Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes. It emerged in African-American communities of the United States from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The use of blue notes and the prominence of call-and-response patterns in the music and lyrics are indicative of African influence. The blues influenced later American and Western popular music, as it became the roots of jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, bluegrass, hip-hop, and other popular music forms. Blues can refer to: The form of music; See Blues The mood or emotion; See Depression (mood) For the color, see blue The New South Wales Blues, a first class cricket team in Australia Crew members in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race The St. ... A work song is a typically acoustic rhythmic song sung by persons who are working in likely mundane conditions. ... Folk song redirects here. ... Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. ... For other uses, see Guitar (disambiguation). ... A short grand piano, with the lid up. ... A harmonica is a free reed wind instrument. ... A sunburst-colored Fender Precision Bass The electric bass guitar (or electric bass[1][2]; pronounced , as in base) is a bass stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers (either by plucking, slapping, popping, or tapping) or using a pick. ... For other kinds of drums, see drum (disambiguation). ... The saxophone (colloquially referred to as sax) is a conical-bored musical instrument usually considered a member of the woodwind family. ... Vocal music is music performed by one or more singers, with or without non-vocal instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. ... Trumpeter redirects here. ... The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... R&B redirects here. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... Blues can be categorized into a number of genres. ... The Classic female blues spanned from 1920 to 1929 with its peak from 1923 to 1925. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Delta blues are named for the Mississippi Delta. ... Jazz blues or in its second name Jlues is a musical style that combines jazz and blues. ... Jump blues is a type of up-tempo blues music influenced by big band sound. ... Piano blues refers to a variety of blues styles, sharing only the characteristic that they use the piano as the primary musical instrument. ... Boogie-woogie is a style of piano-based blues that became very popular in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and was extended from piano, to three pianos at once, guitar, big band, and country and western music, and even gospel. ... Blues Rock or Blues-rock is a fusion genre of music which combines elements of the blues with rock and roll. ... Soul blues is a style of blues music developed in the early late 1960s and 1970s and combining eliments of soul music and urban contemporary music. ... Jazz blues or in its second name Jlues is a musical style that combines jazz and blues. ... The British blues is a type of blues music that originated in the late 1950s. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Detroit blues is blues music played by musicians resident in Detroit, Michigan, particularly that played in the 1940s and 50s. ... East Coast blues casts a wide net covering all of Piedmont blues--a style that relied on fast, virtuosic fingerpicking and added influences such as ragtime--as well as the urbanized R&B of New York blues and countless smaller regional styles. ... Kansas City blues is a genre of blues music. ... The Louisiana blues is a type of blues music that is characterized by plodding rhythms that make the sound dark and tense. ... The Memphis blues is a style of blues music that was created in 1920s and 1930s by Memphis-area musicians like Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. ... The blues have been an important part of New Orleans, USA music since the earliest years of the 20th century. ... The Piedmont blues is a type of blues music characterized by a unique fingerpicking method on the guitar in which a regular, alternating-thumb bass pattern supports a melody using treble strings. ... The St. ... The swamp blues is a form of blues music that is highly evolved and specialized. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Little Willie Littlefield, a West Coast blues performer and pianist. ... Blues can be categorized into a number of genres. ... Performers in the blues style range from primitive, one-chord Delta players to big bands to country music to rock and roll to classical music. ... Little is known about the exact origins of the music we now know as the blues. ... In music, a pentatonic scale is a notes per octave. ... Vocal music is music performed by one or more singers, with or without non-vocal instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. ... For other uses, see Music (disambiguation). ... In jazz and blues notes added to the major scale for expressive quality, loosely defined by musicians to be an alteration to a scale or chord that makes it sound like the blues. ... Languages Predominantly American English Religions Protestantism (chiefly Baptist and Methodist); Roman Catholicism; Islam Related ethnic groups Sub-Saharan Africans and other African groups, some with Native American groups. ... == Historical background on spiritual music Spirituals were often expressions of religious faith, although they may also have served as socio-political protests veiled as assimilation to white, American culture. ... Field Hollers as well as work songs were African American styles of music from before the Civil War, this style of music is close related to Spirituals in the sense that it expressed religious feelings and included subtle hints about ways of escaping slavery, among other things. ... Illustration by Arthur Rackham of the ballad The Twa Corbies A ballad is a story, usually a narrative or poem, in a song. ... In music, a call and response is a succession of two distinct phrases usually played by different musicians, where the second phrase is heard as a direct commentary on or response to the first. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... For the music genre, see Pop music. ... For other uses, see Jazz (disambiguation). ... R&B redirects here. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... Bluegrass has three principal meanings, the second two both deriving from the first listed. ... Hip hop music is a style of music which came into existence in the United States during the mid-1970s, and became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. ... For the music genre, see Pop music. ...

