginner to Advanced): Free Jazz Handbook
- Jamey Aebersold Jazz (French, Beginner to Advanced): Free Jazz Handbook
- Jazz at Lincoln Center (English, All Levels): Let Freedom Swing Resource Guide
- Math, Science & Music (English, Beginner): Making Music Count (Composing + Blocks)
- Math, Science & Music (English, Advanced): Mathematics of Music
- Math, Science & Music (English, Beginner): aQWERTYon
- Math, Science & Music (English, Beginner): Chrome Music Lab
- Math, Science & Music (English, Beginner): Ecosonic Playgrounds (Music + Ecology)
- PDX Jazz (English, Primary School): PDX Jazz Education on Teachers Pay Teachers
Tutorials
- New York Jazz Workshop (English, All Levels): Warm-up Techniques with Ron Horton
- New York Jazz Workshop (English, Intermediate to Advanced): Walking Basslines with Andrea Veneziani
- New York Jazz Workshop (English and Japanese, Intermediate to Advanced): Diminished and Dominant Chords with Yuto Kanazawa
- New York Jazz Workshop (English, Intermediate to Advanced): Melodies in Rhythm with Vito Lesczak
- New York Jazz Workshop (English, Intermediate): Non-Verbal Communication with Olivia Foschi
- New York Jazz Workshop (English, Intermediate to Advanced): Elastic Singing with Michelle Walker
- New York Jazz Workshop (English, Intermediate to Advanced): Chromaticism with Dave Scott
- New York Jazz Workshop (English, Beginner to Advanced): Long tones by Darius Jones
- New York Jazz Workshop (English, Intermediate to Advanced): Intro to Brazilian Rhythms with Vitor Gonçalves
- New York Jazz Workshop (English, Intermediate to Advanced): Open Triads with Sebastian Noelle
Videos
- Drake Music Scotland (English, Learning Support Needs): Jazz Collaborations Playlist (YouTube)
- Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy (English, All Levels): What Are the Blues?
- Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy (English, All Levels): What is Improvisation?
- Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy (English, All Levels): What Are Spirituals?
- Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy (English, All Levels): How to Build a Drum Solo Using Motivic Development
- Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy (English, All Levels): How to Trade Solos in Jazz
- Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy (English, All Levels): Playing Bass in a Big Band
- Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy (English, All Levels): How to Expand Your Harmonic Vocabulary: Dominant Sevenths
- Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy (English, All Levels): All Jazz Academy Playlists
- #MathScienceMusic Episode 1 (English, Advanced): Vijay Iyer – Biological Foundations of Music
- #MathScienceMusic Episode 2 (English, Advanced): Vijay Iyer – Why might music exist?
- #MathScienceMusic Episode 3 (English, Advanced): Vijay Iyer – Music, Breathing and Rhythm
- #MathScienceMusic Episode 4 (English, Advanced): Improv: Vijay Iyer & Yosvany Terry
- #MathScienceMusic Episode 5 (English, Advanced): Vijay Iyer, Yosvany Terry & the Shekere
- #MathScienceMusic Episode 6 (English, Advanced): Ed Large – Neuroscience and Music – Part 1
- #MathScienceMusic Episode 7 (English, Advanced): Ed Large – Neuroscience and Music – Part 2
- #MathScienceMusic Episode 8 (English, Advanced): Ed Large – Neuroscience and Music – Part 3
- #MathScienceMusic Episode 9 (English, Advanced): Ani Patel – Language and Rhythm Connections in Instrumental Music
Do you have a handout or other teaching resource you would like to see represented here? Email [email protected]. These listings are provided solely as suggestions for interested students and teachers, and inclusion does not imply endorsement by the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, UNESCO or International Jazz Day. The user assumes all responsibility for navigating to and utilizing resources not hosted on Institute-affiliated websites (hancockinstitute.org, jazzinamerica.org, jazzday.com, mathsciencemusic.org).