Improvisation is the heart of jazz, so it seems natural to include elements of jazz in your teaching from time to time. The introduction of jazz in your classroom gives students another palette of sounds to use in their improvising and opens their ears to notes outside the major pentatonic scale. In addition it gives them the opportunity to learn about one of America's own art forms. This collection is organized in three sections: Jazz Is Rhythm, Jazz Is Melody and Jazz Is Form. Each section follows the speech to body percussion to singing and playing instruments sequence used in Orff lessons. The CD features many speech and instrument echo examples, demonstration recordings of the Orff ensembles, and optional accompaniment tracks to accommodate improvising, many of which feature a rhythm section.