Etymology

The phrase "the blues" is a reference to the the blue devils, meaning 'down' spirits, depression and sadness. An early reference to "the blues" can be found in George Colman's farce Blue devils, a farce in one act (1798).^[1] Later during the 19th century, the phrase was used as a euphemism for delirium tremens and the police, and was not uncommon in letters from homesick Civil War soldiers. George Colman (October 21, 1762 - October 17, 1836), known as the Younger, English dramatist and miscellaneous writer, was the son of George Colman the Elder. Note that George Coleman was a jazz musician who played with Miles Davis in the 1960s. ... Look up farce in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A euphemism is the substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener; or in the case of doublespeak, to make it less troublesome for the speaker. ... For the beer, see Delirium Tremens (beer). ...

Though the use of the phrase in African American music may be older, it has been attested to since 1912, when Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" became the first copyrighted Blues composition.^[2][3] In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood.^[4] An African American man gives a piano lesson to a young African American woman, in 1899 or 1900, in Georgia, USA. Photograph from a collection of W.E.B. DuBois. ... For other uses, see Depression. ...

Stylistic and cultural origins

Main article: Origins of the blues

There are few characteristics common to all blues, because the genre takes its shape from the idiosyncrasies of individual performances.^[5] However, there are some characteristics that were present long before the creation of the modern blues. Little is known about the exact origins of the music we now know as the blues. ...

An early form of blues-like music were call-and-response shouts, which were a "functional expression... style without accompaniment or harmony and unbounded by the formality of any particular musical structure."^[6] A form of this pre-blues was heard in slave field shouts and hollers, expanded into "simple solo songs laden with emotional content".^[7] The blues, as it is now known, can be seen as a musical style based on both European harmonic structure and the African call-and-response tradition, transformed into an interplay of voice and guitar.^[8] Wiktionary has related dictionary definitions, such as: slave Slave may refer to: Slavery, where people are owned by others, and live to serve their owners without pay Slave (BDSM), a form of sexual and consenual submission Slave clock, in technology, a clock or timer that synchrnonizes to a master clock... Harmony is the use and study of pitch simultaneity, and therefore chords, actual or implied, in 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. The Diddley bow, a homemade one-stringed instrument found in parts of the American South in the early twentieth century, and the banjo, are African-derived instruments that may have helped in the transfer of African performance techniques into the early blues instrumental vocabulary. Hand drumming is significant throughtout Africa The music of Africa is as vast and varied as the continents many regions, nations and ethnic groups. ... The diddley bow is an American string instrument of African origin. ... The U.S. Southern states or The South, known during the American Civil War era as Dixie, is a distinctive region of the United States with its own unique historical perspective, customs, musical styles, and cuisine. ... For other uses, see Banjo (disambiguation) The banjo is a stringed instrument developed by enslaved Africans in the United States, adapted from several African instruments. ...

Robert Johnson, a Delta blues singer, contributed to the standardization of the 12-bar blues form.

Blues music later adopted elements from the "Ethiopian airs", minstrel shows and Negro spirituals, including instrumental and harmonic accompaniment.^[9] 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".^[10] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Robert Johnson, born Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) is among the most famous of Delta blues musicians. ... Delta blues are named for the Mississippi Delta. ... Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843 The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the American Civil War, African Americans in blackface. ... A spiritual is a African-American song, usually with a religious text. ... Look up ragtime in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

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 chords (V) became the most common forms.^[11] 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. For the film, see Leadbelly (film). ... Henry Thomas (1874-1950s?). Henry (Ragtime Texas) Thomas was a major pre-war country blues singer and musician. ... The 12-bar blues has a distinctive form in both lyrics and chord structure. ... An eight bar blues is a typical blues chord progression, taking eight 4/4 bars to the verse. ... Sixteen-bar blues is a blues chord progression very similar to the eight bar blues form, except that blues is not traditionally associated with any set notation so sometimes it can be called sixteen bars instead of eight. ... The tonic is the first note of a musical scale, and in the tonal method of music composition it is extremely important. ... In music, the subdominant is the technical name for the fourth degree of the scale. ... In music, the dominant is the fifth degree of the scale. ... (Redirected from 12 bar blues) Twelve bar blues is a typical blues chord progression, taking twelve 4/4 bars to the verse. ... This article is about the historical discipline; see Oral tradition for the oral transmission of historical information. ... Sheet music is written representation of music. ... For the river in Canada, see Mississippi River (Ontario). ... For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ... Beale Street is a street in Memphis, Tennessee and a significant location in African-American history and the history of the blues. ... New Orleans is the largest city in the state of Louisiana, United States of America. ...

