blues

In it's earliest and perhaps simplest form, the blues sounds are created from basically a half dozen pitches of the blues scale, no chords over a steady pulse. By the turn of the 20th century, early blues recordings reveal the combination of voice with a guitar accompaniment, using a three chord pattern in the traditional and predictable 12 bar form, the "chords" often comprised by just the root and 5th. The rhythm of the accompaniment, almost exclusively in 4 / 4 time, is often rather complex, as the bass figure creates the 4 beat pulse while an added vamp line above brings a polyrhythmic aspect to the groove. The voice on top adds the melody. So, oftentimes 3 distinct parts woven together in creating the sound.

In it's most basic song form, the blues vocal line is often one, four bar phrase repeated three times, often with the same pitches and words for each chorus, the words gradually evolving through each verse as the story unfolds. The original blues motor so often being the steady quarter note pulse in 4 / 4 time. From this elemental basis, which today is often termed a "Delta blues", from it's origins in the Mississippi delta region of the southeast United States, the blues has evolved in present times into numerous genres of the style, many of which often include a fuller harmony accompaniment as available from equal temper, while for the most part retaining an original blue note based melody and 12 bar form. Are the blue colors found at the core of the American styles? Pretty much. Here is a list of songs from the origins of the blues.

Gospel. Historically, gospel music evolved out of combining the pitches and phrases used in three chord blues and the harmony of equal temper. In the early 1800's, when blues musicians were encouraged to get religion in America, part of their performance gradually took on elements of the European church music that was recruiting them. Then, in recreating the music during services, the blues players sang their naturally blues inflected lines over the traditional harmonies of the church music, creating a unique and new combination of colors. This gospel palette of colors combines the chords and scales from the "locked in tune" world of the European equal temper and the "sliding intonation" of the blue notes, which often included the other passionate vocal articulations. Ever hear of the musical idea that 7 + 5 + 12?

Rhythmically straight forward, mostly in 4 / 4 time, the diatonic harmonies of the Gospel sound often include tasteful diatonic color tone additions while supporting melodies created from both the pentatonic colors and the major and natural minor scales. So, a gradual enlargement of the resources, a combining of the folk and blues palettes so to speak. Rarely modulating, we do begin to see the secondary dominant color to enhance the cadential motion motion between diatonic destinations as say One to Four. This Gospel palette of colors is used today to create so much of the contemporary pop music we hear today. Usually motored by the techno rhythm sounds of modern pop, the vocal line and harmonies often come from this palette of colors, originally assembled in the mid 1800's or so, when the Gospel sounds first emerged from the religious houses of the southeastern states of America.

Jazz. At the core of the numerous styles of American music we often include in the "jazz category" lies the blues, in color, form and intent. And like most things "jazz", there is a wide variety in the resulting sounds as created by the players. From Louis Armstrong's day on through Charlie Parker and beyond, the 3 chord / 12 bar delta blues has provided the framework for so much of the American jazz sounds. What jazz players tend to do with this most basic of elements is to pepper in chromatic pitches into their blues lines and enhance the basic three chord harmonic progressions through chord substitution. Part of the magic here is the layering of complex jazz lines over basic chords and it's inverse, earthy blue lines over complex harmonies, all within the 12 bar form. So cool. The results are often motored by the most advanced of the jazz, swing grooves creating a timelessly familiar format for all involved, players, listeners and dancers. In this familiar setting, the music is so often purely improvised and knows no bounds. Today, nary a jazz song goes by in performance, a recording or on the radio of any style that doesn't contain at least a "speck" of the blue colors somewhere in the arrangement and as we so often hear, a whole lot more.

Rhythm and blues. This genre of the blues has historically seems to have been mostly for the dancers. Dating from the 30's onward and characterized by mostly moderate tempos and catchy melody lines, rhythm and blues bands were originally swing or pre swing based quarter / 8th note groove based with a few horns, played cool vamp lines and blistering solos while the vocalist delivered impassioned testimony in telling their stories. That the palette of colors for the rhythm and blues sounds is really the same as the basic Gospel palette, it never really gets that heavy with scales or unusual chords, it is in the delivery of the familiar blues sounds and basic harmonies motored by infectious dance rhythms that create the coolness of energy and connection between the band and the listeners, that help makes a Saturday night a "Saturday night", completing the weekly cycle of events for so many of us regular folks?

Funk. Emerging in the 70's, funk music is mostly blues based in it's core elements. Perhaps an evolution of the jazz / rock fusion sounds, the key distinction for the funk sound originates in the nature of the groove, where the blues predominately 8th note thing is subdivided towards the 16th note. The bass voice becomes the "funkmaster" of ceremonies with their 16th note, staccato licks while also reviving a technique knows as "slapping" the bass. This is mainly achieved by striking a lower string with the thumb while plucking and upper string with the index or middle finger, combining together to create the basic feel. Perhaps the ultimate jazz / blues / rock dance groove, the funk sound was the basis for so many variations to follow.

