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Origins & Evolution of the Blues
by
Marc Schonbrun
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- The blues has its roots in Africa
- Blues music was passed down aurally
- The blues soon reached across America
The blues has its roots in Africa. Many of the rhythms used in the blues, especially the swing rhythms, are ancient tribal rhythms. The rhythmic influence was passed on through African Americans whose ancestors had left their home in Africa, either by their own will or, more commonly, as slaves.
While African Americans worked as slaves, many sang work songs. These songs told of their pain and plight as oppressed slaves. The melodies of these work songs were based on the pentatonic (five tones) blues scale, rather than the seven-tone major scale that Western classical music is based on.
When slavery was ended, many African Americans stayed in the South while others headed north. As a result, the blues is usually divided into two main categories: southern and northern blues. The evolution of the slave songs spilled into the church and gospel music.
During church services in the South, gospel music played a major role. During the songs, one or more soloists would improvise flourishes based on the pre-existing melody of spiritual and hymn songs. This is where improvisation was born. Many singers based their melodies solely on the pentatonic scale. Many of the spiritual songs were based on repeating chord progressions of simple chords.
The church was not the only place that gave birth to blues music. In the late 1800s, street vendors would sometimes “call” their products out by singing about them. Often, the melody was based on the pentatonic scale. On some of the historic recordings of street vendors, you can play the twelve-bar blues progressions behind the “calls” and it fits together. During those years, the combination of pentatonic melodies and basic chord progressions were starting to fuse into what would become known as the blues.
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