Lyrics

The original lyrical form of the blues was probably a single line, repeated four times. It was only later that the current, most common structure of a line, repeated once and then followed by a single line conclusion, became standard.^[12] These lines were often sung following a pattern closer to a rhythmic talk than to a melody. Leadbelly, also known as Lead Belly (born Huddie William Ledbetter; January 20, 1889 (although this is debatable) - December 6, 1949), was an American folk and blues musician, notable for his clear and forceful singing, his virtuosity on the twelve string guitar, and the rich songbook of folk standards he introduced. ... The Appalachian Mountains are a system of North American mountains running from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada to Alabama in the United States, although the northernmost mainland portion ends at the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec. ... Promo single from the 1994 album MTV Unplugged in New York. ... Crossroads. ... Robert Johnson, born Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) is among the most famous of Delta blues musicians. ... Cross Road Blues is one of Delta Blues singer Robert Johnsons most famous songs. ... Image File history File links PoGal. ... Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American folklorist and author during the time of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. ... Louis Jordan swinging on sax, Paramount Theatre, NYC, 1946 (Photo: William P. Gottlieb) Louis Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was a pioneering African-American blues, jazz and rhythm & blues musician and songwriter who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. ... Image File history File links HowlinWolf_MoaninAtMidnight. ... Sun Studio Sun Studio opened by rock pioneer Sam Phillips at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, on January 3, 1950. ... May 14 is the 134th day of the year (135th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Willie Johnson (1913 – 1980) was a guitarist born in Senatobia, MS, USA. He should not be confused with Blind Willie Johnson. ... Willie Steele (born 14 July 1923) was an American athlete who competed mainly in the long jump. ... Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton is a 1966 Electric Blues album by John Mayalls Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton as lead guitarist. ... In the folk tradition, there are many traditional blues verses that have been sung over and over by many artists. ... Talking blues is a sub genre of the blues music genre. ...

Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative. The singer voiced often his or her "personal woes in a world of harsh reality: a lost love, the cruelty of police officers, oppression at the hands of white folk, [and] hard times".^[13] Many of the oldest blues records contain gritty, realistic lyrics, in contrast to much of the popular music being recorded at the time. For example, "Down in the Alley" by Memphis Minnie, is about a prostitute having sex with men in an alley. In the song Down In The Alley, Memphis Minnie sings verses about meeting various men who, for example, ask to pal up with her and she says yes, take me down in the alley, which is where she can get his business fixed all right. Towards the end its... Memphis Minnie McCoy (born June 3, 1897 - died August 6, 1973) was an American Blues musician. ... Whore redirects here. ...

Music such as this was called "gut-bucket" blues, a term which refers to a type of homemade bass instrument made from a metal bucket used to clean pig intestines for chitterlings (a soul food dish associated with slavery). "Gut-bucket" blues songs are typically "low-down" and earthy, about rocky or steamy man-woman relationships, hard luck and hard times. Gut-bucket blues and the rowdy juke-joint venues where it was played, earned blues music an unsavory reputation; church-goers shunned it and some preachers railed against it. The washtub bass is a folk instrument that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. ... Chitlins in broth. ... For other uses, see Soul food (disambiguation). ...

Author Ed Morales has claimed that Yoruba mythology played a part in early blues, citing Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues" as a "thinly veiled reference to Eleggua, the orisha in charge of the crossroads".^[14] However, many seminal blues artists such as Son House, or Skip James had in their repertoire several religious songs or spirituals. Reverend Gary Davis and Blind Willie Johnson are examples of artists often categorized as blues musicians for their music but whose lyrics clearly belong to the spirituals. The mythology of the Yorùbá is sometimes claimed by its supporters to be one of the worlds oldest widely practised religions. ... Robert Johnson, born Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) is among the most famous of Delta blues musicians. ... Cross Road Blues is one of Delta Blues singer Robert Johnsons most famous songs. ... In Yoruba mythology, Eshu is an Orisha, and one of the most respected deities of the tradition. ... This article is about a type of spirit. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Nehemiah Curtis Skip James (June 21, 1902 – October 3, 1969) was an American blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter. ... Reverend Gary Davis also Blind Gary Davis ( April 30, 1896 – May 5, 1972) was an African American blues and gospel singer as well as a renowned guitarist. ... The only known photograph of Blind Willie Johnson Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945) was an African-American singer and guitarist whose music straddled the border between blues and spirituals. ...

