Post on 15-Mar-2020
What (is)
the Blues?
Akram
Najjar
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You can download this Presentation
+ the List of Clips to be played at
karazwlaimoon.com
All Clips are found on YouTube
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Apologies – Time is the Constraint . . .
If your favorite blues singer is not featured
If some clips are not completed
The talk should finish at 8:30 ---
But I will go on till the last person leaves
Why “Blues” ? Both Sources “Unconvincing”
Origin 1: 17th-century English expression “the blue devils”
Intense visual hallucinations that can accompany alcohol withdrawal.
The blues came to mean a state of agitation or depression.
“Blue” was slang for “drunk” by the 1800s.
Also “blue laws” still prohibit Sunday alcohol sales in some of the United States
Origin 2: derived from mysticism involving “blue indigo”
Used by West Africans in mourning ceremonies
Mourners’ garments were dyed blue to indicate suffering
Associated with indigo plant in southern US slave plantations and with West African slaves who sang of suffering
Blues and the
Evolution of Early
Jazz and Pop
Ragtime Stride
Boogie
Woogie
Rock n’
Roll
Early
Jazz
Brass Band
Marches
Blues
Rhythm and
Blues
Honky
Tonk
20s
50s
20s
30sSoul / Pop /
Latin / Country
African
Music
Spirituals
(Sacred)
So What Makes a Song a
Blues Song?
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Four Major Features
A. African Musical Practices
B. Musical Practices developed by the “Slaves” in Southern USA (under European influence)
C. The Blue Scale, Blue Notes and the Pentatonic Scale
D. The 12 Bar Song
Notice: we did not include the mood as a feature
Not every sad song is blue
And not every blue song is sad
A) African
Musical Practices
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A) African Roots In Africa, music was functional
It was linked to everyday life:
Birth / Death / Marriage / Exorcism
Agricultural Events / Calendar Events
Sicknesses / Woes / Religious Feasts
Music was also found in:
Work Songs / Field Hollers (Communications)
Film: Amandla!: A Revolution in 4-Part Harmony
“Professional” musicians were not common
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Characteristics of African Music
The Body is part of the music:
Clapping / Swaying / Pounding a Stick / Dancing
Music is Communal
Everyone sang or took lead
Call and Response: two phrases
1) A question or a statement
2) A response, an answer or a comment – sometimes instrumental
Riffs: musical phrases indefinitely repeated
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More . . .
Irregular Vocal Characteristics . . . .
Raspy Tones / Buzzes / Falsetto / Bending Tones
Pure or beautiful voices were neither required nor common
Perfect mastery of instruments was also not a requirement
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The Drum Family Dominated African Music
Group performance
Poly-rhythms or Cross
Rhythms = the simultaneous use of 2 or more conflicting rhythms
Syncopation, Hemiola
(The banjo started life as a percussion instrument)
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Examples: Works Songs / Hollers / Etc.
1) Call and Response: Work Songs in a Texas Prison
2) Field Holler
3) Field Holler (French Clip)
4) Bessie Smith: Ma Man’s Gotta Heart like Rock n Steel
5) Polyrhythm 3-4 : a visual example
6) Riff + Call and Response: Glenn Miller: In the Mood
7) Call and Response: Miles Davis – So What
A
B) Musical Practices
Developed by the
“Slaves”
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B) Musical Practices developed by the “Slaves”
Generally, under European musical influences
Instruments and Scales
Slaves were taught music to play in funeral and street bands
Slaves were also influenced by sacred singing or spirituals
Slaves sang sorrowful lyrics about unsatisfied love
Curiously, not about slavery
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Some of the Main Practices
that influenced the Blues and
gave Jazz “The Unexpected”
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B1) Offbeat Melodies
Offbeats: a singer or a player plays or sings a note just before/after the beat
1) Billie Holiday was the GENIUS who mastered that
A Sailboat in the Moonlight with Lester Young
Bob Dylan was a master of off-beat singing
B
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B2) Swung Notes: Changing the Beat
Blues/Jazz musicians use a beat that has triplets
They then remove the middle note in the triplet
Removal is a common feature in the blues . . . .
