MUSC 200 1st Edition Lecture 5Outline of Last Lecture I. Second Listening portionII. Blues Rootsa. Social Contextb. Musical ContextIII. General Musical Features of Bluesa. Lyric themesb. Musical concepts and definitionsIV. 12 Bar BluesOutline of Current Lecture II. The 12 Bar BluesA. Call and ResponseIII. Three Blues StylesA. RuralB. Classic/CityC. Boogie WoogieCurrent LectureThe 12 Bar Blues (cont.)/ I / % / % / % // IV / % / I / % // V / IV / I / V /- After the end of the third phrase, it loops back to the beginning- May have no final V chord and stay with I, this makes it difficult to mark the end of the last phrase and the beginning of the next- Turnaround: a chord or series of chords at the end of a progression to create harmonic tension and turn you back to the beginning o Last V chord in the third phrase is the turnaroundThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.- Blues notes: particular group of pitches to create more interesting melodies, essential to the blueso Flatted note: a note that is lowered a half-stepo Flat 3, Flat 5, Flat 7, and all the notes between the flat 3 and 3, flat 5 and 5, and flat 7 and 7o Flatted notes provide more options and expressive possibility- Historical speculation: blues notes are the result of the collision of West African musical intuitions and the Western tuning systemso Lots of different ways to tune instruments, different all around the world- Many genres draw on the expressive possibilities that the blues system allows- Call and Response: way of organizing melodies on the level of phrases and parts of phrases, very common in blues and African American music but not exclusive to those groupso Blues notes are used to create a melody on top of the 12 Bar Blues chord progression/ I / % /% / % // IV / % /I / % // V / IV /I / V /o Yellow shows the call, turquoise shows the response This is the simplest form of call and response. Many times the response would overlap with the call and there wouldn’t always be a clear division.o The call was typically one singer and the response was either a different singer or an instrument or group of instruments.Three Blues Styles- Rural Blues: came around at the turn of the 20th century, however this is not known for sure because blues was not recorded at this point. The recording businesses was all white at this timeand they either didn’t know about the blues, didn’t think it would last or be popular, or didn’t care. o Many blues musicians at this time were itinerant musicians and didn’t make it onto records until the 1920s o Rural blues were performed with one singer accompanying himself/herself  Didn’t have to coordinate with other musicians, which allowed for variability in tempo (beats/minute), rhythm, lengths of phrases, meter, and number of bars Regional substyles: different styles of rural blues existed in different parts of the country (Mississippi Delta style, a Texas style, Peidmont, etc.)o Listening: “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom” by Robert Johnson Robert Johnson is well known today because of white rock stars in the 60s discovering some of his recordings. He was not famous or well-known during his time. The response in this song is instrumental and sometimes overlaps with the call Follows the 12 bar blues chord progressions- Listen for the lowest notes if you have difficulty following- Classic/City Blues: 1920so Typically female vocals accompanied by a piano (played by someone else) or a small jazz band (coronet, clarinet, and trumpet were the most popular instruments)o Belting voices, they were used to performing in vaudeville houses and theaters with no microphoneso Unlike rural blues, classic blues used the standard 12 bar blues without individual variation They had to coordinate with other peopleo This was the first style of blues to make it onto records Radio caused record sales to drop, so recording companies began to look for new music.  In 1920, Ralph Peer recorded the first African American blues singer – Mammie Smith Records were purchased from catalogs, but even these were segregated. So record companies created a new section of record catalogs called Race Music. After classic blues made it onto records, rural blues was discovered by recording companies and some of that got recorded as well.o Listening: “Countin’ the Blues” by Ma Rainey Regular time and form Accompanied by piano and banjo in the call Response has coronet, clarinet, and tromboneo Listening: “Back Water Blues” by Bessie Smith Response is the piano part Subtle and sophisticated use of blues notes in the melody She dips and slides her vocals up and down- Boogie Woogie: urban blues piano musico Came around after WWI, but most popular in the 1930so Popular at rent parties If someone couldn’t afford their rent that month, they would throw a party where everyone would pay to get in. There would be a boogie woogie blues piano player and people would be dancing.o Huge impact on rock o Based around the 12 bar blueso Would run left hand chords/bass figures through the 12 bar blues chord progressiono Occasional male vocalisto Constant form and tempo because people were dancing to it But it was still fast and drivingo Listening: “Honky Tonk Train Blues” by Meade Lux Lewis Driving rhythm in left hand Clash of rhythms between the left and the