Feelin' Jazzy

There's something infectious about a happy swing tune. Especially one where you get to snap, scat, and whisper "Yeah" a lot. Despite the popularity of contemporary rock, hip hop, pop, and country styles (among others) with younger crowds, it seems like jazz will always find a following of its own. Of course, jazz is not one specific style any more than say, rock is any one specific style. But there are some elements to jazz that make it more recognizable as such, especially to kids. For example: the use of a traditional-sounding big band or jazz ensemble that includes trumpets, trombones, saxes, and rhythm section. The use of swing style - that is, the interpretation of eighth notes (usually) as parts of triplets instead of duplets providing an underlying current of three pulses per beat - might also denote a jazz piece, though not necessarily always. In fact, a lot of hip hop also "swings," even though we don't call it that. But that's another story for another time.

In the case of "Feelin' Jazzy," pretty much all of these elements are included. There's the jazz band accompaniment, which you could hear more clearly on the instrumental version of our superb Performance/Accompaniment recording, if you wish to share and discuss it with yours students. And yes, there's the element of swing, which is indicated on the music at the top by the parenthetical notation with the eighth notes and triplets. (Note that even the dotted eighth and sixteenth rhythm is interpreted as a triplet, so that in this case, they swing, too.) There's also the optional snapping on beats 2 and 4, which is indicated on the music.

Then there's the "scat" singing. Technically, what we have here is a modified version of scat because we are providing the scat syllables. To really scat, singers would use ad libbed (made up on the spot) syllables, words, sounds, rhythms, effects - whatever inspires. But for our purposes, it's easier to do it this way so that all kids can join in. We've kept the syllables simple and easy to learn. There's also a pattern, so once your singers figure it out, it's more likely to stick. Here's a little tip: Have your singers relax the enunciation for the scats, which we found helped our singers stay with the beat (not rushing). If you want, you can write your own scat syllables, let the students do it, or just repeat the regular lyrics again, if that's easier. And of course, if you really want to let any or all of your singers scat for real (improvised), go for it!

There are a few teachable moments musically in this song, as you might imagine. The reference in the lyrics to instruments is most noticeable. We have even left a moment (bar 12 each time) when either the drummer or the bassist takes a mini solo for kids to hear.

This song would be particularly appropriate for use during Music In Our Schools Month (March), though it certainly works any time. If you add a little movement, some easy gestures, props or even costumes, you could program this as a jazz feature for your spring concert, MIOSM performance, music video, part of your touring repertoire, or any other way you can dream up. But truly, if all you do is use this tune in your music class, we still think your kids will dig it. Yeah.