Elmore James
bbullwinkel@fcoe.org
The Blues grew out of the
African American experience
Slaves working in the fields used songs as a way
to communicate, to pass the time and to lift their
spirits. These songs are the roots of blues, gospel,
ragtime, soul, r & b, rock & roll and jazz. This
recording is a work song recorded on a plantation
at Parchman State Prison in Mississippi, 1947.
The Blues…
began in the rural
south with a solo voice
and maybe a homemade
guitar or harmonica.
Son House
The Blues…
…moved north during
the Great Migration
from the poverty and
hardships in the south.
The Blues…
took root in big northern
cities like Chicago.
Robert Johnson
The Blues…
became louder and
more electrified in the
1940’s and 50’s. More
instruments were added
as well as amplifiers and
microphones.
12 Bar Blues
Each bar (measure) in this blues has four beats.
Count them 1, 2, 3, 4. (The first two patterns are counted
for you!) Just click the audio icon when you are ready.
To keep track you can group them like this…
1-2-3-4, 2-2-3-4, 3-2-3-4, etc., all the way up to 12-2-3-4
Every 12 bars, the pattern starts over. Also, in the 12th bar
(measure), the drums will play a loud solo to let you know
that the pattern is ending and will start over again.
Counting
Musical Pattern
The 12 Bar Blues has a pattern for the singers and players to
follow. The pattern is based on three chords called the I chord,
the IV (four) chord and the V (five) chord. Click the audio
button to hear an example.
The 12 Bar Blues
4 bars of the I chord (Do) “Do” is the first note of the scale.
2 bars of the IV chord (Fa)
“Fa” is the fourth note of the
scale.
2 bars of the I chord (Do)
1 bar of the V chord (So) “So” is the fifth note of the scale.
Chord changes
1 bar of the IV chord (Fa)
2 bars of the I chord (Do)
Musical Pattern, continued
The changes happen on these bars (measures). Click the
audio button to hear an example. Count and clap along.
1
5
7
9
10
11
Chord changes
Musical Pattern, continued
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Chord changes
Now you try it!
Count all the measures, and raise your hand
whenever there is a chord change.
(Measures 1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11)
Electric blues track
Lyric Pattern
“The Weary Blues”--Langston Hughes
"I got the Weary Blues And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues And can't be satisfied-I ain't happy no mo' And I wish that I had died."
Lyric pattern
Line one and line two are the same.
The last word in line three rhymes with the last word in
lines one and two.
The last line is a reaction to, a completion of or a
comment on the first two lines
Weary Blues example
Now you try it!
Sing your 12 bar blues lyric along with the track.
Acoustic blues track
Electric blues track
What is the Blues to you?
Anybody singing the blues is in a deep pit
yelling for help. Mahalia Jackson
The Blues are the true facts of life expressed in words
and song, inspiration, feeling, and understanding.
Willie Dixon
Blues is a natural fact, is something that a
fellow lives. If you don't live it you don't have it.
Big Bill Broonzy
I have heartaches, I have blues. No matter what
you got, the blues is there. 'Cause that's all I
know - the blues. John Lee Hooker
THE PROBLEM WE ALL LIVE WITH
Norman Rockwell, 1964
Oil on canvas
Letter from a Birmingham Jail
(excerpt)
 We have waited for more than 340 years for our
constitutional and God given rights. …..Perhaps it is easy for
those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation
to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch
your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and
brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen
curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters;
when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro
brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the
midst of an affluent society;...when you are humiliated day
in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and
"colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger,” …
 Martin Luther King, Jr. , April 16, 1963
 Included in CCSS Appendix B as a text exemplar
Performance Task
 COLLABORATE WITH YOUR GROUP TO
CREATE A TWELVE BAR BLUES LYRIC
THAT COMMUNICATES A THEME
GENERATED FROM THE ARTWORK,
POLITICAL CARTOON AND TEXT YOU
JUST READ. THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT
HOW YOUR WORK DEMONSTRATES
YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEXT
SET AND THE BLUES FORM.
COMPOSER STATEMENT
 In what ways does your blues lyric
reflect a theme found in “The Thing We
All Live With,” “Tote Dat Barge” and
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail?” How
did you use the elements of music to
communicate that theme? Cite
evidence from the text and from your
own work to support your thinking.
CCSS ELA STANDARDS
 Which ELA Anchor Standards were
evident in this lesson?
CALIFORNIA MUSIC
STANDARDS
 Music 1.6 Identify and describe music forms, including
theme and variations and twelve-bar blues.
 Music 2.1 Sing a varied repertoire of music, including
rounds, descants, and songs with ostinatos and songs in
two-part harmony, by oneself and with others.
 Music 3.4 Describe the influence of various cultures and
historical events on musical forms and styles.
 Music 4.1 Identify and analyze differences in tempo and
dynamics in contrasting music selections.
 Music 5.1
Explain the role of music in community events.