MUSC 200 1st Edition Lecture 5 Outline of Last Lecture I Second Listening portion II Blues Roots a Social Context b Musical Context III General Musical Features of Blues a Lyric themes b Musical concepts and definitions 12 Bar Blues IV Outline of Current Lecture II The 12 Bar Blues A Call and Response III Three Blues Styles A Rural B Classic City C Boogie Woogie Current Lecture The 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 turnaround These 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 blues o Flatted note a note that is lowered a half step o Flat 3 Flat 5 Flat 7 and all the notes between the flat 3 and 3 flat 5 and 5 and flat 7 and 7 o 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 systems o 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 groups o 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 o 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 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 20 th century however this is not known for sure because blues was not recorded at this point The recording businesses was all white at this time and 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 1920s o 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 microphones o Unlike rural blues classic blues used the standard 12 bar blues without individual variation o o o They had to coordinate with other people 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 Listening Countin the Blues by Ma Rainey Regular time and form Accompanied by piano and banjo in the call Response has coronet clarinet and trombone 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 music o Came around after WWI but most popular in the 1930s o 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 blues o Would run left hand chords bass figures through the 12 bar blues chord progression o Occasional male vocalist o Constant form and tempo because people were dancing to it o But it was still fast and driving Listening Honky Tonk Train Blues by Meade Lux Lewis Driving rhythm in left hand Clash of rhythms between the left and the right