2) Swung Note Demonstration on Guitar
B
B2) Swung Notes:
A Contribution of the Blues to Jazz
B2) Swung Notes:
Remove the Middle Note of Triplets
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B3) The Blues also Gave Bent Notes . . .
A blues singer will not jump from one note to another
He or She will “glide” going through all the tones in between
This also applies to instruments
3) Bent Notes on Guitar
4) Bessie Smith in Backwater Blues
B
C) The Blue Scale,
the Blues Notes and
the Pentatonic Scale
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The Standard Western Scale
With the Greeks, music consisted of 7 notes – No more
Pythagoreans fixed the frequencies of each note
The frequency of each note must be a whole number ratio higher thanthe previous note: 5/4, 4/3, etc.
If you pluck a string, you will get C
And most of the other “overtones”
C = 1 C
D = 9/8 C
E = 5/4 C
F = 4/3 C
G = 3/2 C
A = 5/3 C
B = 15/8 C
C' = 2 C
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And . . . 5 Black notes were added hundreds of years later
Tuning instruments with 12 notes to meet Pythogoras’s rules was a Mathematical Pain
Early 18th century, mathematics intervened again
They fixed the frequencies of all 12 notes
(The Well Tempered Clavier)
Out of the scope of this talk!
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The 7 Notes and their Added Black Notes
C D E F G A B
C D E F G A BC# BbEb F# Ab
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si
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The Modern Scale (Western)
The distance from one note to another is called an Interval
The smallest interval is called a Semitone, say from C to C#
From C to D = Whole Tone or 2 Semitones
C D E F G A B C
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The Major Scale A modern Major Scale contains 7 notes
The intervals (semitones) are 2 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 -1
If you use the these same intervals, each of the 12 notes can be the start of a Major Scale
C D E F G A B
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So What is the Blue Scale?
It is the Major Scale BUT . . . .
1) We drop the second note AND
2) We flatten the 3rd, 5th and 7th notes
Flatten means they are replaced by the notes before them
Most likely, the Blue Scale was invented by the “Slaves”
Why is it “most likely”? (We will soon see why)
C Major Blues Scale (6 notes)Contains 3 Notes from C Major which are Flattened
C D E F G A BC# BbEb F# AbC Major
The Blue Scale Intervals:
3 – 2 – 1 – 1 – 3 - 2
C D E F G A BC# BbEb F# AbC Major Blue
The Blue Notes3
CX
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Let us Get to the Blue Scale from Another Side
The Pentatonic Scale is made up of 5 out of the 12 notes
The Intervals (semitones) are 2 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 1
Or the First / Second / Third / Fifth / Sixth notes of a Major scale
The C scale Pentatonic = C – D – E – G – A
The Pentatonic Scale is pervasive:
Chinese / Japanese / African / Celtic / Latin American / etc.
C D E F G A B
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C) Pentatonic Examples
2) Pentatonic on the Piano
3) Sudani Song: Ashrat Ayyam (Pentatonic Scale)
4) Bobby McFerrin: demonstrates prevalence of Pentatonic Scale
C
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Looking at it from another Angle: the Blue Scale
CC D E F G A BC# BbEb F# AbC Major Blue
CC D E F G A BC# BbEb F# AbC Major
E flat Pentatonic
C D E F G A BC# BbEb F# Ab CE Flat Penta
The Blue Notes
D) The 12 Bar
Three Minute Song
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The 16 Bar Songs / Melodies in Western Music . . . .
Most songs you know will be made up of 16, 32, 64 . . . bars
They will be grouped as: A – A – B – A
Usually, the first two A groups would be in the same key:
Group B goes to another key, phrase and melody
The last A group resolves the tension and returns to the initial key
This is a relaxed ending to the song
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D) 16 Bars --- 4 Sections --- 4 Bars each
1) George Harrison: The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
4 groups of 16 bars each . . . .
The second group is a refrain, completely different
2) Chuck Berry: Sweet Little Sixteen
3) Beethoven: Ode to Joy (Symphony Number 9)
Others? Happy Birthday, Our National Anthem, Jingle Bells, ….
