The Blues

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common way of creating this beat was by separating the melodic line from the groundbeat, putting the two in rhythmic conflict. To do so, the musician would sing or play in a manner that emphasized the off beat. The second main innovation was the way musicians expressed rising emotions with falling pitch by bending or flattening certain notes with one’s voice or instruments. This technique produced “blue notes”, which were also practiced by the Akan people of Ghana. The final innovation Blues musicians practiced was the use of a variety of vocal techniques such as coarse gutter tones, slurs, and falsetto singing. Together these innovations gave Blues a sound unlike any other type of music.
To further explain the sound of the Fast and Slow Blues you must understand the way lyrics are broken down. Traditionally, Slow Blues consists of three line stanzas, usually a couple that rhymes with the first line repeated. Each line takes up four bars, often ending in the middle of the third ...

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it is performance music. The delivery of the song, plus the attitude and involvement of the singer take the Blues to another level that cannot be experienced by sitting down and playing an old record. For example, Blues singers engage in call-and-response, asking the audience repeatedly “how they feel”, sometimes doing this over and over until both sides are united in a repetitive chant. Sometimes the performer will insist that the audience join in by clapping, hooting, or stomping their feet. This makes the audience more involved and able to easily understand the singer’s feelings expressed in the song. The audience may also engage in bump-and-grind dancing that adds to the mix of sex and ...

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