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8th Grade  Project 4 weeks

Haunted Blues: Minor Keys, Major Myths

Virginia S
Updated
MU:Cn10.1.8
MU:Pr4.2.8.a
MU:Pr4.2.8.c
MU:Cn11.1.8
MU:Cr3.1.8.a
+ 19 more
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Purpose

Students investigate how music, folklore, and performance communicate mood, history, and place by combining minor-key 8- and 12-bar blues with Southern ghost stories. Through instrument study, dramatic scene building, weekly reflection circles, and critique-based revision, they make artistic choices that connect the blues tradition to stories shaped by post–Civil War migration, Appalachia, and the Harlem Renaissance. The work leads to a Halloween exhibition for families and community members where students present original blues-and-theatre pieces and gather audience feedback on the clarity of mood, time period, and expressive intent.

Learning goals

Students will analyze how minor-key 8- and 12-bar blues structures, repeated riffs, and expressive phrasing create mood, then apply that understanding in performance on guitar, ukulele, percussion, or xylophone. They will examine how post–Civil War blues traditions, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and Southern/Appalachian ghost folklore shape artistic choices in music and drama. Students will create, revise, and perform an original piece that combines blues accompaniment with a dramatized ghost story, using clear criteria to strengthen character, atmosphere, unity, tension, and emotional impact. They will also collaborate with peers, respond to feedback from weekly circle reflections and community artists, and communicate their intent to an audience at the Halloween exhibition.

Standards
  • [National Core Arts Standards] MU:Cn10.1.8 - Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing and responding to music.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] MU:Pr4.2.8.a - Compare the structure of contrasting pieces of music selected for performance, explaining how the elements of music are used in each.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] MU:Pr4.2.8.c - Identify how cultural and historical context inform performances and result in different musical effects.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] MU:Cn11.1.8 - Demonstrate understanding of relationship between music and the other arts, disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] MU:Cr3.1.8.a - Evaluate their own work by selecting and applying criteria including appropriate application of compositional techniques, style, form, and use of sound sources.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] MU:Cr3.2.8 - Present the final version of their documented composition, song, or arrangement, using craftsmanship and originality to demonstrate the application of compositional techniques for creating unity and variety, tension and release, and balance to convey expressive intent.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] MU:Pr5.1.8 - Identify and apply personally-developed criteria (such as demonstrating correct interpretation of notation, technical skill of performer, originality, emotional impact, variety, and interest) to rehearse, refine, and determine when the music is ready to perform.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] MU:Pr4.1.8 - Apply personally-developed criteria for selecting music of contrasting styles for a program with a specific purpose and/or context, and explain expressive qualities, technical challenges, and reasons for choices.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Cr1.8.c - Develop a scripted or improvised character by articulating the character’s inner thoughts, objectives, and motivations in a drama/theatre work.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Re9.8.b - Apply the production elements used in a drama/theatre work to assess aesthetic choices.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Re8.8.c - Apply personal aesthetics, preferences, and beliefs to evaluate a drama/theatre work.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Pr5.8.a - Use a variety of acting techniques to increase skills in a rehearsal or drama/theatre performance.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Re7.8.a - Apply criteria to the evaluation of artistic choices in a drama/theatre work.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Cr3.8.b - Refine effective physical, vocal, and physiological traits of characters in an improvised or scripted drama/ theatre work.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Cn11.2.8.b - Identify and use artifacts from a time period and place to develop performance and design choices in a drama/theatre work.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Pr4.8.b - Use various character objectives and tactics in a drama/theatre work to overcome an obstacle.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Pr6.8.a - Perform a rehearsed drama/theatre work for an audience.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Re8.8.b - Analyze how cultural perspectives influence the evaluation of a drama/theatre work.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Re9.8.a - Respond to a drama/ theatre work using supporting evidence, personal aesthetics, and artistic criteria.
Competencies
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.

Products

Students will create short minor-key 8- and 12-bar blues pieces on guitar, ukulele, percussion, or xylophone; scripted or improvised ghost-story scenes; and a shared performance plan that maps how music and drama connect. Throughout the project, they will produce rehearsal recordings, storyboards or simple scripts, character notes, and weekly reflection goals based on circle check-ins and critique. With support from community artists, each group will refine one paired blues-and-folklore piece that uses historical details, mood, and performance choices to convey a specific Southern time and place. The culminating product is a Halloween exhibition for families and community members featuring live blues performances with dramatized ghost stories, plus audience exit-ticket feedback on mood, time period, and artistic choices.

Launch

Begin with a “Midnight Blues Museum” experience: dim the room, play a live or recorded minor-key 8-bar and 12-bar blues groove on guitar, ukulele, percussion, and xylophone, and place short ghost-story excerpts and historical images from the post–Civil War South, the Great Migration, and the Harlem Renaissance around the room. Students rotate in groups, noticing musical patterns, mood, setting, and character details, then choose one story that could become a short skit. Invite a guest from Charleston Ghost Tours or a local theater artist to tell one regional ghost story aloud while a local blues musician demonstrates how phrasing, repetition, and minor sounds create tension. Close with groups creating a 30-second improvised tableau and soundscape that combines one blues riff with one haunting story moment, then share initial ideas for the Halloween exhibition.

Exhibition

Stage a Halloween evening performance for families, peers, and community guests in which each group presents a short minor-key 8- or 12-bar blues piece paired with a dramatized Southern or Appalachian ghost story. Invite Charleston Ghost Tours, a local blues musician, and a theater artist to serve as audience panelists who can notice how clearly students communicated mood, time period, and cultural context through music, character, and staging. Create a simple immersive setup with dim lighting, student-made program notes, and artifacts or props inspired by the historical setting so the exhibition feels like a living folklore showcase. End with audience exit tickets asking what haunting atmosphere, story details, and musical or acting choices came through most strongly.