All of the voices in the "funk choir" tend to take on this 16th note feel. The horn section of the rhythm and blues "tighten up" their lines until the simply "sizzle" with the urban crackle of energy. Short, clean, articulate, even some of the vocals begin the move away from the more legato, wailing blues sounds towards a more chant like, repetition of ideas. One strong element of "glue" in all of this funky staccato are the rhythm guitar sounds, which while also going towards the 16th note rhythmic subdivision added electronic altering devices to their sound. The chorus, wah wah, flange and distortion pedals each added an unique way of "rehomoginizing" the choppier 16th note strumming of the chords, which predominantly is the dominant 9th chord, the "funk" chord.

The main thing for the emerging artist to keep in mind here perhaps is that this funk style of blues is not that easy to play. For while many of the blues sounds and styles are "walking" tempos and predominantly 8th notes, the funk sounds are based on the 16th note permutation, and even in the slower tempos usually associated with the funk dance grooves, creates a need for things to be very tight and precise. The bass part requires a whole new way of sounding the instrument from what most bass players usually deal with in creating the other styles and is quite physically demanding on one's chops, or so some bass player friends have told me. The funk drummer is often a wizard at layering different sounds from their kit to create their part of the groove. Often drenched in sweat at the end of the gig, the drummer definitely earns their keep in motoring the funk sounds.

Techno / rap. With the explosion of electronic gear during the 80's, much of what the players of funk bands were doing in the 70's was gradually being done by machines in the 90's and onward. Whether the new music was just too hard to play, or more perhaps in that the gear was available, "mix masters" with the right gear began to layer and loop gear generated sounds. Drum machines led this craze, while keyboard synth's could create, loop and play all of the instrumental parts. All that was left too add were the vocals, which continued with the 16th note, chant like presentation of the story of the song from the funk style. With machines creating the music this way, no one ever gets worn out, except on the dance floor, which is kinda the idea, and everyone can be a star. Creating incredibly cool modern dance techno grooves in the comfort of their own studios, save the midi files to some sort of storage medium and show up at the gig. Of course, the management frowns upon this sort of behavior and work ethic, cats showing up without any gear, so the vibemasters added, lights, turntables, fog machines, mirrored balls and huge P. A.'s etc. to their shows, which take a lot of work to set up and run, to create an incredibly beautiful fantasy environment for having fun on a Saturday night. Whatever fills the room with dancers eh?

So, where is the blues in all of this moderness? Well, hard to say. Often in the story of the rap songs is a tale of woe, the original, original blues theme. Often in the music are the blue notes, setting the tone. Chords, if any are usually dominant type, i.e., harmony with some sort of tritone. The bass line loop is usually blues or minor pentatonic based. If we were to talk with the stars of this new aged blues, perhaps many would sight as their heroes the blues stars of yesterday, and while machine driven sounds of this modern music often mask the blue colors, the essence of it's core is surely American blues.

Review. however created, the real trick to authentic blues playing is in having something to say, a story to be told and telling it with conviction, finding and articulating it by using the sliding intonation of the blues colors, matching up "blue notes" with events in your story, whatever. From a purely instrumental perspective, compelling blues performances are often achieved through the varying of intonation of pitch and and the myriad of blue articulations, to "testify" as the players like to call it, looking for ways to contrast the two approaches to tuning, the blue note melodies over the equal tempered harmonies.

Are the blue colors a central thread that is woven into the fabric of all of the styles of American music? Are the blue colors one of the many aspects that makes our music "American?" Is the blues color ever really out of place in any style of American music? Well, that's perhaps a bit of a stretch, but we do often hear the blues color in so many different styles from so many different artists. Either way, the blue pitches are important in creating American music. That they bring a potentially "untuned" sound quality into the tuned world of equal temperament, creating a combined quality of sound that potentially holds the best of both worlds, is perhaps part of what we as theorists are looking to discover and understand.

Blues legends. The following brief list of players is a timeline of the important personalities and contributors within the world of blues music.

Here are a couple of "standard" blues tunes for the emerging blues artist to consider.

Blues program. So where to begin?

What instrument and blues style are you trying to play? Guitar / voice? Lead guitar? Trumpet? Saxophone? Drums? Jazz blues?

Have any blues recordings? Can you jamm along on your chosen instrument? Need a jamm loop or two?

Is there a particular blues song you want to learn? If so, can you sing the line?

Do you have written music for the song? Can you read standard music notation?

Got a minor pentatonic scale under your fingers? Know which key it's in?

Do you understand how to slip in the tritone into the minor pentatonic color to create the blues scale?

Can you hear the One / Four / Five chords and top of the 12 bar form?

Have you taken the blues challenge?

Got some of the open guitar chords for the blues under your fingers? Blues bar chords? Jazz / blues shapes or voicings?

What blues tunes are on your list to be learned? Have you started a list yet?

Discussions within this text. As the blues music is historically such an integral part of the American styles, there is quite a lot of space devoted to discussing many musical topics from a blues perspective. These are the same links as found in the index. Here are the bookmarks to the listings of topics below.

Blues concepts.

Blues chords.

Blues form.

Blues lines.

Blue notes.

Blues scale. 

Blues song.

Comments / questions?

"To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." Elbert Hubbard