Although the blues gained an association with misery and oppression, the blues could also be humorous and raunchy as well:

"Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me,

Rebecca, Rebecca, get your big legs off of me,

It may be sending you baby, but it's worrying the hell out of me."^{[citation needed]}

In particular, Hokum blues celebrated both comedic lyrical content and a boisterous, farcical performance style. Tampa Red's classic "Tight Like That" is a sly wordplay with the double meaning of being "tight" with someone coupled with a more salacious physical familiarity. Hokum is a particular song type of American blues music - a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendoes. ... Tampa Red (1904-1981), born Hudson Woodbridge, was an influential American musician. ...

Lyrical content of music became slightly simpler in post war blues in which focus was often almost exclusively on singer's sexual worries. Many lyrical themes that frequently appeared in pre war blues such as economic depression, transportation, technology, horses, cows, devils, gambling, magic, floods and dry periods were mostly left out in post war blues.

Musical style

During the first decades of the twentieth century blues music was not clearly defined in terms of a chord progression. There were many blues in 8-bar form, such as "How Long Blues", "Trouble in Mind", and Big Bill Broonzy's "Key to the Highway." Idiosyncratic numbers of bars are also encountered occasionally, as with the 9 bar progression in Howlin' Wolf's "Sitting on Top of the World". The basic twelve-bar lyric framework of a blues composition is reflected by a standard harmonic progression of twelve bars, in 4/4 or (rarely) 2/4 time. Slow blues are often played in 12/8 (4 beats per measure with 3 subdivisions per beat). An eight bar blues is a typical blues chord progression, taking eight 4/4 bars to the verse. ... Big Bill Broonzy (1893 or 1898-1958) was a prolific United States composer, recorder and performer of blues songs. ... Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910 – January 10, 1976), better known as Howlin Wolf or sometimes, The Howlin Wolf, was an influential blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. ... For other uses, see Sitting on Top of the World (disambiguation). ... A chord progression, as its name implies, is a series of chords played in an order. ...

By the 1930s, twelve-bar blues became the standard. There would also be 16 bar blues, as in Ray Charles's instrumental "Sweet 16 Bars", and in Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man". The blues chords associated to a twelve-bar blues are typically a set of three different chords played over a twelve-bar scheme: Sixteen-bar blues is a blues chord progression very similar to the eight bar blues form, except that blues is not traditionally associated with any set notation so sometimes it can be called sixteen bars instead of eight. ... For Ray Charles, the composer and conductor of the Ray Charles Singers, see Ray Charles (composer). ... Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois) is an Academy Award and Grammy award-winning American jazz pianist and composer. ... Typical fingering for a second inversion C major chord on a guitar. ... Twelve bar blues is a chord progression, typical of blues and later influenced musics. ...

where the Roman numbers refer to the degrees of the progression. That would mean, if played in the tonality of C, the chords would be as follows: The system of Roman numerals is a numeral system originating in ancient Rome, and was adapted from Etruscan numerals. ... In music theory, a scale degree is the name of a particular note of a scale in relation to the tonic (the first note in the scale). ... Tonality is a system of writing music according to certain hierarchical pitch relationships around a key center or tonic. ...

(When the IV chord is played in bar 2, the blues is called a "Quick-Change" blues).

In this example, C is the tonic chord, F the subdominant. Much of the time, some or all of these chords are played in the harmonic seventh (7th) form. Frequently, the last chord is the dominant (V or in this case G) turnaround making the transition to the beginning of the next progression. The tonic is the first note of a musical scale, and in the tonal method of music composition it is extremely important. ... In music, the subdominant is the technical name for the fourth degree of the scale. ... A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chords root. ... In jazz, a turnaround is a passage at the end of a section which leads to the next section. ...

The use of the harmonic seventh interval is a characteristic of blues, and is popularly called the "blues seven" ^[15]. At a 7:4 ratio, it is not close to any interval, minor or major, on the conventional Western diatonic scale ^[16]. However, through convenience or necessity it is often approximated by a minor seventh interval, or in terms of chords, a dominant seventh chord. A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chords root. ... The musical interval of a minor seventh the first note (the root or tonic) and the seventh in a minor scale. ... A seventh chord is a chord or triad which has a note the seventh above the tonic in it. ...

