musi
Maria Castro 
blues.pptxThe Blues
Objectives
Describe the blues in terms of text and harmonic progression.
Identify the vocal and instrumental timbre of early blues.
List the melodic and rhythmic characteristics found in the blues.
Classify four types of blues and name a performer of each type.
What Is the Blues?
Influence
Since the early 1960s, blues has been the most important single influence on the development of Western popular music.
Jazz
Rock
Country
A Musical Form AND a Feeling
“Blues” = state of mind
16th century “blue devils”
Condition of melancholy or depression
After Civil War = music that expressed such a mental state among the African-American population
A blues performer sings or plays to rid himself of “the blues.”
Origins: Rooted in Spirituals
Work songs from plantations (Civil War)
Sharecropping field hollers (Reconstruction)
Cotton cultivation
Levee workers
Mule-skinners
Field hands in rice and sugar plantations
Southern penitentiary farms until 1950s
Elements of the Blues
Sound: Timbre
Solo voice
Gritty timbre
Slides from one note to another
Accompanying instrument
Guitar = acts as second voice (“responds”)
Harmonica
Harmony
12-bar progression (I, IV, and V chords)
4 measures for each line of text
Line 1 I _ _ _ I _ _ _ I _ _ _ I _ _ _
Line 2 IV _ _ _ IV _ _ _ I _ _ _ I _ _ _
Line 3 V _ _ _ IV _ _ _ I _ _ _ I _ _ _
(repeated for each succeeding stanza)
Melody and Rhythm
Blues singers lower certain notes of the scale
3rd, 7th, and sometimes 5th
Neither major nor minor = creates tension
Quadruple meter
“Shuffle” rhythm
long-short, long-short, long-short, long-short
Growth
Texts: full of feeling, though not always sad
Poetry uses AAB form
A Now listen baby, you so good and sweet,
A Now listen baby, you so good and sweet,
B I want to stay ‘round you, if I have to beg in the street.
Types of Blues
Country or Delta Blues (1900s)
Male singer accompanied by acoustic guitar
Flourished in rural settings throughout South
Robert Johnson (1911-1938)
Standardized the 12-bar pattern
Created innovative guitar style
Influenced Keith Richards, Eric Clapton
Poisoned by a jealous husband at a jook joint
Highways 61 and 49
I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees.
I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees.
Asked the Lord above, “Have mercy, now, save poor Bob, if you please.”
Stand at the crossroad, I tried to flag a ride.
Stand at the crossroad, I tried to flag a ride.
Didn’t nobody seem to know me, everybody pass me by.
Classic Blues (1920s)
Female singers from vaudeville
Piano and one instrument (cornet, trombone)
Jazz combo (piano, bass, drums)
Bessie Smith (1894-1937)
“Empress of the Blues” (Chattanooga TN)
1929 film St. Louis Blues
Recorded about 200 songs
Highest-paid black performer 1924-1927
I woke up this morning with an awful achin’ head,
I woke up this morning with an awful achin’ head,
My new man had left me, just a room and a empty bed.
Bought me a coffee grinder, got the best one I could find.
Bought me a coffee grinder, got the best one I could find.
So he could grind my coffee, ‘cause he had a brand new grind.
He’s a deep sea diver with a stroke that can’t go wrong.
He’s a deep sea diver with a stroke that can’t go wrong.
He can stay at the bottom and his wind holds out so long.
He knows how to thrill me, and he thrills me night and day.
He knows how to thrill me, and he thrills me night and day.
He’s got a new way of loving, almost takes my breath away.
Oh, he’s got that sweet somethin’, and I told my girlfriend Lou.
Oh, he’s got that sweet somethin’, and I told my girlfriend Lou.
From the way she’s raving, she must have gone and tried it, too.
Urban Blues (1930s)
Great Depression
Many rural workers moved from Deep South
Northern cities offered in factories and mills
Detroit
Cleveland
New York
Chicago
Added electric guitars
Formed combo groups (drums and piano)
Creative use of microphone (harmonica)
Muddy Waters (1915-1983)
McKinley Morganfield from Clarksdale MS
Moved to Chicago’s South Side in 1943
Got My Mojo Workin’ (1966)
Early Rhythm and Blues
Crossover to rock and roll / jazz
Expanded instrumental sections (horns)
B. B. King (b. 1925-2015)
“King of the Blues”
Electric guitarist (“Lucille”)
Born Riley B. King in Itta Bena, Mississippi
Gave himself nickname Blues Boy (B.B.)
Let’s Write the Blues!
Write two stanzas of 12-bar blues.
My day has been so lonely, I think that I’ll just cry.
My day has been so lonely, I think that I’ll just cry.
Keep wishing for my baby, but my baby told me goodbye.
Verse 1: Verse 2:
A A
A A
B B
Expand Your Playlist
Artists
Movies
O Brother, Where Art Thou
Ray (Ray Charles)
Cadillac Records
Bessie Smith
Downhearted Blues
Ma Rainey and Louis Armstrong
Jelly Bean Blues
Blind Willie Johnson
Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground
Mississippi Sheiks
Sitting on Top of the World
Howlin’ Wolf
Smokestack Lightning
T-Bone Walker
Call It Stormy Monday
Junior Wells
Messin’ with the Kid
Jesse Fuller
San Francisco Bay Blues
Johnny Cash
Big River
Chuck Berry
Promised Land
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Pride and Joy
Ray Charles
Georgia on My Mind
Objectives
Describe the blues in terms of text and harmonic progression.
Identify the vocal and instrumental timbre of early blues.
List the melodic and rhythmic characteristics found in the blues.
Classify four types of blues and name a performer of each type.
