Music

Term 2 2015 By
Darcie James

Introduction To The Blues

San Diego's Blues Musicians 1999

Mississippi Blues Player- John Hurt

Blues is a vocal and instrumental music

form. Brought to the world by Africans
that were taken from their homes and
had to work as slaves on cotton and
vegetable farms in America. The slaves
and their descendants played a huge part
in creating music just from their mouths
and maybe some wood that would make
a peep of sound. Our ancestors have
created a world where we can escape
from the ordinary world and listen to
Heavy Rock or Pop or R/B Music, just by
the click of one button. Blues started off
in the 19th century in New Orleans and
suddenly people heard the sound of
magic. What was this new addition to our
world? Would this be the next big thing
for generations to come? Word was
spread and people started putting
sounds to their personal stories. These
stories were usually based off losses. Of
love, money, jobs and the list went on.
But the blues is not just about loss and
misfortune but can be of great success.

The Music
The Blues is not only all about the lyrics but about the structure/form and
instruments that are being played. The most common instruments involved in
typical blues music were the piano, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, double bass,
harmonica, saxophone, drums, trumpet and more. Vocals were very important
in the sense that they were what the artist is feeling and a way of expressing
what they were feeling was by putting instruments to the the words and
creating music.
The structure and form of a typical blues song is called a 12 Bar Blues. Many
artists have used this in many popular and famous blues songs. It also used as
a main part in a Boogie Woogie genre song. The Keys are as follows: C C C C , F
F C C, G G C C. Those chords in that order are the most common style but there
are many variations including key change and beat and melody change. You can
play the blues in any key and any progression as long as there is some
repetitiveness.
The Lyrics were always about sad depressing and blue times in ones life.
Hence the name THE BLUES. A typical lyrical piece of a blues song is from B B
King and Eric Claptons Three O'clock Blues.

Now here it is three o' clock in the mornin, and I can't even close my eyes.
It's three o' clock in the mornin', baby I can't even close my eyes. Well, you
know I can't find my baby I can't be satisfied. Well, now looked around me,
and my baby, she can't be found. I've looked around me, people, my baby,
she can't be found. Well, you know that if I don't find my baby, people, I'm
goin' down under the golden ground.

Repetition occurs in this extract and for the rest of the song. You may think that
the artists didnt have any other lyrics but it was just the way the blues was and
still is. Although these days repetition is used in Pop Songs partly because we
are lazy and we dont know what else to say.

Associate this genre with racial and

religious groups who have all migrated
to America

The racial and religious groups who all migrated to America

because of slavery, had a massive influence in making the
genre of the blues. The work songs they sang while working
from the rising to the falling of the sun on cotton farms.
African music influenced Americas music industry greatly
because of the many religious groups Africa had. Each
religious group came from totally different parts of Africa
hence their influences were varied. Many religious groups
had certain rituals which were used in blues music and
many other rituals were used to influence other genres.

Discuss the relationship between slavery, work

songs, rural life and church values in how they
combined to produce new music.

THE AFRICANS
WERE KIDNAPPED
FROM THEIR
ENVIRONMENT AND
TAKEN TO AMERICA
FOR SLAVERY
WORK. THE SLAVES
WERENT CHOSEN
INDIVIDUALLY IT
WAS A TOTAL
RANDOM GROUP OF
PEOPLE. MOTHERS
WERE SEPERATED
FROM DAUGHTERS
FATHERS FROM
SONS.

THE SLAVES WHILE

WORKING WERE
SINGING TO TAKE
THEIR MIND OFF THE
FACT THAT PICKING
COTTON WAS THEIR
LIFE. WHILE WORKING
THEY SANG TUNES
ABOUT THE HORRIBLE
LIFE.

WHEN THE SLAVES

WERE BROUGHT
BACK FROM THEIR
WORK, THEY WERE
NOT TAKEN TO THE
SURBURBAN AREAS
BUT TO
CAMPGROUNDS AS
CAPTURED AFRICANS

THE SLAVES WHERE

BROUGHT
TOGETHER AT A
GATHERING
CONSISTING OF
ONLY AFRICAN
AMERIACANS AND
STOOD AROUND A
CHURCH WHICH
WAS PROBABLY
BUILT BY
THEMSELVES AD
THERE THEY WOULD
ORAY FOR A BETTER
LIFE

ALTOGETHER THESE 4 FACTORS (SLAVERY, WORK SONGS, RURAL LIFE AND CHURCH) ALL WORKED
TOGETHER. EVEN THOUGH EACH ARE TOTALLY DIFFERENT ALL FACTORS ARE IMPORTANT WHEN
TALKING THE HISTORY OF THE BLUES AND HOW BAD THE LIFE WAS AND HOW THEIR LIVES CREATED
OUR RELIEVERS.

How have techniques from African Music

shaped the establishment of the blues
African Music
Techniques
The rhythmic tone and the percussive sounds of the
drums. Back in the days and still to this day, drums have
also been used for communication.
The lyrics of the work songs, have carried on and today in
blues we still sing about the problems in our lives but
more first world rather than third world.
Some of the common instruments played traditionally by
Africans are still to this day played in blues music.
- Harmonica, Acoustic Guitqr, Horns, Flutes, Piano
(thumb piano), Trumpets, Xylophones and Others.

Discuss ways in which non-African migrant

groups have contributed to the musical
features of the Blues.
I have chosen some other countries and their
migrants that may have influenced the blues music
and the music we have today. They are:

Irish

Many people believe that Irish music influenced the

blues, because of how alike their parallel societys
were. The Irish and Africans lives were both non
secure and were treated very poorly. This affected
their lives in huge ways and alike the Africans their
music was their way of escaping the life. When the
potato famine was a massive problem in Ireland all
Irishs lives were in danger. This is where the
connection comes in. Both countries were suffering
illness, Africa as slaves and Irish in starvation. Irish
were forcing themselves out of Ireland and off to
America for food.

Italian

The Irish Immigrants having their

sights gazed at the Statue of Liberty in
New York whilst potato famine
continued

Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues
http://musicians.allaboutjazz.com
http://www.internationalbluesmusicday.com/blueshistory.html

http://songwriting.songstuff.com/article/aab-songform/

http://encyclopedia.kids.net.au/page/bl/
Blues_music

https://classroom.google.com/c/Mjg1MTY1MDFa