A minor pentatonic scale; play (help· info)

The lyrics generally end on the last beat of the tenth bar or the first beat of the eleventh bar, and the final two bars are given to the instrumentalist as a break; the harmony of this two-bar break, the turnaround, can be extremely complex, sometimes consisting of single notes that defy analysis in terms of chords. The final beat, however, is almost always strongly grounded in the dominant seventh (V7), to provide tension for the next verse. Download high resolution version (952x82, 2 KB)A minor pentatonic scale. ... Download high resolution version (952x82, 2 KB)A minor pentatonic scale. ... A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five pitches per octave as compared to the major scale which is made up of seven distinct notes. ... Image File history File links PentMinor. ...

Sheet music from "St. Louis Blues" (1914)

Melodically, blues is marked by the use of the flatted third, fifth and seventh (the so-called blue or bent notes) of the associated major scale.^[17] These scale tones can replace the natural scale tones or be added to the scale, as in the case of the minor pentatonic blues scale, where the flatted third replaces the natural third, the flatted seventh replaces the natural seventh and the flatted fifth is added in between the natural fourth and natural fifth. While the twelve-bar harmonic progression had been intermittently used for centuries, the revolutionary aspect of blues was the frequent use of the flatted third, flatted seventh, and even flatted fifth in the melody, together with crushing—playing directly adjacent notes at the same time, i.e., diminished second—and sliding—similar to using grace notes.^[18] Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (637x860, 123 KB) (All user names refer to en. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (637x860, 123 KB) (All user names refer to en. ... St. ... Look up melody in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Figure 1. ... A minor third is the smaller of two commonly occurring musical intervals compounded of two steps of the diatonic scale. ... For other uses, see Tritone (disambiguation). ... The musical interval of a minor seventh the first note (the root or tonic) and the seventh in a minor scale. ... In jazz and blues notes added to the major scale for expressive quality, loosely defined by musicians to be an alteration to a scale or chord that makes it sound like the blues. ... In music theory, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. ... In music, a pentatonic scale is a scale with five notes per octave. ... A grace note is a kind of music notation used to denote several kinds of musical ornaments. ...

The blue notes allow for key moments of expression particularly during the cadences, melodies, and embellishments of the blues. Where the three line verses end, for example, there is a falling cadence that approaches just shy of the tonic, merely suggesting it, and combining the falling of a speaking voice with the shape of the blues scale in a unique, expressive way. This melodic fall, placed at the turnaround (end of the verse), is employed most clearly in the modern, Chicago blues sound. A similar sound occurs in gospel and R&B but not to the same effect, where it is usually termed a melisma. Jargon used in the chemical manufacturing and petroleum refining industries. ...

Whereas a classical musician will generally play a grace note distinctly, a blues singer or harmonica player will glissando, "crushing" the two notes and then releasing the grace note. In blues chord progressions, the tonic, subdominant and dominant chords are often played as harmonic seventh chords, the harmonic seventh being an important component of the blues scale. (NB: While the harmonic seventh may be voiced easily, on equally tempered instruments like the guitar, it is approximated by means of a minor seventh, which is a third of a semitone higher.) Blues is also occasionally played in a minor key, such as in the style of Paul Butterfield. The scale differs little from the traditional minor, except for the occasional use of a flatted fifth in the tonic, often sung or played by the singer or lead instrument with the perfect fifth in the harmony. Glissando (plural: glissandi) is a musical term that refers to either a continuous sliding from one pitch to another (a true glissando), or an incidental scale played while moving from one melodic note to another (an effective glissando). ... A seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chords root. ... A minor scale in musical theory is a diatonic scale whose third scale degree is an interval of a minor third above the tonic. ... Paul Butterfield (December 17, 1942 – May 4, 1987) was an American blues harmonica player and singer, and one of the earliest white exponents of the Chicago-originated electric blues style. ... The perfect fifth or diapente is one of three musical intervals that span five diatonic scale degrees; the others being the diminished fifth, which is one semitone smaller, and the augmented fifth, which is one semitone larger. ...

• Janis Joplin's rendition of "Ball and Chain", accompanied by Big Brother and the Holding Company, provides an example of this technique.
• Minor-key blues is often structured in sixteen bars rather than twelve, in the style of gospel music, as in "St. James Infirmary Blues" and Trixie Smith's "My Man Rocks Me."

