Lesson 1: Learning “Little Red Rooster”

Meet Eric

• Meet Eric on SG29.

Explore Expression and Emotion with “Little Red Rooster”

• Listen to “Little Red Rooster,” Track 26, without the words.
• Explain to students that this kind of music is called the blues.

  • What does it mean when someone says they’ve got the blues?
  • What emotion do you think Eric is feeling? How would you describe the way that Eric is singing the song? What do you think he is trying to tell us about the way he is feeling?

• The blues is a kind of music in which the lyrics often describe hard situations. Blues songs are not always sad songs, however. Even though the lyrics are sometimes sad, the way the singer sings can make us feel good.
• Discuss expression and emphasis with your students.

  • How can you tell when someone is feeling happy or sad? (e.g., the way they look, what they say,
    facial expression)
  • Expression is the way someone says something to communicate an emotion or feeling. In music, we can communicate how we want people to experience the feeling of the song by singing the words and playing the music a certain way.
  • The way we sing is as important as what we sing.

• One way to add expression is to give more emphasis or special importance to that part of the song by playing it or singing it differently than the previous parts.
• Write the sentence “I walked to school all by myself” on the board, or use SG30. See how many different emotions you can communicate emphasizing different parts of the sentence.
• Invite students to take turns trying to say the sentence by putting more emphasis on the part of the word that is underlined.

Sing”Little Red Rooster” with Expression

• Listen to the whole song and learn the first verse to “Little Red Rooster,” Track 27. As students learn the song, encourage them to notice and imitate the words that Eric emphasizes.

  • How do you think he is feeling when he is singing that part of the song? Why do you think he gives more expression to that word? (e.g., He is feeling sad/serious, he is feeling frustrated, he wants things to be the way they were before, etc.)

• Invite students to try out different kinds of expression with the chorus. Try a happy version, an excited version, and a sad version.

Learn more about the blues and hear live blues performances at savannahmusicfestival.org. (See Additional Resources.)

Musical Word Wall

Add the words blues, expression, and emphasis to the Musical Word Wall.

PDF Downloads

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SG30 ↓ Download File