Archive for September, 2010

Blues Music: Reflecting the Atrocities

Blues music has its inclination to African-American community of the USA. It is a kind of vocal or instrumental music which is generally based on blues notes. The concept aroused from the spirituality, chants, work songs and ballads. The African influence is greatly felled in the notes and call-and-response patterns of music and lyrics. The American and Western music is more inclined to this music genre. It became the foundation stone for the different music forms namely jazz, rhythm and blues, heavy metal, bluegrass and hip-hop. The blues mainly reflect the mood of the singer i.e. depression, down hearted feeling or sadness. The Blues word was used for the first time in George Colman’s farce’s ‘Blue Devils’. It was in the 1912 that Hart Wand’s ‘Dallas Blues’ came and it was the first Blues Music to describe the depressing mood. There is common distinctiveness in the music genre. Showing the individual peculiar habits, the music elements were earlier call-and-response shouts. They were just individual’s performance with no harmony or formal music structure. These pre-blues were simply a solo song with emotional touch. They were often heard in shouts and hollers.

The present day music form has harmonic base and call-and-response format of African and European communities which gave new structure to the Blues. The voice and guitar were incorporated in the songs. The elements reflected the songs of Africa. The most common instruments, Diddley bow and Banjo were used in the early music. The Diddley bow belonged to South America whereas the Banjo was mostly used in Africa to increase the instrumental vocabulary. With each passing days it adopted Ethiopian airs, Negro spirituality and minstrel shows together with instruments and rhythmic supplements. The blues are rewarded for preserving the melodic patterns of African music. The songs from this genre have distinct musical structure. The songs recorded by Lead Belly’s and Henry Thomas reflected twelve- and sixteen-bar structure with tonic, sub-dominant and dominant chords. The modern form has 12-bar structure with influence of sheet music.

The lyrics of the blues were based on repetition. Each line was repeated four times. Currently, the lines are repeated once with a standard single line conclusion. They are sung in the form of rhythmic talk than a melody. The Blues music has given great artists like Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker and Bessie Smith. The credit can be given to the hollers and calls without which this genre would not have evolved. It is based on the changing lives of the post slavery era of African-Americans. The music is quite popular amongst blacks and generally reflects on the atrocities faced by the community.

More popularly considered as secular songs, the Blues lyrics highlighted singer’s inner shelf. Thus it was not an innovative approach but simply a presentation of oneself. It describes the condition of African Americans communities. It has descriptions related to slaves’ freedom, Booker T. Washington’s teachings, and the famous Horatio Alger model, who once said that man is the creator of his/her destiny. Lawrence Levine stresses on the fact that national ideologies affect the individuals behaviour and the blues music reflect this relationship. Blacks were badly treated during the slavery era and were socially and economically exploited. The secular songs reflect this psychological oppression.

The music was earlier treated as folk blues and was sung during leisurely periods. These songs were mostly sung in shows and carnivals. Due to close contact with country singers, the blacks learned to sing professional Blues which are often called classic blues. In the 20th century, African Americans migrated and played the songs in Texas, Chicago, Louisiana, New York, Arkansas and Detroit. Later the classic blues singers introduced this genre to clubs, vaudeville halls, and theaters with the help of New Orleans and Fast Western musicians. It was in 1895 when George W. Johnson recorded the first blues song called “Laughing Song”. The genre gained popularity in 1920 with Mamie Smith’s evergreen songs namely “Crazy Blues” and “It’s Right Here for You”.

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Types of Blues Music

I thought I would write a little piece about the types of blues music. There are so many out there it can sometimes be hard to tell which is which. For those out there who are aspiring to be great blues musicians or guitarist, knowing what the different types of blues is crucial. It will help you in several aspect. First you will just sounds smarter and well rounded with discussing the blues with other musicians, secondly it will help give you a better understanding of the blues and history of it which in turn help you become a better blues musician.

As there are several types of blues music I will go ahead and just cover some of the major ones.

Vaudeville Blues – This was a popular style of blues in the 1930′s. Vaudeville refers to a theatrical genre of entertainment in the U.S in the 30s. Bessie Smith was one of the most popular Vaudeville blues signers and is often referred to as the “Empress of the Blues”

Boogie- Woogie – This is a style of jazz/blues piano played in rapid temp. the left had will maintain a rhythmic and melodic pattern and the right hand will improvise in the treble.

Chicago Blues – The Chicago blues style was developed in the late 1940′s. It electrified and amplified the Delta Blues. Adding drums, bass, and piano. The form is flexible to accommodate signers, guitarists, pianists, and harmonica players.

New Orleans Blues – This style is mainly piano and horn-driven. There is a happy element to the music with a “lazy” feel to it.

Electric Blues – Electric blues in unique in that in embraces every kind of blues. Stylistically, the form is a wide-open field, accessible to just about every permutation possible— embracing the old, the new, and sometimes the futuristic. Some forms of it copy the older styles of urban blues (primarily the Chicago, Texas, and Louisiana variants), usually in a small-combo format, while others head into funk and soul territory. Yet electric blues is elastic enough to include artists who pay homage to those vintage styles of playing while simultaneously recasting them in contemporary fashion.

Texas Blues – Texas blues pulls in several different elements of other blues genres. Its earliest appearance came in the middle of the 20′s. Stevie Ray Vaughn is often considered a Texas Blues Player.

Delta Blues – This style comes from the deep south. Actually from a southern part of Mississippi it is often referred to as “the land where the blues was born”. This type of blues is often guitar driven, acoustic, and solo by nature.

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Information On The Top Guitar Riffs

If you ask anyone what musical instrument they wish they could play, what do you think the answer would be more than half of the time? Well if you haven t thought it yet, the answer is the guitar. For various reason the guitar has become a very well-known musical instrument amongst all irrespective of the age or the gender or the fact whether it s an acoustic or an electric guitar. This article is going to be about one of the best things the guitar players like to do whether they are amateurs or pros, and that is play guitar riffs.

Guitar riffs are a short series of chords, and these guitar riffs can be a specific part from a vocal or were specifically designed to be played as riffs only. The many popular of these guitar riffs are the ones that were made during the decades of 70 s, 80 s, and the 90 s.

The grandness of these guitar riffs are based on diverse components; one of the main components being that they are used to train novices; guitar riffs are also ordinarily played by skilled guitar players just for the fun of it. Playing guitar riffs can also be very usable to players who have been out of touch for a while, as they would make the player concentrate on prospects such as finger positioning and replacement.

Another one of the causes for the popularity of riffs among guitar players is that there are riffs designed for acoustic guitars just as there are for electric guitars, and there are even riffs for bass players as well; so each player has a riff to play with their guitar no matter what kind it belongs to.

Guitar riffs also come in very convenient if you are somebody who gets influenced into playing the guitar many of the time you see one, but you don t have time. Since riffs are short you could quickly finish playing one within about half a minute and move on with your other work; you d be amazed to know the number of people who does that.

many  guitar riffs are available on the cyberspace for free, but many of them aren t and require you to pay for them. There also books of riffs and various of the great ones have a quite number of riffs in them. These books are primarily designed for novices. Hence the riffs are ordered in such a way that the difficulty growths as you move along, so if you are looking for a riff that is a bit challenging, then you should pick from the middle or the end of the list of riffs.