Blues shuffles reinforce the trance-like rhythm and call-and-response, and form a repetitive effect called a "groove". The simplest shuffles commonly used in many postwar electric blues, rock-and-rolls, or early bebops were a three-note riff on the bass strings of the guitar. When this riff was played over the bass and the drums, the groove "feel" is created. The walking bass is another device that helps to create a "groove" . The last bar of the chord progression is usually accompanied by a turnaround that makes the transition to the beginning of the next progression. Janis Lyn Joplin (19 January 1943 – 4 October 1970) was an American singer, songwriter, and music arranger, from Port Arthur, Texas. ... Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the psychedelic music scene that also produced the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. ... Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as (in terms of the varying music styles) to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music. ... St. ... Trixie Smith (1895 - 21 September 1943), was a blues singer and recording artist. ... The shuffle rhythm is a rhythm that can be regarded as the basis of the blues backbeat, and can be heard on many jazz, rock and roll and soul music recordings. ... Groove is a popular music term, used in the sense of rhythm, for meter_(music) and its embellishment by a rhythm section. ... The electric blues is a type of blues music distinguished by the amplification of the guitar, the bass guitar , and/or the harmonica. ... This article is about the 1940s–early 1970s style of music. ... This article is about the genre of music, for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character see Bebop and Rocksteady. ... Riff is also an alternate spelling of Rif, a region of Morocco. ... In music a walking bass is a bass accompaniment generally consisting of unsyncopated notes of equal value, usually quarter notes (known in jazz as a four feel). Walking bass lines are used in rock, blues, rock-a-billy, ska, r&b, gospel, latin, country, and many other genres (Friedland 1995...

Shuffle rhythm is often vocalized as "dow, da dow, da dow, da" or "dump, da dump, da dump, da"^[19] as it consists of uneven, or "swung", eighth notes. On a guitar this may be done as a simple steady bass or may add to that stepwise quarter note motion from the fifth to the sixth of the chord and back. An example is provided by the following tablature for the first four bars of a blues progression in E:^[20][21] The shuffle rhythm is a rhythm that can be regarded as the basis of the blues backbeat, and can be heard on many jazz, rock and roll and soul music recordings. ... Example of numeric vihuela tablature from the book Orphenica Lyra by Miguel de Fuenllana (1554). ...

 E7 E7 A7 A7 E |-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|---------------------| B |-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|---------------------| G |-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|---------------------| D |-------------------|-------------------|---2-2--4-4--2-2--4|4--2-2--4-2--5-2--4-2| A |2--2-4--4-2--2-4--4|2--2--4--2--5--2--4|2--0-0--0-0--0-0--0|0--0-0--0-0--0-0--0-0| E |0--0-0--0-0--0-0--0|0--0--0--0--0--0--0|0------------------|---------------------| 

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). 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, vi | ii, V |) In this case, bars 11 and 12 function as an extended turn-around to the next chorus. Jazz blues or in its second name Jlues is a musical style that combines jazz and blues. ...

History of the blues genres

Origins

Main article: Origins of the blues

Okahumkee On The Ocklawaha, 1890s photo of the tourist steamer out of Palatka in Florida with guitar toting blacks

Blues has evolved from an unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of African-American slaves and rural blacks into a wide variety of styles and subgenres, with regional variations across the United States and, later, Europe and Africa. The musical forms and styles that are now considered the "blues" as well as modern "country music" arose in the same regions during the nineteenth century in the southern United States. Recorded blues and country can be found from as far back as the 1920s, when the popular record industry developed and created marketing categories called "race music" and "hillbilly music" to sell music by blacks for blacks and by whites for whites, respectively. Little is known about the exact origins of the music we now know as the blues. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. ... African American music (also called black music, formerly known as race music) is an umbrella term given to a range of musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large ethnic minority of the population of the United States. ... Old-time music, a traditional style of American music, has roots in Irish, Scottish and African folk music. ...

At the time, there was no clear musical division between "blues" and "country," except for the ethnicity of the performer, and even that sometimes was documented incorrectly by record companies.^[22] Studies have situated the origin of black spirituals inside slaves' exposure to their white Hebridean-originated gospels. African-American economist and historian Thomas Sowell also notes that the southern, black, ex-slave population was acculturated to a considerable degree by and among their Scots-Irish "redneck" neighbours. However, the findings of Kubik and others also clearly attest to the essential Africanness of many essential aspects of blues expression. This article is about the Hebrides islands in Scotland. ... Thomas Sowell (born June 30, 1930), is an American economist, political writer, and commentator. ... This article is about a stereotypical description. ...

