What (is)

the Blues?

Akram

Najjar

2 / 49

You can download this Presentation

+ the List of Clips to be played at

karazwlaimoon.com

All Clips are found on YouTube

3 / 49

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?

7 / 49

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

9 / 49

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

10 / 49

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

11 / 49

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

12 / 49

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)

13 / 49

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”

15 / 49

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

16 / 49

Some of the Main Practices

that influenced the Blues and

gave Jazz “The Unexpected”

17 / 49

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

18 / 49

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

21 / 49

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

23 / 49

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

24 / 49

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!

25 / 49

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

26 / 49

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

27 / 49

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

28 / 49

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

30 / 49

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

31 / 49

C) Pentatonic Examples

2) Pentatonic on the Piano

3) Sudani Song: Ashrat Ayyam (Pentatonic Scale)

4) Bobby McFerrin: demonstrates prevalence of Pentatonic Scale

C

32 / 49

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

34 / 49

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

35 / 49

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

36 / 49

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 . . . .

37 / 49

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

38 / 49

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

42 / 49

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

44 / 49

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

45 / 49

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

46 / 49

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

47 / 49

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.

48 / 49

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?