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Overview | History of the Blues |
Intro to Blues Lead Guitar
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A History of the Blues
A History
of the Blues will be a look at American Blues dating back to its origins
including pre-American, European music, and pre-American, African music.
The course focus is the development of blues as its own form, and the
progression of this evolution. During the discourse the genre will be
examined chronologically and geographically (i.e. Delta Blues early 1920's,
Chicago Blues 1950's, etc) in order to understand the complex evolution
of this musical form.
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Week |
Week One-Predecessors to the Blues
Early
Slave and European Influences
Elements of retentions of African music
Early American music (Colonial music)
Early African American Music-General Characteristics
Web
Links
The
Colonial Music Institute
Early
African and European Influences
Spirituals
Spirituals,
Seculars, Ballads and Work Songs
Download Adobe's Acrobat PDF program for viewing the outline and musical examples for each week's lectures.
This
week's outline in PDF format
Week Two-Classic Blues, Early Rural (Country) Blues
Classic
blues
1. Characteristics (musical, social, etc)
2. Important artists
Rural
Blues-Delta Blues
1. Characteristics
2. Important artists
Differences in the two above styles
Influences
of recording industry on the development of these two early traditions
Web
Links
The Blues
Foundation
Delta Blues History
Yazoo Records
Bob
Brozman
Vaudeville
History
Week Three-Early Blues Continued, Musical Styles and Geography
Piedmont, Memphis, Georgia, and Texas Styles
Analysis
of these styles in relation to characteristics and important artists,
development of geographic differences, reasons for this, etc.
Web
Links
Piedmont
History
Piedmont
Tradition Defined
Memphis
Blues
Texas
Blues Guitar
Week Four-Post World War II Music-Jump and Urban Blues
The migration of blues artists from the southern rural areas to northern urban centers
The development of electric instruments and the influence of this on the music
Further development of geographical styles (Chicago, Detroit, etc)
Web
Links
Jump
Blues
Detroit Blues
Society
History
of Hastings Street in Detroit
Week Five-Electric Blues and "The Blues Had a Baby and they Named it Rock and Roll"
Further
analysis of early electric blues
Jump Blues influence on early rock and roll
Web
Links
History
of Aristocrat Records
Chess
Records
History
of Chess Records
Maxwell
Street, Chicago
Blues
Music Theory Overview
Outline
PDF
Week Six-The British Invasion, Blues Revivalists, and Blues Artists
A
look at the "British Invasion" of rock and roll and its roots
in early electric blues
The folk movement and blues revivalists of the mid sixties
Rocks influence on the blues
Week 7-Modern Funk, Soul and the Blues
Development of different styles of African American music and their influence on blues since from the 70's to the present
Web Links
