ENGLISH 101
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Activity 1: Singing Along to the Blues
(ENG101)
​This activity can be quite exciting because it begins by asking students to sing (yes, in class). I understand that there might be some hurdles of awkwardness or shyness. However, by now students would have been asked to engage with the music by tapping along to the beat and humming melodies to whatever we listen to in class. This activity encourages them to engage with the music at the level of music itself, and not analysis.
As characterized by the theoretical framework above, encouraging creativity while being emotionally present and engaged in the art form (in this case music) is absolutely necessary for students to effectively grasp what “being rhetorical” truly means. This activity also encourages students to think about their cultural associations and personal connections with music that they may originally view as mundane or inconsequential. By having students connect the music they listen to in class to that which they personally relate to, their personal experiences and associations can be brought into discussion, emphasizing autonomy and experimentation.
Overview
This activity is part of the introduction to the concept of “exigence” to students. Prior to this, students will have explored different aspects of the expanded rhetorical situation, including socio-cultural and historical context.
Activity 1 Objectives
Prepare students to “respond” to the Blues, by participating in it and then asking questions of the music, the same way they would talk to a friend.
Estimated Duration
​The activity will most likely take a good 40 minutes. This is because you want to encourage relistening, rethinking and reinterpreting past the initial first impression. It is also important to account for different levels of engagement, and that it might take some time to get students to actually sing.
Breakdown of Activity 1
1
Introducing the Topic
(5 minutes)
You can begin with a brief class discussion, by asking students whether they’ve listened to songs that have the call and response format. You will most likely get people saying no. However, as you prod, get them to think of gospels or spirituals, with perhaps an example or two, you might see a glimmer of recognition in their eyes. It would be a bonus if someone in the class is able to mention a song that they’ve heard that has a call and response style.
2
Listening to the Music
(5 minutes)
The song that I would suggest is “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, as there are a variety of versions of the song, from Gospel, Blues, Jazz with a swing tempo, to Eric Clapton’s rock version. At the first listen students would simply have to clap or tap to the beat/rhythm.
3
Singing Along
(5 minutes)
Once the different parts are identified, the class can be divided into two (more if you are brave enough) parts: the ones that “call out” and the ones that “respond”. The song can be played again, with each groups singing their assigned part.
4
Class discussion
(15 minutes)
Class discussion (15 minutes)
From the singing we move to the analysis, where the questions provided by Jeffrey Carroll:
​
“Who did this blues talk to?
How did it talk?
What got talked back to this blues?
Was the talkback blues too?
What kind of language is this, anyway?”
​
I recommend that parts of the song be replayed and re-listened to that apply to relevant questions or ideas that come up in class.
Conclusion
The primary takeaway from the class has to be aesthetic pleasure that is then used to arrive at the rhetorical situation of both the song, and its form, which is this case is the “call and response”. This leads to, in the next class, conceptualizing, in a relatable way, the meaning of the term exigence. This process also lays the groundwork for arriving at an instinctive understanding of exigence required for final compositional assignment, the Public Awareness Campaign, where the idea of “call and response” will be recontextualized as the model for engaging with issues in the immediate surroundings of the students.