Progression of the Blues shown by the set songs



Progression of the Blues shown by the set songs.

Sweet Home Chicago Robert Johnson

Recorded Nov 23rd 1936

Country Blues OR Delta blues named from the Mississippi river delta region – Boogie shuffle style. Already swung quavers are being used. Voice & acoustic Guitar only, both performed by Robert Johnson.

Boogie shuffle style:- Chords varying between 5ths, 6ths & b7ths in a shuffle quaver style.

Vocal techniques:- clear projected baritone tone though an untrained voice, moans, slides to pitches usually beginning under the pitch by a semitone, falsetto, emotion in the delivery of the text. He did not have the use of microphones. He projected his sound. Short phrases.

Guitar technique:-

• His guitar playing was so complex that many musicians including Eric Clapton thought that there were two guitarists on the recordings.

• Boogie shuffle is used to accompany the voice, but is frequently varied with the addition of a short motive – repeated note in a rhythmic manner or a single note.

• Intro and joins between verses and lines have been copied extensively by early Rock guitarists. These are the main ‘solo’ sections.

• Johnson plays the bass line, harmonies and melodic accompaniment to the voice that includes upward string bends of ¼ tone. Only rarely is there a single note played. He does not play single line unsupported melodies. All his melodies are accompanied.

• Palm mute technique used on the lower chords/notes throughout.

• Finger picking. Johnson does not use a plectrum.

• Uses a variety of left hand positions with the highest around the 12th fret.

Rhythm:- The guitar is used to keep the beat through the Boogie Shuffle pattern. Some use of syncopation, swing or shuffle quavers, and triplet feel.

Key:- Capo used to play Guitar in E – sounds F# major. E is an easy guitar key, but F# suited the vocal range.

Tempo:- Moderate swing. Crotchet = 94

Chords:- This is not a simple 12 bar blues progression. Chords change frequently – every half bar, every beat etc. Chord types:- triads (major & minor), triads in inversions, dominant 7th & dominant 7th s in inversions, diminished 7th.

Musical interest from the complex texture of the guitar part and the way the voice is answered in a Call and Response style by the guitar. The driving pulse (though a little unsteady in the recording) is created by the guitar bass line & chords. The melodic interest is in the guitar and the voice. He uses an interesting chord progression and a range of chord types.

Muddy Waters

I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man Words & Music by Willie Dixon

Recorded 1954 live – audience clapping in the background on every beat.

Muddy Waters is considered the Father of Chicago Blues OR Electric Blues which has the following instruments:- amplified guitar, bass, harmonica & voice and uses drums & piano - Sometimes called Urban or City blues.

Waters played loud amplified guitar.

In his youth Waters first learnt Harmonica, then guitar. He studied and copied the guitar style of Robert Johnson and Son House. His dark and heavy toned vocal style is based on Son House. Electricity & the inventions of electric guitars & microphones allowed him to develop quite a different sound. City living made it easier to form and tour with bands.

Rhythm:- Slow Blues shuffle – in 4/4 but with a triplet feel, syncopation, use of semiquavers in AND against the triplet feel.

Vocal:- Free rhythmic delivery of these uneven lyrics. (5 – 9 syllables in a line) eg …. Conversation style until the Chorus which is sung higher in a more projected tone. Slides up to the note are heard.

Call and Response:- Verse – guitar begins and repeats the same response. The vocal gives the call.

Guitar:-

• Uses a capo – plays in E with open 5th chords (root and 5th only – power chords) this sounds in A. Dominant 7th chords in the chorus in a boogie woogie style.

• Repeated riff like figure using the lower strings and featuring the triplet feel of slow blues between each vocal line.

• Hammer on technique used.

• The solo is supported harmonically and rhythmically by other instruments.

Chords:- Power chord on the opening I for 2 bar introduction and the next 8 bars. Chorus uses Dominant 7th chords in the pattern of line 2 & 3 of the blues. Ie. Simpler chords sequence used than Johnson’s, probably for the drama. The opening leaves the audience wondering when the chord will change.

John Lee Hooker

Boom Boom

Released late 1961 – studio recording.

Hooker’s Guitar style over his lifetime featured:- Walking bass with the thumb, trills at the end of the section using rapid hammer on and pull off techniques. He also featured Boogie woogie piano style.

Vocal melody:- short phrases, syncopated rhythm, rests on beat 1 before the start of the phrases, low range, uses the E Blues Pentatonic with the addition of the major 3rd (G#) Free rhythms. Hooker uses a half spoken style to deliver the lyrics. Mostly sung clearly though some speech like delivery.

Guitar:- Jimmie Vaughan seems to be the one who took the solo.

• Not a complex a texture like Robert Johnson’s. There was no need for the lead guitarist to play the bass and the harmonic support lines as others in the band covered these.

• Techniques:- Some of the same as Robert Johnson and some new techniques. Glissando – slides, Pull off – the left hand creates a slur between two notes where the 2nd one is lower in pitch, ghost notes – indicated by the ‘x’ note heads have a rhythmic function but don’t sound with an exact and clear pitch, Bends on individual notes and two note chords by tones, semitones & ¼ tones usually up but including notes that are pre bent so that the pitch goes down when the bend is released. Hammer on – the left hand creates a slur by stopping an already vibrating string at a shorter length with sufficient force for the note to sound at the new higher pitch. Stopping two strings to produce the same pitch – this makes the sound louder.

