“Although there are no recordings of blues songs made before the 1910s, it is generally accepted that a musical style recognizable as blues was being played and sung by African-American musicians in the Southern United States by the 1890s. The songs drew freely from earlier African American styles, such as work songs, field hollers, spirituals, minstrelsy, as well as from Anglo and European derived forms. Blues singers emphasized ‘blue notes,’ usually the third, fifth and seventh degrees of the scale, which they often slurred or ‘bent‘ upward a quarter tone or more, sometimes mimicking or echoing these effects on accompanying instruments, such as the fiddle, harmonica or guitar. Although they did not always seek to tell a story, singers used imagery that reflected their audience’s language and world.” [retrieved from this collection of Blues from the Library of Congress].

The lived experiences of African Americans in the Deep South framed the emergence of earlier forms of blues, what is often described as the “Delta Blues.”

Watch

Watch a snippet of the The Land Where the Blues Began, one of five films made from footage that Alan Lomax, a folklorist and “song hunter” shot in the Mississippi Delta between 1978 and 1985.

Respond: what kind of lived experiences inform early Blues? How does this musical expression help voice certain struggles? What is particular about Blues’ storytelling?

Read

Learn about the musical components of the Blues and then hone your understanding of the 12-bar scale.

Respond: How can one identify a Blues song from a Ragtime song, a spiritual or a work song? Identify unique aspects within melody, harmony, structure, and instrumentation.

Analyze

Listen to “Walked All the Way From Missouri” performed by John Lowry Goree (vocals) at his home, Houston, Texas, on April 12, 1939, recorded by John and Ruby Lomax.

a) Identify characteristics of the vocal melody and delivery.

b) Look at the lyrics and identify the AAB pattern

c) Think about the larger meaning of the song. How does it make you feel?

Practice your mastery of Blues’ structure by listening to the following base and marking the exact timestamp in which one 12-bar scale ends and another one begins.

Watch

Reflect on the significance of Blues by watching Ted Gioia’s reflection below.

Respond for your Exit Ticket: In which ways did Blues allow us to “bypass mathematics” therefore expanding our musical possibilities for decades to come?