The Blues

“The blues had a baby and they named it rock and roll”

-_____________  ________________

Practice A-A-B verse writing

•      I got the blues so bad, my head about to roll right off my neck

•      I say I got the blues so bad, my head about to roll right off my neck

•      My headless body stumble onto the tracks, about to cause a train _______

_________/___________ of the Blues

•      African _________ (______________)

•      Blue Note (_____________ scale)

•      Call and ___________, Repeated ____________

•      Slave roots: _________ songs and field ___________

•      _______________ roots: ___________ and _____________ in a society that disallowed it

The Birthplace of the Blues

•      The Mississippi __________: land of sharecropping, ____________, hardship, racism, ________________

Blues Trademarks

•      ___-___-___ chord progression

I - IV -V

                        I                  IV    V

•      In G:                G - A - B - C - D - E - F

•      In A:                A - B - C - D - E - F - G

•      In D:                D - E - F - G - A - B - C

•      In E:                 E - F - G - A - B - C - D

Blues __________

•      I-IV-V chord ____________

•      __-__-__ rhyme pattern

•      Themes: ________, ________, ________, _________,

•      Double _________

•      _______________ is rarely mentioned

Writing your own blues song

•      Create a blues song of at least 4 verses (that’s 4 separate AAB rhyme patterns, a total of 12 lines)

•      Find your blues name on-line and write from the perspective of that person.

•      Type the song using MS Word.