• Mainly uses the E blues in a fairly low guitar register that mainly uses the middle strings. The 10th fret on the B string is the highest position used.

• Driving rhythms but also using Cross rhythms – eg. The crotchet triplets & syncopation – rests on the beats, chords or entries off the beat & the use of long notes on weak beats.

• Quite a variety of figures and solo ideas used – more varied than Johnson.

• The band supports the solo harmonically and rhythmically.

Chord structure:- Much simpler than Johnson’s chord changes – a simple 12 bar blues:-

I7 / / / /

IV7 / / I7 / /

V7 / / I7 / /

One chord almost as a drone eg. The solo section uses only E7. (I7)

Instruments:- Voice, Amplified guitar, bass, organ & drums. (Recorded loud.)

Rock like features:- Heavy drums with a strong back beat on 2 & 4. Bass includes some riff like figures. Organ uses repeated patterns not just in the opening figure – found also in the outro. Guitar throughout – loud and in a style that was to be borrowed heavily by the Rock guitarists because of the guitar techniques .

B.B. King

Why I Sing the Blues

Recorded 1983

B.B. King – vocals and guitar, but not at the same time. (one at a time.) with a band – expanded instrumentation from early Urban or Electric Blues.

Rock style Bass riff.

Moderate Rock with straight quavers first defined in the Bass riff

Guitar:-

• King focuses his efforts, even through his limited guitar technique, to communicate to his audiences through his solos. He was not as gifted a guitarist as Johnson before him and Clapton who came after. His guitar (and facial expressions) ‘talk’ to the audience.

• Uses motives and develops them (choose obviously similar yet extended bars from the 1st page)

• High range used in solos

• Vibrato – shake of left hand allows for a sustained pitch with plenty of ‘life’. Pitch bends full (tone) ½ (semitone) and ¼ tone are the main techniques.

• He mainly plays only one note at a time.

• Uses the pentatonic blues and the Mixolydian – the blues habit of using both the major and minor 3rd and his punctuation chord C6

• Solo for whole choruses before or after singing whole choruses.

• Support for the solos comes from the band.

Rhythms:- Speech like even in the guitar solos. Syncopation used extensively.

Chord structure:- The more standard simple 12 bar blues in C major:-

I7 / / / /

IV7 / / I7 / /

V7 /IV7 / I7 / /

Solos follow the above chord changes.

Doesn’t use chord extensions to the 9th or beyond or altered chords. All chords are dominant 7ths. (Except the chord C9 which was to indicate to the band the big finish.)

Instruments:- Vocals & solo guitar played by B.B. King, Rhythm guitar on 2 & 4 during vocals, bass, piano, drums. (CD recording.)

For some concerts eg the Africa concert, King would use a larger band that included percussion, and horns (saxes, trumpets and trombones.) for this song.

Bass riff:- Varied slightly, though still very much in the riff style of Rock songs. Based on 1 & b7 of each chord.

Eric Clapton

I’m Tore Down Words & Music by Sonny Thompson

Recorded 1994

The British Clapton admired the Afro American blues men, developed a very strong technique on the guitar building on what had gone before and took the Blues to another level.

Moderate Blues – crotchet = 134 with swing quavers. Considered ‘moderate’ even though much faster than the moderate blues of earlier times because the Be Bop Jazz players had continued to develop the blues, sometimes playing at a crotchet = 300. Elements of Boogie shuffle and rock, though still obviously a blues.

Chords:-C major 12 bar blues - Basic blues like B.B. King’s version above – all chords as dominant 7ths – Use of Db7 & Db9 a tritone substitute chord & C dim and ending on a C9

Intro:- Similar to Johnson, though one note at a time.

Call & Response:- The guitar responds to the vocal line with a descending figure like the opening introduction figure but shortened.

Vocal:- Lyrics in the style of the blues – 1st line sung twice followed by a conclusion or answer to the 1st line. Short phrases ending towards the beginning of the 3rd bar to allow the guitar response. Clear tone used. Fairly high range. The highest pitches are sung in falsetto. Emotional delivery.

Guitar:-

• Uses the blues scale with the addition of the 6th and including the major & minor 3rd.

• Bends – full, ½ & ¼, including double stopped bends up a semitone and full bends of one note in a 2 note chord - (something new), Vibrato like B.B. King, Glissando – slides in both directions from chords or single notes, hammer on – frequently Eb to E, pull off – (several to choose from on pg 45), ghost notes – also pg 45.

• Some motives sound a little like B.B. King’s motives eg. 3rd & 5th bars pg 45

• Support for the solo from the band.

• Almost all of Clapton’s guitar work uses only one note at a time until the final portion of the solo and the final chords of the coda.

Instruments:- Voice, Drums (heavy 2 & 4 back beat) some breaks in the groove to add emphasis, Lead and rhythm guitar, saxes – the baritone has a short solo in a couple of places, bass guitar, keyboard.

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