The main features of blues include: specific chord progressions, a walking bass, call and response, dissonant harmonies, syncopation, melisma and flattened ‘blue’ notes. Blues is known for being microtonal, using pitches between the semitones defined by a piano keyboard.

What is unique about blues music?

there is syncopation to emphasise the weak beats. swing rhythms are heard- quavers are uneven and give a triplet feel to the beat. early blues music was very slow but got faster as the style developed. walking bass lends a steady rhythm to the music.

Why are the Blues different?

Different Origins in the South Resulted In Different Music Genres. Blues originated in the Delta region of Mississippi sometime after the Civil War (late 1800s). The songs were originally slow laments with flatted notes or “blue” notes, which gave it a completely different sound than European music.

How do you define blues music?

A style of music that evolved from southern African-American secular songs and is usually distinguished by a strong 4/4 rhythm, flatted thirds and sevenths, a 12-bar structure, and lyrics in a three-line stanza in which the second line repeats the first: “The blues is an expression of anger against shame and

How do you identify blues music?

4 Answers

1. Make use of the blues scale.
2. Have simple arrangements centred around guitar, piano, and voice.
3. use fairly simple chord progressions, most typically the 12-bar blues chord progression.
4. lyrically, emphasise themes of hardship and struggle.

What makes a good blues song?

So, what makes a really good blues rock song? One thing that characterizes this type of music is the amount of improvisation that goes into creating a song. If you keep it fresh with a spontaneous atmosphere, then you are likely to immediately evoke the blues rock feel.

Why is blues music so important?

The social significance of Blues music resides in the revolutionary element of African Americans creating their own aesthetics. Blues music represented the opposing voice that refused to be silenced by oppression and segregation. The Blues expressed this with unprecedented clarity, honesty and simplicity.

How are jazz and blues similar?

Jazz and blues are both characterized by the use of “blue” notes, swung notes, and syncopated rhythms. When blues musicians begin heavily improvising, the line between blues and jazz begins to diminish. In fact, mastery of blues style playing is considered part of learning to play jazz.

How are blues and jazz different?

Blues involves guitar, bass, piano, harmonica, drums, saxophone, vocals, trumpet, trombone, and sometimes fiddle. Jazz involves a guitar, piano, bass, saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, drums, and tuba. Jazz is usually instrumental, while Blues almost always contains lyrics.

Why are the blues called the blues?

The name of this great American music probably originated with the 17th-century English expression “the blue devils,” for the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. Shortened over time to “the blues,” it came to mean a state of agitation or depression.

What’s the definition for blues?

1: low spirits: melancholy suffering a case of the blues. 2: a song often of lamentation characterized by usually 12-bar phrases, 3-line stanzas in which the words of the second line usually repeat those of the first, and continual occurrence of blue notes in melody and harmony.

Is blues music always sad?

A lot of people think the blues are sad. Other blues are angry, moody, scary, frightened, and some are bouncy, joyous, exuberant, happy. Clearly, the blues is unusually rich in emotional expression. So, no, the blues is not sad music, and they do not tend to make us sad.

Is blues the mother of all music?

The blues are often referred to as the mother of modern musical forms. But where did the blues come from? The blues first grew out of the music of enslaved African Americans (and later African-American sharecroppers, railroad work gangs, and prison work gangs) and described life’s hardships.

What key is blues music in?

The two most common keys in blues music are E and A. There are others, but these two keys are the most common.

Who created blues?

Blues is a music genre and musical form which was originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s by African-Americans from roots in African-American work songs and spirituals. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.

Which form is the most common type of blues music?

The most common form of blues is the twelve-bar blues, which includes 3 lines with 4 chords.