Twelve-Bar Walkabout

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This fun piece evokes 1950s and 1960s rock ’n’ roll pop styles and the structure of 12-bar blues.

The video

Twelve-Bar Walkabout

This fun walkabout evokes 1950s and 1960s rock ’n’ roll and early pop styles. The idea is to learn how the 12-bar blues structure works, starting with single notes (one per bar), and then building up to two notes, then three, then four, then with different rhythm patterns going up and down.

There are six verses altogether. You could organise the children into three special groups:

• Chord instruments - such as ukuleles, guitars, keyboards (eg using electric organ sounds), piano and autoharp. They can use the backing track to practise the basic form together, which goes:
  G / / / | G / / / | G / / / | G / / / |C / / / | C / / / | G / / / | G / / / |D / / / | C / / / | G / / / | G / / / ||
  It can also be played with 7th chords (G7, C7 and D7) for extra 'bluesiness'. As they practise, the group can focus on getting the right style and energy into their playing. Once started they carry on repeating this framework to the end of the piece.
• Drums (eg bongos), other percussion (eg tambourines, cymbals and claves) and body percussionists (eg knee pats, foot stomps, chest slaps, head taps, claps and finger clicks) can work together as a rhythm unit, all aiming to sound like one rock ’n’ roll drum kit. They’ll usually follow patterns in the backing track throughout the piece, but as they build confidence can occasionally improvise their own ‘fills’ and ‘breaks’.
• Melody instruments: the ones heard and shown on the video include xylophone, recorder and violin but you can choose any instruments which can play the notes G, A, B, C, D, E, F and a high G. As they practise, encourage them to try to play their notes and rhythms tightly together as a group.

Resources

School Radio > Music > Join in with Music