Themes & Variations

By Bonnie Rossa and Brad Keller

This illustrated collection of 6 easy-medium jazz pieces for beginning and intermediate recorder players will teach your students about various jazz styles by playing jazzy pieces on the recorder. The kit includes reproducible song sheets, coloring pages for each song, a performance/accompaniment CD, and PowerPoints.

Each song focuses on a different style of jazz from Dixieland to contemporary. Dizzy's BAG, Bossa Cat and Simba Samba use only the notes B, A, G for the melodies; Dixie Cat adds E. The last two songs, Winka Cat and Cat Walk, include the more challenging B flat. We chose to include B flat because it is a "blues note" (minor third in G major and flatted fifth in E minor). "Blues notes" are an essential ingredient for jazz improvisations.

Each song has a section for improvising (making up the melody). The note choices for improvisation that will fit with the accompaniment are provided for each song. We suggest the beginning improvisers use rhythms from the songs melody while choosing from the suggested notes to create new melodies. Additional note choices are provided for more advanced students.

The accompaniments on the CD are stylistically accurate and may be used as examples of the represented jazz styles. The songs and advanced soloing scales can be applied to all barred Orff instruments.

Song List:
1. Dizzy's BAG
2. Bossa Cat
3. Simba Samba
4. Dixie Cat
5. Winka Cat
6. Cat Walk