D1
A A AB
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To Create More Tension,
a Blues Song Removes 2 Things
The last group of 4 bars is removed: A – A – B – A
The 12 bars now feel amputated
They leave a feeling of emptiness, tension
More Removals:
In each group of 4 bars, the first 2 bars are sung
The second 2 bars are left empty as an increase in “tension”
This is a kind of Call and Response
This space would later on be used to improvise on accompanying instruments
An example of Beatles genius follows . . . .
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D2) Standard 12 Bar Blues (more to come)
1) W. C. Handy: St. Louis Blues
2) Boogie Woogie – Bloms Boggie
3) Ursula Ricks: Early One Morning (Jimmy Williams)
4) Beatles: Birthday
D2
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And one more Critical “Reversal”
All songs are sung in a basic key: we call it the TONIC
There are 2 other keys related to the TONIC
The Sub-dominant
The Dominant
Most songs will “live” in these 3 keys
How are these related?
And why is the relationship important?
Keys Related to the Tonic (Starting) Key
Say we are playing in the Key of C = Tonic
The Sub-Dominant key is F which is of the 4th Note in C scale
The Dominant key is G which is the 5th Note in C scale
C D E F G A B
The 1-4-5 Sequence Known to All Musicians
Songs usually start in the Tonic (1) key
It then migrates to the Sub-Dominant (4) key
And then to the Dominant (5) key
The composer then resolves the tension by returning to the Tonic (1)
1
4 5
1
How do the Blues “Disrupt” this Sequence?
C C C C
F F C C
G F C G
Woke up this morning,
blues hanging in my head
Woke up this morning,
blues hanging in my head
Ma woman left me,
just a room n’ an empty bed . . . . .
A
A
BThe Turnaround
D2
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D3) Sometimes, we find 8 Bar Blues
First Form: 1 – 5 – 4 – 4 / 1 – 5 – 1 - 5
Second Form: 1 – 1 – 4 – 4 / 1 – 5 – 4 – 5
Third Form: 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 / 5 – 4 – 1 – 5
All end on the 5th!
Big Bill Broonzy: Keys to the Highway
Muddy Waters: Baby Please Don’t Go
John Lee Hooker (with Van Morrison): Baby Please Don’t Go
Billie Holiday: T’ain’t Nobody’s Business if I do
D3
We CANNOT Classify
the Blues
BUT . . . . We can Try
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D4) Country Blues (mid 1800s or earlier)
Blues Starts as a Vocal genre
Accompaniment? Sometimes none – sometimes a guitar
Lyrics
Dealt with the hardships of life
Mostly love issues – not slavery
Vocal Style
Very expressive
Voice quality not critical
Location: work camps, rural areas
Singers: mostly men
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Examples of Country Blues
1) Robert Johnson: Come on in my Kitchen
2) Blind Lemon Jefferson: See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (1928)
3) Peter Paul and Mary: See That My Grace is Kept Clean (Folk?)
4) Big Bill Broonzy: I Can't Be Satisfied (1930)
5) Big Bill Broonzy: Sun’s gonna shine in my backdoor
6) Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters (Country and Western?)
D4
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D5) Urban / City Blues (Late 1890s)
Accompaniment: piano or small bands
Lyrics: more sophisticated, problems of the heart, social issues, etc.
Vocal Style: more refined
Location: vaudeville, clubs, red light environment
Singers: usually women
Next? By mid 20s, Blues invaded Jazz
A lot of non-vocal blues
All types of instruments are used
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And in the Modern Period . . . . (Big Bands 30s)
Blues became pervasive - - - found in every genre
Blues is often found in
Pop Music, Rock, Latin American and Folk Music
Country and Western and Classical Music (Gershwin, Ravel)
Large schools of Blues blossomed in different areas
An important school is the British Blues
Early Eric Clapton (also with CREAM) / Georgie Fame
The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Alexis Korner, etc.
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Examples: Urban + Modern Blues
1) Thelonious Monk: Blue Monk
2) Dexter Gordon: Blue Monk
3) Jimi Hendrix: Red House
4) Georgie Fame: Bluesology (Milt Jackson)
5) Pentangle: I’ve Got a Feeling (A blues in waltz time)
6) Duke Ellington: C Jam Blues
7) Dave Brubeck: Blues Piece
8) Chucho Valdés - Blues
9) Miles Davis: Freddy Freeloader
D5
What is the
Epitaph
of a
Blues Singer?