********************************************
********************************************
********************************************
********************************************
********************************************
********************************************
********************************************
********************************************
********************************************
********************************************
********************************************
********************************************
********************************************
.
-as of [22 MAY 2024]–
.
-the ‘blues form’ is a ‘cyclic musical form’ in which a repeating progression of ‘chords’ mirrors the ‘call + response’ scheme commonly found in ‘african’ + ‘african-american’ music-
.
(during the first decades of the ’20th century’, ‘blues music’ was not clearly defined in terms of a particular ‘chord progression’)
(with the popularity of early performers (such as ‘bessie smith’), use of the ’12-bar blues’ spread across the ‘music industry’ during the ‘1920s’ and ‘1930s’)
(other ‘chord progressions’ (such as ‘8-bar forms’) are still considered ‘blues’; examples include “how long blues”, “trouble in mind”, and big bill broonzy’s “key to the ‘highway’)
(there are also ’16-bar blues’, such as ray charles’s instrumental “sweet 16 bars” and herbie hancock’s “watermelon man”. Idiosyncratic numbers of ‘bars’ are occasionally used, such as the ‘9-bar progression’ in “sitting on top of the world” (by ‘walter vinson’))
(the basic ’12-bar lyric framework’ of a ‘blues composition’ is reflected by a standard harmonic progression of ’12 bars’ in a ‘4/4 time signature’)
(the ‘blues chords’ associated to a ’12-bar blues’ are typically a set of 3 different chords played over a ’12-bar scheme’)
(they are labeled by ‘roman numbers’ referring to the ‘degrees’ of the progression)
(for instance, for a ‘blues’ in the key of ‘C’, ‘C’ is the ‘tonic chord’ (I) and ‘F’ is the ‘subdominant’ (IV))
(the last chord is the ‘dominant (V) turnaround’, marking the transition to the beginning of the next ‘progression’)
(the lyrics generally end on the last beat of the 10th bar or the first beat of the 11th bar, and the final 2 bars are given to the ‘instrumentalist’ as a ‘break’; the harmony of this 2-bar break’ (aka the ‘turnaround’) can be extremely complex, sometimes consisting of ‘single notes’ that defy analysis in terms of ‘chords’)
(much of the time, some or all of these ‘chords’ are played in the ‘harmonic 7th’ (7th) form)
(the use of the ‘harmonic seventh’ interval is characteristic of ‘blues’ and is popularly called the “blues 7”)
(‘blues 7 chords’ add to the ‘harmonic chord’ (a ‘note’ with a frequency in a ‘7:4 ratio’ to the ‘fundamental note’)
(at a ‘7:4 ratio’, it is not close to any ‘interval’ on the conventional ‘western diatonic scale’)
(‘for convenience’ or ‘by necessity’, it is often approximated by a ‘minor 7th interval’ or a ‘dominant 7th chord’)
(in ‘melody’, ‘blues’ is distinguished by the use of the flattened 3rd, 5th, and 7th of the associated ‘major scale’)
(these specialized notes are called the blue or bent notes)
(these ‘scale tones’ may replace the ‘natural scale tones’, or they may be added to the ‘scale’, as in the case of the ‘minor blues scale’, in which the ‘flattened 3rd’ replaces the ‘natural 3rd’, the ‘flattened 7th’ replaces the ‘natural 7th’ and the ‘flattened 5th’ is added between the ‘natural 4th’ and ‘natural 5th’)
(while the ’12-bar harmonic progression’ had been intermittently used for centuries, the revolutionary aspect of ‘blues’ was the frequent use of the ‘flattened 3rd’, ‘flattened 7th’, and even ‘flattened 5th’ in the melody, together with crushing — (aka “playing directly adjacent notes at the same time” (i.e., ‘minor 2nd’)—and sliding, similar to using ‘grace notes’)
(the ‘blue notes’ allow for “key moments of ‘expression'” during the ‘cadences’, ‘melodies’, and ’embellishments’ of ‘the blues’)
(‘blues shuffles’ or ‘walking bass’ reinforce the ‘trance-like rhythm’ and ‘call-and-response’, and they form a repetitive effect called a ‘groove’)
(characteristic of ‘the blues’ since its ‘afro-american origins’, the shuffles played a central role in ‘swing music’)
(the simplest shuffles (which were the clearest signature of the ‘R&B wave’ that started in the ‘mid-1940s’) were a ‘3-note riff’ on the ‘bass strings’ of the ‘guitar’)
(when this riff was played over the ‘bass’ and the ‘drums’, the groove “feel” was created)
(‘shuffle rhythm’ is often vocalized as “dow, da dow, da dow, da” or “dump, da dump, da dump, da”)
(it consists of ‘uneven’ (or ‘swung’) 8th notes)
.
(on a ‘guitar’ this may be played as a simple steady bass or it may add to that stepwise ‘quarter note’ motion from the ‘5th’ to the ‘6th’ of the ‘chord’ and back)
.
.
*👨🔬🕵️♀️🙇♀️*SKETCHES*🙇♂️👩🔬🕵️♂️*
.
.
.
.
.
💕💝💖💓🖤💙🖤💙🖤💙🖤❤️💚💛🧡❣️💞💔💘❣️🧡💛💚❤️🖤💜🖤💙🖤💙🖤💗💖💝💘
.
.
*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
.
.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