The social and economic reasons for the appearance of the blues are not fully known.^[23] The first appearance of the blues is not well defined and is often dated between 1870 and 1900, a period that coincides with Emancipation and the transition from slavery to sharecropping, small-scale agricultural production and the expansion of railroads in the southern United States. This article is about the abolition of slavery. ...

Several scholars characterize the early 1900s development of blues music as a move from group performances to a more individualized style. They argue that the development of the blues is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the enslaved people. According to Lawrence Levine,^[24] "there was a direct relationship between the national ideological emphasis upon the individual, the popularity of Booker T. Washington's teachings, and the rise of the blues." Levine states that "psychologically, socially, and economically, Negroes were being acculturated in a way that would have been impossible during slavery, and it is hardly surprising that their secular music reflected this as much as their religious music did." Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author and leader of the African American community. ...

Prewar blues

The American sheet music publishing industry produced a great deal of ragtime music. By 1912, the sheet music industry published three popular blues-like compositions, precipitating the Tin Pan Alley adoption of blues elements: "Baby Seals' Blues" by "Baby" F. Seals (arranged by Artie Matthews), "Dallas Blues" by Hart Wand and "Memphis Blues" by W. C. Handy.^[25] Sheet music is written representation of music. ... Look up ragtime in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City-centered music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. ... Artie Matthews (November 15, 1888 _ October 25, 1958) was a songwriter, pianist, and ragtime composer. ... Hart A. Wand was an early white American blues musician and composer from Oklahoma City. ... The Memphis blues is a style of blues music that was created in 1920s and 1930s by Memphis-area musicians like Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. ... William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 – March 28, 1958) was a blues composer and musician, often known as the Father of the Blues. ...

Handy was a formally trained musician, composer and arranger who helped to popularize the blues by transcribing and orchestrating blues in an almost symphonic style, with bands and singers. He became a popular and prolific composer, and billed himself as the "Father of the Blues"; however, his compositions can be described as a fusion of blues with ragtime and jazz, a merger facilitated using the Cuban habanera rhythm that had long been a part of ragtime;^[26][27] Handy's signature work was the "St. Louis Blues". The habanera is a musical style or genre from Cuba with a characteristic Habanera rhythm; it is one of the oldest mainstays of Cuban music and the first of the dances from Cuba to be exported all over the world. ... St. ...

In the 1920s, the blues became a major element of African American and American popular music, reaching white audiences via Handy's arrangements and the classic female blues performers. The blues evolved from informal performances in bars to entertainment in theaters. Blues performances were organized by the Theater Owners Bookers Association in nightclubs such as the Cotton Club, and juke joints, such as the bars along Beale Street in Memphis. This evolution led to a notable diversification of the styles and to a clearer division between blues and jazz. Several record companies, such as the American Record Corporation, Okeh Records, and Paramount Records, began to record African American music. Theater Owners Booking Association or T.O.B.A. was the vaudeville circuit for African American performers in the 1920s and 1930s. ... Laser lights illuminate the dance floor at a Gatecrasher dance music event in Sheffield, England A nightclub (or night club or club) is a drinking, dancing, and entertainment venue which does its primary business after dark. ... For the 1984 film of the same name, see The Cotton Club The Cotton Club was a famous night club in New York City that operated during and after Prohibition. ... Juke joint (or jook joint) is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring blues music, dancing, and alcoholic drinks, primarily operated by African American people in the southeastern United States. ... Beale Street is a street in Memphis, Tennessee and a significant location in African-American history and the history of the blues. ... The American Record Company, often known as ARC Records or simply ARC, was a United States based record company. ... Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918; from the late 1920s on was a subsidiary of Columbia Records. ... Paramount Records was a United States based record label, best known for its recordings of African-American jazz and blues. ...

