A Creative Introduction to 'Railroad Blues' by Ben Crosland
A wonderful introduction to improvising the 12 bar blues
If you’ve taught any exams over the last years you’ve almost certainly come across Ben Crosland’s wonderful music. Many of the exam boards have recognised that he’s got a real knack for original twists on jazz staples and that his lyrical contemporary pieces are always gorgeous. I find students enjoy playing his music just as much as I love teaching it.
Creative activities for Ben’s ‘Railroad Blues’ were requested by Janet Denham. Thanks Janet! (If you have a piece you’d like some suggestions for, make a request in the comments below).
‘Railroad Blues’ features in the latest edition of the Trinity Grade 2 syllabus. It’s from a forthcoming book called Jazz Beans published by Editions Musica Ferrum.
How to teach a “Creative Introduction”
First, download the PDF and print off a copy for you and your student. (Feel free to print as many as you like!)
This new series of Creative Introductions are in two parts.
The first part is a duet designed for when you start teaching the piece. It helps your student understand the tonality and metre of the piece. They’ll play the scale (or scales!) in time with an accompaniment based on the original piece. There are a bunch of challenges to complete, including improvising, and I’ve included some suggestions to get them started with improvising.
The second part is designed to be used after your student has learnt the piece. It prompts them to think about how they could change it. This is a great opportunity to get them improvising and to review theory topics. Enthusiastic students might go so far as to write their own variation of the piece, which gives you an opportunity to improve their notation skills.
I hope you and your students enjoy getting creative with Railroad Blues!
Requests are welcome!
I love writing these, especially when I know they get used. If you’d like me to write one for a piece you enjoy, let me know in the comments.
This post is SO useful! It's not at all easy to teach improvisation on piano. I agree that starting with the blues a great idea for many students. In my journey to improvising on piano, I didn't learn the blues until later--I started with the 16 and 32-bar chorus. And, eventually, when I started playing the blues, it made all of my jazz playing better!