Music 8

It is difficult to determine the actual first appearances of blues. It is widely believed, however, that blues emerged between ____ and _____.

1870 and 1900

In the early versions of the blues, there was considerable difficulty in distinguishing ______ music from ______ music.

blues or country

Clarence "Pine Top" Smith (1904 - 1929), from Alabama, is considered to be the originator of ________-________, a musical style written for the piano that developed in the early 1920s.

boogie-woogie

Just as it sounds, call-and-response consists of a call and a response. In Africa, these were traditionally sung by the human voice. In blues music, the call and the response can be played by different instruments. It is also common for one voice or instrument to respond to its ___ call; the same lyrics or musical phrase is simply repeated.

own

Blind Lemon Jefferson had tremendous success in the 1920s, so record companies sent scouts specifically to Dallas to try to find other musicians and singers like him. Record companies did not pay _________ to African American artists, however. Instead they were paid a _____ _____.

royalties, flat rate

In the 1920s, the first blues recordings were categorized in two ways: _______ (country) and _______.

rural and urban

The rural performers improvised with a guitar or banjo and often without accompaniment. Mississippi Delta blues is a good example of rural blues, typified by the random vocal style and sparse _____ _______ improvisations of Robert Johnson.

slide guitar

Boogie-woogie can be easily identified by the characteristic driving notes played with the left hand. This pattern of notes is referred to as "eight to the bar."

...

In the late '30s and early '40s, many blues musicians migrated to Chicago and became a part of the urban blues movement.

...

Mamie Smith is considered the first black female vocalist to record the blues. The success of these early blues recordings got the attention of record label executives, who were eager to exploit the profit potential of this music. Vocalists like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith made blues recordings that reached a much wider audience than their blues predecessors had.

...

Most often, the race of the performer was the deciding factor. Country and blues music recordings date back to the 1920s. At that time, record companies would market race music (blues) to black audiences, or hillbilly music (country) to white audiences.

...

There are many variations of the blues and the chord progressions associated with it, including a minor blues progression.

...

___________ blues developed as a result of poor black workers from the South going north to find work in the industrialized cities in the Great Migration, bringing their music with them. The instruments used in this style of blues music expanded to include the electric guitar, drums, piano, and bass guitar.

Chicago

In this region, the harmonica and guitar were the primary musical instruments used in blues music. Most early blues performers were solo vocalists who accompanied themselves with guitar.

Delta Blues

The most common harmonic progression for the blues is the 12-bar blues form. It typically begins with: four bars of the ___ chord, or tonic, followed by two bars of the ___ chord, or ___-__________ , followed by two bars of the tonic, and then two bars of the ___, or __________ chord, followed by two bars of the tonic.

I or tonic, IV or sub-dominant, I or tonic, V7 or dominant

__________ shows were popular traveling acts in which showmen tried to sell medicine and products. They also provided entertainment that integrated the styles of African American and white performers, specifically blending blues and country music.

Medicine

________ shows were a popular (and problematic) form of theater during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Designed to mock people of African descent, the shows consisted of musical performances and comic skits.

Minstrel

One the most distinguishable qualities of blues music is the performer's ability to bend the notes and emphasize feeling by using _____ ______.

blue notes

If you're singing the blues and you alter the pitch by bending (slightly raising or lowering) the notes to really bring home the feeling of what you're singing about, you have employed the concept of _____ _________. Specifically, musicians slightly lower the third scale degree, the fifth scale degree, and the seventh scale degree to create _____ _________.

blue tonality

The blues have roots in African musical traditions and evolved in response to the blending of African and European-rooted American music during slavery in the United States. The blues continue to reflect traditional African musical elements such as ___-____-_________-.

call-and-response

Call-and-response is one of several traits that distinguish the blues sound from other styles of music. Another distinctive characteristic is the alteration of the major scale into what is known as the blues scale. The blues also introduced and standardized a specific 12-bar _______ _______.

chord change

One of the earliest styles of blues was the _______ blues. The Mississippi Delta stretches from Memphis, Tennessee, to Vicksburg, Mississippi. It is bordered by the Mississippi river on the west and the Yazoo river on the east.

delta

During the 1940s, after World War II, blues bands began to add saxophones and amplified harmonicas. With the expansion of instrumentation and incorporation of electric instruments, this style of blues was called urban blues, __________ blues, or Chicago blues. Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, T-Bone Walker, and B. B. King were important musicians of this form of the blues.

electric

The common practice of altering these pitches from the standard major scale is a distinct and deliberate departure from the concept of ______ _________________ _______

equal temperament tuning

The division of an octave into twelve steps of equal harmonic distance from one another.

equal temperament tuning

This is when the slaves were freed, and when they became farmers and agricultural producers on a very modest scale. A distinguishing characteristic of this new blues music was a transition from the _______-oriented music to that of a more _____________ style.

group, individualized

The Memphis blues style was influenced by ___ ______ and developed in the 1930s in Memphis, Tennessee.

jug bands

Many performers add their ________ interpretation to their performance. They may emphasize certain words and phrases, they may highlight the harmonic progression of a piece.

personal

The blues originated from an unaccompanied ______ tradition of poor African American southern workers.

vocal