Jazz Chants

Jazz Chants are exercises when students repeat rhythmically words and short phrases to music. Jazz Chant is a rhythmic expression of natural language which links the rhythms of spoken American English to the rhythms of traditional American jazz. A jazz chant is a fragment of authentic language presented with special attention to its natural rhythm. It is important to remember that jazz chanting is not like rapping, nursery rhymes, or songs, which distort the spoken language for poetic effect. The rhythms, stress and intonation pattern of the chant should be an exact replica of what the student would hear from an educated native speaker in natural conversation.

Here is an example of a Jazz Chant about Nicaragua:



Where are you from? I'm from Nicaragua

Where are you from? I'm from Nicaragua

I'm from Nicaragua, I'm from Nicaragua.

What's in Nicaragua? What's in Nicaragua?

There is coffee; There is tobacco

There is rice; There is corn

There are volcanoes; There are lakes.

There are beaches; There are rivers

There are jungles; There are islands

There are mountains; There are beautiful people