Old Blues New Blues

Click to play – Robert Johnson – Sweet home Chicago Click to play – John Mayer – Everyday I have the blues

TASK: Discuss the similarities… Are there any?

Swing time, same thing:Blues music is mainly performed / composed in swing time. Clap along with the beat changing from straight to swing time every 2 bars (8 beats).

Dotted Rhythms:Are made up of pairs of notes in the pattern long-short. The first note is dotted and the second is one third of the dotted note’s value.

http://www.youtube.com/v/B9HvvjbVWz0 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

How to count dotted rhythm

LOOOOOONG short LOOOOOONG short

TASK 1:

Dotted Rhythms:An uneven rhythm (usually ‘long-short’) produced when a note with a dot is followed by another of one third the value of the first note. If you try singing Three Blind Mice, while clapping the beats, you will find that they stick fairly firmly to the beat. Dotted rhythms, on the other hand, have a different feel altogether. Try tapping the beat while humming or singing We Are The

Champions by Queen, and hear the difference.

Notes with dots after them increase the note duration by half

Dotted notes: http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/14

Diatonic Blues Blues music has nothing to do with the colour. It originates from African slaves working the cotton fields in America creating sad music.

3 chords to useBlues music is always based on 3 chords of a scale. Chords I, IV and V . No matter what key (root note) its always the same chords with blues. Work out chords I,IV and V of the A major scale.

AA …… …… …… …… …… …… AATone Tone SemiTone Tone Tone Tone SemiTone

I II III IV V VI VII VIIITonic Supertonic Mediant Sub-dominant Dominant Sub-mediant Leading tone Octave

AA BB C#C# DD EE F#F# G#G# AA

12 bar bluesBlues chords are played in a specific order called 12 bar blues.Teacher will jam along with sound clip in C major

I I I I

IV IV I I

V IV I V or I

TASK 3: Put these chords in orderReplace the roman numerals for the correct chords of C major

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jluYpcoeoCo&feature=related

TASK:Perform the 12 bar blues to a metronome.http://www.bgfl.org/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/music/piano/

A A A A

A

A

A

A

D

DD

E

E

Dominant 7th chordA dominant seventh chord is used in blues all the time!! It is simply a chord composed of a It can be also viewed as a major triad with an additional minor seventh.

C 7

Slide guitar

1. Root2. Major third3. Perfect fifth4. Minor seventh

Play 7th chords

C 7

Task:Compose a blues song using as many of the features you’ve learnt today. Guitar and piano only!!!

Listen: What’s happening in the 5,6,7,8’s?

Activity: Teacher brings in bass guitar. Class discuss the role of a bass.

AA BB C#C# DD EE F#F# G#G# AATone Tone SemiTone Tone Tone Tone SemiTone

I II III IV V VI VII VIIITonic Supertonic Mediant Sub-dominant Dominant Sub-mediant Leading tone Octave

I III V VI bVII VI V III I

… … … … … … … … …

Working out a walking bass line

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE&ob=av3n

A C# E F# G F# E C# A

TASK 1, 2 & 3: Perform walking bass line in A,D and E.

EXTENSION TASK:

1 person plays the walking bass line and the other plays the chord sequence from last week.

Blues has its own scaleThe blues scale is any major scale with a minor 3rd, minor 7th and an added flattened 5th.

Blues scale: I bIII IV bV V bVII

AA BB CC## DD EE FF## GG## AATone Tone SemiTone Tone Tone Tone SemiTone

I II III IV V VI VII VIIITonic Supertonic Mediant Sub-dominant Dominant Sub-mediant Leading tone Octave

Task 2: Improvise to a backing trackImprovisation is where you make it up on the spot. I’m going to give you sometime to get comfortable where the notes are. I’m then going to play a backing track and you are going to improvise over the top.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNSiWeFXrNI&feature=related

MAKE YOUR MELODIES INTERESTINGConjuct:

Disjuct:

Melody that moves by step never more than a tone.

Melody that moves using lots of jumps. Larger than a tone.

Extension task:Improvisation is an excellent skill and must be use wisely. To

avoid it being boring and repetitive use Disjunct and conjunct.

LONG AND SHORT NOTES

7th Chords

walking bass line

Improvisation

Dotted rhythms (swing time)

Basic triads (chords)

Verse Chorus

Blues scale

12 Bar blues

Play an individual role in a group

Select appropriate timbre

Lyrical content

Keep in time

My Song has…