Unit Plan Skee boppa dooo, you can scat too!

by Dave Allu Unit for teaching comprehensive musicianship through singing at a Middle School or High School

Scat Unit Graphic Organizer

First Lesson Plan for Scat by Dave Allu Objective: Students will be able to comprehend the origins and development of scat singing in its historical perspective. They will also be able to think critically about scats evolution in the cultural landscape as well as weigh its limitations and possibilities in current music and the songwriting process. They should also contemplate its purpose. Standards used: 1.1.12.B.1, 1.1.12.B.2, 1.2.5.A.2, 1.3.12.B.1, 1.3.12.B.2, 1.3.12.B.3, 1.3.12.B.4 Essential Question(s) to Contemplate: Can Singers Improvise? How and why? Can scat be used outside of Jazz? Warm up: NA Procedure and Motivation: I will begin the lesson with a pre-assessment asking if any students have heard of scat and if so if they can share with us what they know. Since this is a pre-assessment, I will not comment a great deal on their answer; this will prevent them from feeling judged. I want them to feel open and safe for future pre-assessments. Next I will share a few YouTube clips of some entertaining scat examples as an anticipatory set. 1) Jason Mraz on his use of scat in the song writing process: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=k9naL64p5o4 2) Bobby McFerrin Scatting the Alphabet song on Sesame Street with cast members.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIqM8eGydC0&feature=fvwrel

Next I will examine the historical origins of scat in early 20th century jazz. I will share the myth that Louis Armstrong invented scatting, which was later contested by older jazz musician Jelly Roll Morton. I will take the students through the decades revealing scats refinement and evolution with singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Torme. I will share YouTube clips of these fine examples: 3) Ella Fitzgeralds rendition of One Note Samba: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=PbL9vr4Q2LU 4) Mel Tormes rendition of Pick Yourself Up where hes prompted by the piano player at the 2 minute mark to scat in a fashion outside of jazz. He begins to scat a melody in the style of J.S. Bach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFczWMwzvns I will ask students to critique what they heard in these clips. This lesson will likely span two classes. In the second half, I will discuss how scat singing has evolved over the years. We will explore more recent and current day examples of singers breathing new life into the singing style as well as using it as a creative song writing tool. This

discussion will center around the genre bending vocal innovations of Bobby McFerrin as well as the trend setting pop-tinged singer/songwriter Jason Mraz. The students will also view Scatman Johns video for song Scatman, a dance song from the mid-1990 where scat was a featured prominently alongside rapped vocals about scatting. 5) Bobby McFerrin doing one of his famed audience participation jams: http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdVypcHaoi8&feature=related

6) Scatman Johns Scatman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Geiq0FP13uQ Materials: Laptop, external speakers, SmartBoard for projecting the video. Assessment: For the first of these two classes, the students will hand in an exit slip, on which they will write The thing I enjoyed the most about the scat history lesson is... and why..., followed by the thing I still don't quite understand/have a question about or would like to learn more about is.... This assessment will check for comprehension and check for students finding or not finding relevance in the topic. The second of the two classes will ask students to make a journal entry in which they contemplate a present day singer who they can envision adding scat to their songs in a skillful and stylistically appropriate way or whether they do not see this as a possibility. They should also provided sufficient justification and rationale.

Homework or Product: Students will be asked to find one example of a song in any genre were the singer scats.

Second Lesson Plan for Scat by Dave Allu Objective: Students will be shown how to scat. They will be able to analyze scat from a vocal perspective as well as applying music theory rules in order to conclude how to produce an improvised scat passage. This lesson will explore the how tos of scat. I.e. How syllables are linked and modified to produce different phrases. In addition, we will look at scales and arpeggios that function as building blocks for scatted improvisation. However, a strong emphasis will be placed upon using ones ear to determine appropriateness of pitch. Theoretically a student could scat by ear alone. Nevertheless possessing the theory tools will undoubtedly make their note selections much better as well as provide fodder for practicing singing different intervals. Standards used: 1.1.12.B.1, 1.3.12.B.2, 1.3.12.B.1, 1.3.12.B.2, 1.3.12.B.3, 1.3.12.B.4, 1.4.12.A.2, and 1.4.12.B.2 Essential Question(s) to Contemplate: Can Singers Improvise? How and why? What are the differences between quality scatting and cheap imitation? Warm up: Some basic vocal warmups will be done before we beginning singing scales and arpeggios. We will do some gentle stretching, long slow exhalations on Ssss, lip trills and sirens. Procedure and Motivation: I will begin the lesson by performing a scatted passage and asking students to listen so that they can tell me what they noticed about how I went about scatting. Some of the discussion prompts I can use are: 7) What kind of melodic contour did you notice? Did my melody stay stagnant on one note while I varied the syllables and/or rhythm? Did my choice of pitches go up or down? Stepwise or skip-wise? What did you notice about the rhythms? Was I always on the down beat? Did I use syncopation? Was I ahead of or behind the beat? After this brief discussion, I will explain that we need to know in order to begin scatting. Ideally we need to have a base of music theory and vocal theory knowledge in order to scat well. Otherwise, you can end up sounding like a cheesy lounge singer. I will review the scales and arpeggios on the handout for this lesson. Part 2 of this lesson: Second day I will use this part of the lesson to explore how nonsense syllables are constructed to create aesthetically pleasing and humor-free scat lines. Of course, the generation of non-sense syllables borders on the absurd and humorous. So I am sure as we are experimenting with putting random

