The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The theory of using numbers that correlate to the seven letters identifying note names in music should be introduced if students are not familiar with the construction of an eight-tone diatonic scale (i.e., begin.īlues is a music genre and musical form which was originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1870s by African-Americans from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, and spirituals.
3? R 3 5 6 7 6 5 3 R 3 5 6 7 6 5 3? The Blues Teacher’s Guide Playing the Blues Focus Exercise This exercise introduces the blues scale and blues improvisation. A slightly embellished version of this kind of line would also be typical of a basic 'boogie woogie' type bass line, as in the following example: R 3 5 6 7 Walking Bass Line Theory Basics - Chris Fitzgerald 6 5 3 R 3 5 6 7 6 5. Overall effect of a simple blues bass line. There are numerous books and web sites about general music theory and more specialised topics. Underlying objective is lead work and improvisation in a rock music context (broadly speaking), but most topics are of a more general nature and they can also easily be adapted to other musical genres. It is described as a soulful and emotional music whose themes are primarily about the lives, loves, hardships and hopes of African-Americans. The blues genre of music originated in the USA in the 19th century and was a form of music developed by African-Americans.