What is the meaning of jazz chant?

Jazz Chants are poems with repeated beats. The beat may vary depending on the idea of the reciter.

Example:

Meet Me

Meet me in the morningMeet me at noonMeet me in September

Meet me at midnight Meet me in the hallI'll meet you anytime you wantBut please don't be lateRate This Answer

Jazz chant is a poem that use jazz rhythms to illustrate the natural stress and intonation patterns of conversational American English. Jazz Chants provide an innovative and exciting way to improve your student's speaking and listening comprehension skills while reinforcing the language structures of everyday situation.

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Jazz chants are a unique way of linking the rhythm of natural spoken language to the rhythm of music. Jazz chants were first created by Carolyn Graham, undisputed queen of the genre, over 30 years ago. Carolyn was teaching ESL at New York University by day and working as a singer/piano player in bars at night when, as she has said, she ‘stumbled upon’ the brilliant idea of connecting the natural rhythms of spoken American English with the rhythms of traditional American jazz music in order to help her students develop speaking skills.

I learnt about jazz chants early on in my teaching career and quickly discovered what a  wonderful way they are to develop speaking skills both with adults (who I was also teaching at the time) and children. I soon found myself inspired by Carolyn to create my own chants to reflect the natural rhythms of the variety of English I speak i.e. British rather than American English, and have been writing them and using them with my classes regularly ever since.

The main feature of a jazz chant as opposed to a poem or rhyme is that there is no poetic licence or artificial change to the stress and intonation patterns of natural speech. Jazz chants also often take the form of an interchange or dialogue which display the natural give and take of everyday spoken language.

An example of a very simple jazz chant to practise greetings is as below. The first speaker is walking down the street and meets one friend in verse 1 and another in verse 2, with four rhythmic beats or ‘steps’ between each verse. Try clicking your fingers or tapping your fingers on your desk and saying the chant rhythmically out loud or in your head with natural stress and intonation as you read:

Hello.

Hi.

How are you?

I’m fine, thanks.

And me too.

Good morning.

Good morning.

How are you?

I’m OK. And what about you?

Me?  I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.

Jazz chants can also be used effectively to practise vocabulary and grammar. An example of a cumulative chant to practise farm animal vocabulary with young children before they listen to a story on the same theme is as below. As children listen to and say the chant it can be accompanied by actions to represent each animal: sheep – make circular movements with arms to show wool, duck – make a beak with your hands, cow – make horns with your fingers, horse – make ears with your hands, hen – make wings with your arms, cat – hold hands as paws:

On the farm by the river, there’s a sheep.

On the farm by the river, there’s a sheep and a duck.

On the farm by the river, there’s a sheep and a duck and a cow.

On the farm by the river, there’s a sheep and a duck and a cow and a hen.

On the farm by the river, there’s a sheep and a duck and a cow and a hen and a horse.

On the farm by the river, there’s a sheep and a duck and a cow and a hen and a horse

And a cat

And that is that!

An example of a grammar chant to practise the 3rd person present simple based on familiar story characters with slightly older children is as follows:

Davina likes lettuce but she doesn’t like peas.

Does Davina like lettuce? Yes, she does.

Does Davina like peas? No, she doesn’t.

Davina likes lettuce but she doesn’t like peas.

Freddie likes potatoes but he doesn’t like rice.

Does Freddie like potatoes? Yes, he does.

Does Freddie like rice? No, he doesn’t.

Freddie likes potatoes but he doesn’t like rice.

Before using jazz chants in class, we need to establish the context and pre-teach any new vocabulary. It’s also usually a good idea to set one or two pre-questions (e.g. What does Davina like? What does Freddie like? for the grammar chant above) and do an initial listening activity in which children show understanding of the chant. As children say and act out the chant, it can be helpful to use finger or pencil puppets as a prompt for each speaker, or flashcards, for example when children name the animals cumulatively in the vocabulary chant above. At first, you can divide the class in half to take turns to ask and answer questions (if the chant follows this pattern) and then change roles and repeat. As a follow-up, children can practise saying the chant in pairs or groups in preparation for ‘performing’ it to the rest of the class. With some chants, it may also be appropriate to get children to create their own parallel versions.

When using jazz chants with children, I like to take to class my collection of percussion instruments (see photo above) which children take turns to ask for (e.g. Can I have the tambourine, please?) and use to keep the rhythm and pace of the chant. This adds extra interest as well as a feeling of creating a spontaneous musical performance together. If you do use percussion, it

works best to get the rhythm going with the percussion instruments softly first and then count the children in to four as a cue to start saying the chant.

The main benefits of using jazz chants with children are:

They are motivating, memorable and fun. They add variety to language practice. They provide for lots of natural and enjoyable repetition. They allow for physical movement. They are non-threatening. They reinforce vocabulary and grammar. They improve all aspects of pronunciation. They develop fluidity and natural speed in speaking ‘chunks’ of

language. They provide opportunities for ‘rehearsal’ which helps children later

transfer the language to other contexts. They build up children’s confidence and help create a sense of

achievement and success.I’d love to hear your views of jazz chants and your experience of using them in class. Please do share!

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Carolyn Graham has published many books on jazz chants – two examples are Jazz Chants for Children and Creating Chants and Songs (OUP). You can also watch Carolyn Graham talking about teaching jazz chants on Youtube.

The greetings chant is from English Club, Carol Read & Sagrario Salaberri, Macmillan.

The farm animal chant is from Little Bugs 2, Carol Read & Ana Soberón, Macmillan.

The grammar chant is from Footprints 2, Carol Read, Macmillan.