Blues

I

Introduction

Blues, type of music developed during the late 19th century by African American performers (see African American Music). Blues embraces a variety of styles, including downhome or country blues, boogie-woogie, classic blues, jump blues, and Chicago (urban) blues. Blues directly or indirectly influenced the vast majority of popular music during the 20th century, including jazz, rock, rhythm and blues (R&B), and gospel.

As a form and style blues most likely first appeared in the 1890s, a quarter century after the Civil War (1861-1865) officially ended slavery in the United States. Jazz and ragtime also first appeared around this time. Although freedom did not substantially change the material conditions of the majority of African Americans, it did have a tremendous effect on the mindset of those born into freedom. It is therefore probably no accident that the first generation born outside of slavery would develop a new music that more accurately reflected their worldview and the social situations in which they lived.

II

Blues Form

Blues can be distinguished both as a musical form and as a genre (style) of music. The typical blues form consists of a 12-bar harmonic pattern that subdivides into three groups of four bars each. (A bar is one measure and in musical notation is indicated by a vertical line). The 12-bar pattern usually follows a traditional blues chord progression. This form was standardized in 1912 with the publication of “Memphis Blues” by musician and composer W. C. Handy. From the beginning, the blues form became one of the standard harmonic structures used in jazz music, although jazz musicians have made the form much more complex over time by substituting and altering chords at various points in the pattern. The blues form has also been an important component of country music, R&B, and rock and roll.

III

Blues Style

In addition to its harmonic structure, blues as a style has three recognizable features: (1) the so-called blue note, (2) an aab three-line lyric structure, and (3) a particular pattern of call and response. The term blue note refers to any pitch between adjacent notes in the 12-tone Western system of equal temperament (as represented by the white and black keys on the piano). While blue notes are easily achieved by vocalists, horn players, harmonica players, and guitarists, the pitch of the keys on a piano are fixed. Consequently, blues pianists often play adjacent notes a half-step apart—for example, E and E^b (E-flat)—simultaneously in an attempt to replicate the effect of a blue note.

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The blues lyric structure consists of two different lines, with the first line being repeated to form a three-line aab pattern. The following lines from Howlin’ Wolf’s 1951 recording of “How Many More Years” demonstrate this structure:

Each lyric line is typically sung over the first half (first two bars) of a four-bar line. After each lyric line (the “call”), an instrumental response is commonly played, also consisting of approximately two bars. The tension created by the two-bar call-and-response pattern of vocal and instrumental sounds; by the repetition of the first lyric line, which delays the resolution in line b of the lyric idea; and by the variable placement of the so-called blue note defines blues as a style of music, whether played by country, rhythm-and-blues, or rock musicians.

A

Vocal and Instrumental Techniques

Another aspect of the blues style is the use of special vocal techniques, techniques that American folklorist Alan Lomax termed “playful voicedness.” One of these is to employ a wide variation in the timbre of the voice. A skilled blues vocalist often uses three distinctly different vocal sounds over the course of a single lyric line. This technique serves both to give shape to the lyric line and to increase its emotional effect. Similarly, blues performers repeatedly embellish their singing, using techniques such as vibrato (rapid fluctuation of pitch) and melisma (several notes sung on the same syllable), and by inserting cries, grunts, or other sounds between words.

Blues artists often attempt to imitate instrumental sounds with their voice and to replicate aspects of the human voice with their instruments. The most obvious example of a blues instrumental technique that mimics the human voice is slide guitar playing. To play slide, a guitarist employs a round metal tube on the neck of the guitar instead of fingering individual frets. The resulting sound covers every pitch gradation between any given set of notes and can very closely approximate human vocal sounds. Blues harmonica players also commonly emulate vocal sounds.

As is the case with most African American music forms, blues is typically played in 4/4 time. Each beat is often subdivided into eighth-note triplets with the middle triplet omitted, creating a shuffle feel. Blues drummers usually mark beats one and three with the bass drum, while beats two and four are accented by the snare drum. The same shuffle feel is played on either a closed hi-hat cymbal or on the ride cymbal. The other members of a blues ensemble reinforce these rhythms. Like much other African American music, most blues performers make extensive use of syncopation, placing accents on weak beats and at various unexpected points in the bar.