As the recording industry grew, country blues performers like Bo Carter, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, Tampa Red and Blind Blake became more popular in the African American community. Sylvester Weaver was the first to record the slide guitar style, in which a guitar is fretted with a knife blade or the sawed-off neck of a bottle. The slide guitar became an important part of the Delta blues.^[28] The first blues recordings from the 1920s were in two categories: a traditional, rural country blues and more polished 'city' or urban blues. Armenter Bo Carter Chatmon Armenter Bo Carter Chatmon was born March 21, 1893 in Bolton, Mississippi & died in Memphis, Tennessee on September 21, 1964. ... Blind Lemon Jefferson (October 26, 1894 – December 1929) was an influential blues singer and guitarist from Texas. ... Alfonzo Lonnie Johnson (February 8, 1894 – June 6, 1970) was a pioneering blues and jazz singer/guitarist born in New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Tampa Red (1904-1981), born Hudson Woodbridge, was an influential American musician. ... Blind Blake Blind Blake (born Arthur Blake, circa 1893, Jacksonville, Florida; died: circa 1933) was an influential blues singer and guitarist. ... Sylvester Pat Weaver (December 21, 1908 - March 17, 2002) was a network television pioneer and president of NBC between 1953 and 1955. ... For the technique, see Slide (guitar technique). ... Delta blues are named for the Mississippi Delta. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Country blues performers often improvised, either without accompaniment or with only a banjo or guitar. There were many regional styles of country blues in the early 20th century. The (Mississippi) Delta blues was a rootsy sparse style with passionate vocals accompanied by slide guitar. Robert Johnson,^[29] who was little-recorded, combined elements of both urban and rural blues. Along with Robert Johnson, influential performers of this style were his predecessors Charley Patton and Son House. Singers such as Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller performed in the southeastern "delicate and lyrical" Piedmont blues tradition, which used an elaborate fingerpicking guitar technique. Georgia also had an early slide tradition.^[30] For the technique, see Slide (guitar technique). ... Robert Johnson, born Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938) is among the most famous of Delta blues musicians. ... Charley Patton Charley Patton (May 1, 1891–April 28, 1934) was an American delta blues musician, and one of the first mainstream stars of the genre. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Blind Willie McTell (May 5, 1908–August 15, 1959), born William Samuel McTell, was an influential American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. ... Blind Boy Fuller (born Fulton Allen) was an American blues guitarist and vocalist. ... The Piedmont blues is a type of blues music characterized by a unique fingerpicking method on the guitar in which a regular, alternating-thumb bass pattern supports a melody using treble strings. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Fingerstyle guitar. ...

The lively Memphis blues style, which developed in the 1920s and 1930s around Memphis, Tennessee, was influenced by jug bands, such as the Memphis Jug Band or the Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers. Performers such as Frank Stokes, Blind Old Tom Anderson, Sleepy John Estes, Robert Wilkins, Big Boy Brazier, Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie used a variety of unusual instruments such as washboard, fiddle, kazoo or mandolin. Memphis Minnie was famous for her virtuoso guitar style. Pianist Memphis Slim began his career in Memphis, but his quite distinct style was smoother and contained some swing elements. Many blues musicians based in Memphis moved to Chicago in the late 1930s or early 1940s and became part of the urban blues movement which blended country music and electric blues. The Memphis blues is a style of blues music that was created in 1920s and 1930s by Memphis-area musicians like Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. ... For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ... A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of traditional and home-made instruments. ... This music article needs to be wikified. ... Gus Cannon (September 12, 1883 - October 15, 1979) was an American blues musician who helped to popularize jug bands (such as his own Cannons Jug Stompers) in the 1920s and 1930s. ... Frank stokes played blues!! ... John Adam Estes (25 January 1904 - 5 June 1977), commonly known as Sleepy John Estes or Sleepy John, was a U.S. blues guitarist and vocalist born in Ripley, Tennessee. ... Robert Wilkins is a seminal blues guitarist and vocalist. ... Joe McCoy (born May 11, 1905 – died January 28, 1950) was an African American blues musician. ... Memphis Minnie McCoy (born June 3, 1897 - died August 6, 1973) was an American Blues musician. ... A washboard is a tool designed for hand washing clothing. ... // Jazz The earliest references to jazz performance using the violin as a solo instrument are documented during the first decades of the 20th century. ... For the visual effects technology, see ZOO Digital Group. ... This article is about the musical instrument. ... Memphis Slim (1915 in Memphis, Tennessee-1988 Paris, France) was a blues pianist and singer. ...

Bessie Smith was a very famous early blues singer.

City or urban blues styles were more codified and elaborate.^[31] Classic female urban or vaudeville blues singers were popular in the 1920s, among them Mamie Smith, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Victoria Spivey. Mamie Smith, more a vaudeville performer than a blues artist, was the first African- American to record a blues in 1920; her "Crazy Blues" sold 75,000 copies in its first month.^[32] public domain photo from the library of congress From Library of Congress This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... public domain photo from the library of congress From Library of Congress This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... The Classic female blues spanned from 1920 to 1929 with its peak from 1923 to 1925. ... This article is about the musical variety theatre. ... Mamie Smith on the sleeve of volume 1 of the Complete Recorded Works reissue collection Mamie Smith (May 26, 1883 - September 16, 1946) was a vaudeville singer, dancer, pianist and