Rock Music Notes

Rock and Roll Music

The 1950s:
began in the 1950s in America is a combination of rhythm n blues and country and western aspects from rhythm n blues included a prominent bass line, 12 bar blues chord pattern and amplified guitars. aspects from country and western included a melodic style, the bass drum and strumming the chord pattern is referred to as the 12 bar blues pattern White parents were upset by rock and roll music due to its blatant reference to sex and the misleading and corruption of white teenagers by Negro music Bill Hayley and the Comets sang Round The Clock, See Ya Later Alligator and Shake Rattle And Roll The instruments used by Bill Hayleys group included semi-acoustic guitar, double bass, a simple drum kit, saxophone and steel guitar Other rock n roll singers included Chuck Berry, Jerry Lea Lewis and Little Richard Rock and roll was changed over time to cater for a white audience

Elvis Presley- Case Study

often called the King of Rock and Roll born January 8th 1935 and died August 16 1977 began his career at 19 years old was made popular by mediums such as television and radio went into military service in 1958 sang styles including country, pop ballad, gospel(from church) and blues won 3 Grammy awards but was nominated for 14 died suddenly at 42 years old; his death compromised by prescription drugs originally disc jockeys and radio stations feared that he sounded like a black artist; blending two different types of music. had back up musicians including Winfield Scotty Moore, Bill Black and Gordon Stokes. pianist was Floyd Cramer, guitarist was Chet Atkins; his big band leaders (who were brothers) were Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey was called a gutbucket blues singer, a raucous rocker and a performer who could be all things sang in church since 2 years old his music became known as the rockabilly style he respected Afro-Americans and disregarded the norms and racial prejudice prevalent in the South had hit songs including Jailhouse Rock, Stuck On You, Surrender, Shes Not You and The Wonder of You

The 1960s
popular singers and bands included Bobby Vee, Bobby Vincent, Pat Boone, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Darnn and Fabian the doo wop groups: sung love ballads was predominantly of vocal interest was made up of a quartet has a deep base, a harmony inner voice (x 2) and either a high tenor or a falsetto (high pitch) voice for the melody

included Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Dion and the Belmonts and The Diamonds Surf rock was popular in America on beach communities on the west coast which promoted the surfing life Surf rock owes much to the black origins of rock and roll; including the use of 12 bar blues and the importance of vocal styles An important group was the Beach Boys It had a distinctive sound with the combination of electric guitar with amplified steel guitar The folk rock has been popular because it deals with social and poltical issues. The influence and music of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and the link between politics and folk music The addition of the electric bass guitar and the drum kit, folk rock music began and is attributed to Bob Dylan Other artists included Paul Simon, Arta Garfunkell and Peter, Paul and Mary/ Joan Baez These four styles of American popular music, clean cut ballad singers, doowop groups, surf rock and folk rock although highly successful represented the end of Americas supremacy over popular music for some time In the early 1960s, the popularity of rock music left America and went to England; a group that became famous was the Beatles

The 1970s
The standard 4 instrument team became popular : bass guitar rhythm guitar (electric) lead guitar (electric) drums The vinyl record became popular to play recordings The vocal part was still more prominent than instruments, but the volume was becoming more equal to backing instruments Powercords was popular. This is a heavier, stronger sound Ostinatos are very common Bass guitar was commonly used Popular rock groups include ABBA, the Eagles, Midnight Oil and Led Zeppelin

The 1980s:
Breakdance became popular. Rock styles include: rap funk (heavy rhythm and bass instruments) Electronic equipment became the way of producing sound: e.g. guitars and effect, microphones and the amplification of other instruments Sequencing became popular

Guitar Legends:
Amplifier, speakers, electric guitar, leads, two pick ups, bass guitar, volume and tone control, pickups The difference between a rhythm(electric) guitar and a bass guitar is that the bass guitar has a larger fingerboard The worlds greatest guitarists include B.B.King, Les Paul, Stanley Clark, John Mclaughlin, George Benson, and Joe Satriani The electric guitar was invented in American when the rural blues men moved to the cities to make their acoustic guitars in an urban environment The electric acoustic guitar was the initial step in making the guitar louder. But the problem with this technique was that Les Paul found one string louder than another string and the sound was not equally reliable Les Paul tried to create an electric guitar with a log piece in the year 1941.

At that point the Gibson guitar factory was founded. Leo Fender started making the solid body guitar without the hollow section inside and became the standard shape from then onwards. Charlie Christian was brilliant in changing rhythm guitar playing into playing lead guitar T-Bone Walker was the person who drew from jazz style and country style to create his own style of guitar playing Djano Reinhardt was known for his ability to make the guitar sing Bo Didley (with the square guitar) was responsible to inventing the scratch effect when the guiar was strummed. This effect is percussive as Bo loved the drums. Chuck Berry helped supply the new guitar music to a white audience. Elvis Presley was also able to make rock n roll music available because he was white. Rock and roll was the first rock music style that took the American populations interst and this was symbolised and expressed by the guitar.

The Drum Kit: Ride cymbal, Crash cymbal, hi hats, tom-toms, snare/side drum, bass drum and floor tom-toms is a set of different instruments considered as one instrument. The snare drum : is a small horizontal drum produces dry rattling sounds is positioned in front of the player The bass drum: is positioned at the players feet is struck by a padded stick connected with a lever to a foot pedal gives off a large low thumping sound The tom-toms: surround the player on stands can be tuned to different pitches the floor tom tom is the largest The cymbals: complete the drum kit are circular metal discs that produce shattering metallic sounds when struck are either the ride, crash or the hi hats ride cymbal used to play rhythmic patterns crash cymbal used for accenting and marking climaxes hi hats are made up of two cymbals. A spring action foot lever is connected to the lower hi hat that brings the lower cymbal in front of the higher one when playing sometimes wire brushes are used instead of wooden sticks to provide a different, softer effect sounds of the drum kit are available in an electronic module called a drum machine which has all the drum kit instruments as well as other percussion instruments must be connected to an amplifier to be heard and is controlled by a computer instrumental ostinatos sequences can be played during different sections of a song base drum in F, Floor Tom in A , Snare Drum in C, Tom tom in E and hi hat (cross) in G The twelve bar blues progression includes the first, fourth and fifth notes of a major scale The pattern progresses I, I, I , I ; IV, IV, I , I ; V, IV, I, I