syllables together, we will have some fun and a few laughs at a few combinations that are bound to sound silly. We will also deconstruct a few revered scat recordings and mine them for stylistic elements of syllabic formation, using my highlights of scat playlist. 1. Jelly Roll Morton: Scat Song 2. Louis Armstrong: Hotter Than Hot 3. Bing Crosby and The Mills Brothers: Dinah 4. Sarah Vaughn: Shulie-A-Bop 5. Bobby McFerrin: I Hear Music Materials: Laptop, external speakers, SmartBoard for projecting the handout. Homework and Assessment: I will ask each of the students to use the information from this lesson to compose there own scat line of 8 measures. Each composition should include at least one ascending stepwise passage, at least one descending stepwise passage, two different types of arpeggios. Each composition should have syllables assigned to the note and one of each of the following: a consonant with a soft attack, a mellow perceived attack and a bright sharp attack.

Scat Consonants: The consonant in scatting is what dictates the attack. For instance, the K or Kuh sound has a sharp, percussive and bright attack. It can be used to start a more spirited

phrase. While D or B generally are thought of as more mellow and warmer. M and N are harder for the listener to perceive, therefore are good to begin a phrase that swells with a Crescendo or has a very light and delicate attack. F is a strange one. F could be sharp of mellow, which I will explain in class. Below is a chart that classies the consonants. The deliberate choice of scat syllables also is a key element in vocal jazz improvisation. Syllable choice inuences the pitch articulation, coloration, and resonance of the performance. Syllable choice also differentiated jazz singers' personal styles: Betty Carter was inclined to use sounds like "louie-ooie-la-la-la" (soft-tongued sounds or liquids) while Sarah Vaughan would prefer "shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooobee" (fricatives, stop consonants, and open vowels). The choice of scat syllables can also be used to reect the sounds of different instruments. The comparison of the scatting styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan reveals that Fitzgeralds improvisation mimics the sounds of swing-era big bands with which she performed, while Vaughans mimics that of her accompanying bop-era small combos. (1) Soft Attack M or N Mellow But Perceived Attack B, D, F (with reduced emphasis), G (as in good), H, Ch (as in Cherokee), S (excellent of cymbal or brush snare drum sounds), L P (depending upon dynamic level), Q (as in Quick) W (as in Wash) Y (as in Young) Bright and Sharp Attack C (as in Cat), F (with strong emphasis), J (as in Jeep), K as in (Koala), P (depending upon dynamic level) R T V Z

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scat_singing

Third Lesson Plan for Scat by Dave Allu Objective: In the classes held for this lesson students will be led through creating and generating their own scat improvisations. At the end of this lesson, students will know where and how to start an improvisation as well as how to proceed once they have begun improvising. Standards used: 1.1.12.B.1, 1.3.12.B.2, 1.3.12.B.1, 1.3.12.B.2, 1.3.12.B.3, 1.3.12.B.4, and 1.4.12.B.2 Essential Question(s) to Contemplate: Can Singers Improvise? How and why? Can scat be used outside of Jazz? What are the differences between quality scatting and cheap imitation? Warm up: Some basic vocal warmups will be done before we beginning singing scales and arpeggios. We will do some gentle stretching, long slow exhalations on Ssss, lip trills and sirens. Procedure and Motivation: After the warm-up, I will begin the lesson by performing a series of call and responses with the students as a group. This will get their creative juices flowing by giving them inspiration on how to form some of their own scat phrases. I will show them how we can take a tunes original melody and replace the words with syllables; that is a good place to begin getting used to scatting. Next we will embellish or change the rhythm, but otherwise leave the note choices unaltered. After that, we will stick to the original tunes rhythm, but modify the notes/intervals. Lastly, we will alter both the notes/intervals and rhythm of the original melody. Towards the end of this first class, I will then have them listen the backing tracks that we will scat over. I will ask them to discuss briefly what they noticed about each track regarding its overall quality and character. I will have them download these tracks at home from Blog that I will set up for my classes. This will enable them to listen to the tracks and rehearse them at home for homework. In the second class in this lesson, we will warm-up and do a few minutes of call and response. I will provide performance feedback. Next I will have students volunteer to scat over their favorite backing track and I will provide more performance feedback. I will also encourage other students to provide encouragement while I balance it out with any other constructive feedback or nurturing comments. I have created a rubric that will be used for this activity as well as used for the Final Project. The next two classes will follow this format as well, until all the students have had multiple chances to get up in front of the class; this depends upon the class size.

Homework and Assessment: Homework will be to rehearse with the backing track. The Assessment will be in the form of performance feedback with the associated rubric for this lesson, which I will fill out and provide notes to each student.

Final Project for Scat Unit by Dave Allu Following lesson three, students have had time to practice improvising using scat over backing tracks. As our culminating project, I will use Garage Band to record each of our students scatting over a segment of the backing tracks. They should uses all the performance feedback I have given them individually to attempt their best performance yet! This will be done essentially as a summative assessment and to document their achievements for us all to enjoy listening to again at a later date.