The blues

Let's learn about a new genre:

Multiple Choice

What is a music genre?

• An instrument

• A category

• A rhythm

Multiple Choice

True or False?

A scale is the notes that are in the key of the song that make it sound good.

• True

• False

The Blues

Let's dive in to a new genre of music

What are the blues?

• A musical genre that has roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, and spirituals

• Some are in a call-and-response style, and some used a rhymed narrative

• They have their own blues scale

• The common form is in an AAB pattern

• Often on topics of discrimination and other challenges in the African-American community

Multiple Choice

What kind of pattern are blues songs written?

• AB

• ABCBA

• AAB

Multiple Choice

What kind of styles are they written in?

• call-and-response songs

• echo songs

• verse and chorus

Who are some famous blues performers?

Ma Rainey

She is known as the "Mother of the Blues" and sang famously in the style of urban blues.

Bo-Weavil Blues

https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=JcwLf3gc2p0

Multiple Choice

True or False?

Ma Rainey's nickname was "Princess of the Blues"

• True

• False

Bessie Smith

known as "Empress of the Blues"

Saint-Louis blues

https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=HjO26vEQy6M&list=PLguB2-oS9KmuvhQf4wdx9fO6SGcUNgqci

Multiple Choice

True or False?

Bessie Smith was known as the "Empress of the Blues"

• True

• False

What are the 12 bar blues?

Quick facts about the 12-bar blues

• They are 12 measures long

• The chords use certain notes that are in the key to give it its sound.

• https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=T20XxA6UiAA

How can we write our own blues?

Well...let's think of stuff that makes us unhappy

Open Ended

What are things that annoy you or make you sad?

Let's work together to write our own blues lyrics.

• We can use the AAB form and rhyming words to help us!