Transcript History of Blues and instructions on Writing Lyricsx

The blues comes from two other forms
of music:
Spiritual – a song which tells a Bible
story
Work Song – sung in the fields by slaves
to pass the time.
 Born from African musical traditions of singing songs
to tell stories
 Despite the name, music was not meant to be sad –
rather it was a way to feel better about life’s problems
 What musical progression is used for blues music?
 12 bar blues
The “Father of the Blues”


Son of a conservative pastor who
forbade him from playing the guitar
Learned to play the cornet instead

Handy couldn’t get his songs published, so he started his
own publishing house.

His biggest hit was “St. Louis Blues,” written in 1914.
The first “blues” songs heard by
whites were sung by lady blues
singers like ‘Ma’
Rainey,
Mamie Smith and
Bessie Smith.
‘Ma’ Rainey
Mamie Smith
Bessie Smith

The “Empress of the Blues”

The most important and
influential of the woman
blues singers from the
early twentieth century.

Born in Chattanooga,
Tennessee; began recording in 1923
This was the type of recording that introduced white
America to the blues.
Accompaniment—reed organ and cornet




Louis Armstrong on cornet
Fred Longshaw on reed organ (pump organ)

Call and response between cornet and Smith

Lyrics: Feeling tomorrow like I feel today
Feeling tomorrow like I feel today
I’ll pack my trunk and make my getaway.
In 1924 Louis Armstrong left King
Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band to pursue a
solo career in New York.
Earlier that year he had married Lil
Hardin, a jazz pianist.
He recorded “St. Louis Blues” with
Bessie Smith.
Later, he founded his band The Hot
Five and they recorded “West End
Blues”
 Intro – Armstrong’s most famous trumpet cadenza
 0:13 – one chord heard by band
 0:16 - trumpet plays melody; clarinet and trombone
accompany
 0:50 – Trombone solo
 1:25 – clarinet plays as
Armstrong scats
 2:00 – piano solo by
Earl Hines, the first
great jazz pianist
 What is a cadenza?
 - a virtuosic solo played or sung by a soloist in a free
rhythmic style (not necessarily keeping a steady beat).
 What is scat?
 - nonsense syllables sung and made up on the spot
(improvisation!)
Swee-dle doo-bee do bop,
sca-rata-tat-too……
Some of the best…
Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon,
Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker
and Elmore James.
Muddy Waters
T-Bone Walker brought “the Blues”
to Houston, and the legendary B.B. King
called Memphis his home.
B.B. King
John Lee Hooker
 Lyrics are almost always set the same way
 Five verses of AAB form
 The first two lines of each verse are the same, and the
third line rhymes with the first two
 Example:
 Ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, crying all the time
 Ain’t nothing’ but a hound dog, crying all the time
 You ain’t never caught a rabbit, you ain’t no friend of
mine.
 Form a group of 4-5 people
 Work for 10 minutes to create your lyrics. There should
be 2 phrases, the first of which is repeated.
 Sing and/or teach your lyrics to the class
 You can sing your lyrics to the melody of “Hound Dog”
or create your own melody.