Blue Beginnings
This deeply expressive African American musical form uses “blue notes” and repetitive chord structures.
After this event, the rise of sharecropping shaped the themes of hardship and resilience in blues lyrics.
What is Emancipation / the end of slavery?
This standard chord progression became a hallmark of the blues.
What is the 12-bar blues?
Known as the “Father of the Blues,” he published early compositions like “Memphis Blues.”
Who is W.C. Handy?
The blues laid the harmonic and emotional foundation for this later American genre beginning with “J.”
What is jazz?
The blues developed in this U.S. region at the end of the 19th century.
What is the Deep South (Mississippi Delta, Louisiana, Texas)?
African Americans carried the blues northward during this mass movement to urban centers like Chicago and Detroit.
What is the Great Migration?
These flattened notes (3rd, 5th, or 7th) give the blues its unique sound.
What are blue notes?
Called the “Mother of the Blues,” she was one of the earliest professional blues singers.
Who is Ma Rainey?
Like jazz, the blues found eager audiences abroad, especially in this European country where it later influenced rock musicians.
What is the United Kingdom / Britain?
The blues provided a way to express the struggles, hopes, and everyday life of this group in a segregated society.
Who are African Americans?
Blues lyrics reflected the sorrows and survival strategies of African American communities living under these discriminatory laws.
What are Jim Crow laws?
Early blues was often performed solo with this string instrument before small bands formed.
What is the guitar (or banjo)?
Known as the “Empress of the Blues,” her powerful voice made her one of the most famous blues artists of the 1920s.
Who is Bessie Smith?
The blues influenced rhythm & blues and this electrified style that emerged in Chicago after migration north.
What is urban / electric blues?
Name one African musical element that shaped the blues (hint: rhythm, sliding pitches, or blue notes).
What is rhythmic flexibility / sliding pitches / blue notes (any one)?
These pre-blues songs, often sung while working, contributed call-and-response singing and improvisation.
What are work songs and field hollers?
This Southeastern blues style is known for its fingerpicking guitar technique.
What is Piedmont blues?
This Delta blues pioneer had a raw vocal style and rhythmic guitar playing.
Who is Charley Patton?
The blues also influenced this genre that exploded in the 1950s with artists like Elvis Presley.
What is rock ’n’ roll?
Spirituals and this genre of church music brought deep feeling and communal singing to the blues.
What is gospel?
Phonograph records and this new medium helped bring blues music to wider audiences during the 1910s and 1920s.
What is the Radio?
This regional style of blues used amplified full bands, electric guitars, and harmonicas after migration north.
What is Chicago / urban blues?
This early Texas blues guitarist and singer’s recordings influenced many.
Who is Blind Lemon Jefferson?
The blues served as both entertainment and a form of this type of social expression for African American communities.
What is social commentary?