Information AboutBlues |
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Blues is a Vocal and instrumental form of Music based on the use of the Blue Note s and a repetitive pattern that most often follows a Twelve-bar Structure . It emerged in African-American communities of the United States from Spirituals , praise songs, Field Holler s, rhymed English and Scots-Irish narrative ballads, shouts, and chants. The use of blue notes and the prominence of Call-and-response patterns in the music and lyrics are indicative of the blues' West Africa n pedigree. The blues influenced later American and Western Popular Music , as it became part of the genres of Ragtime , Jazz , Bluegrass , Rhythm And Blues , Rock , Hip-hop , and Pop Song s. ETYMOLOGY The phrase ''the blues'' is a reference to having a fit of '' for Delirium Tremens and the Police . Though usage of the phrase in , ISBN 0-252-02874-0 MAIN CHARACTERISTICS Stylistic and cultural origins See Also: Origins of the blues There are few characteristics common to all blues, because the genre takes its shape from the idiosyncrasies of individual performances.Southern, pg. 333 However, there are some characteristics that were present long before the creation of the modern blues. An early form of blues-like music was a call-and-response shouts, which were a "functional expression... style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure."Garofalo, pg. 44 A form of this pre-blues was heard in Slave field shouts and hollers, expanded into "simple solo songs laden with emotional content".Ferris, pg. 229 The blues, as it is now known, can be seen as a musical style based on both European Harmonic Structure and the West African call-and-response tradition, transformed into an interplay of voice and guitar.Morales, pg 276 Morales attributes this claim to John Storm Roberts in ''Black Music of Two Worlds'', beginning his discussion with a quote from Roberts ''There does not seem to be the same African quality in blues forms as there clearly is in much Caribbean music''. Many blues elements, such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the Music Of Africa . Sylviane Diouf has pointed to several specific traits—such as the use of Melisma and a wavy, nasal intonation—that suggest a connection between the music of West and Central Africa and blues.SFGate Ethnomusicologist Gerhard Kubik may have been the first to contend that certain elements of the blues have roots in the Islamic Music of West and Central Africa. Stringed instruments (which were favored by people Enslaved from Muslim Regions Of Africa …), were generally allowed because slave owners considered them akin to European instruments like the violin. So the enslaved people who managed to cobble together a banjo or other instrument…could play more widely in public. This solo-oriented "slave music" featured elements of an Arabic-Islamic song style that had been imprinted by centuries of Islam 's presence in West Africa, says Gerhard Kubik .Gerhard Kubik is Ethnomusicology professor at the University Of Mainz in Germany. He wrote a comprehensive book on Africa's connection to blues music (''Africa and the Blues''). {Link without Title} Kubik also pointed out that the Mississippi technique of playing the guitar using a knife blade, recorded by W.C. Handy in his autobiography, corresponds to similar musical techniques in West and Central Africa cultures. The Diddley Bow , a homemade one-stringed instrument found in parts of the American South in the early twentieth century, is an African-derived instrument that likely helped in the transferral of African performance techniques into the early blues instrumental vocabulary. , a Delta Blues singer, contributed to the standardization of the 12-bar blues form.]] Blues music later adopted elements from the "Ethiopian airs", Minstrel Show s and Negro Spiritual s, including instrumental and harmonic accompaniment.Garofalo, pg. 44 ''Gradually, instrumental and harmonic accompaniment were added, reflecting increasing cross-cultural contact.'' Garofalo cites other authors that also mention the "Ethiopian airs" and "Negro spirituals". The style also was closely related to Ragtime , which developed at about the same time, though the blues better preserved "the original melodic patterns of African music".Schuller, cited in Garofalo, pg. 27 Blues songs from this period, such as Lead Belly 's or Henry Thomas's recordings, show many different structures. The Twelve- , Eight- , or Sixteen-bar structure based on Tonic (I), Subdominant (IV) and Dominant Chord s (V) became the most common forms.Garofalo, pgs. 46–47 What is now recognizable as the standard 12-bar blues form is documented from Oral History and Sheet Music appearing in African American communities throughout the region along the lower Mississippi River , in Memphis, Tennessee 's Beale Street , and by white bands in New Orleans . Lyrics
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| Blues In Jazz Is Much Different From Blues In Other Types Of Music (such As Rock, R&B, Soul, Funk, And Blues In Its Own Category) | "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/Jazz_blues" class="copylinks">Jazz Blues normally stays on the V chord through bars 9 and 10, emphasizing the dominant - tonic resolution over the subdominant - tonic structure of traditional blues This final V-I cadence lends itself to many variations, the most basic of which is the ii-V-I progression in bars 9, 10 and 11 From that point, both the dominant approach (ii-V) and the resolution (I) can be altered and "substituted" nearly endlessly, including, for instance, doing away with the I chord altogether (bars 9–12: ii V iii, iv ii, V ) In this case, bars 11 and 12 function as an extended turn-around to the next chorus |
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