Blues is a music trend that dates back to the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, it became very popular and still wins the hearts of listeners. Blues is music that mixes African-American musical styles such as work songs, spirituals and cholera.
What is blues?
This translates from English as "sadness." The size of the blues works is mostly 4/4, although the eighth triol with a pause (shuffle) is often used. The pace can be arbitrary, but more often it is slow. Blues refers to improvisational
genres of music, that is, the composition already has some basis, which is played out with solo instruments, as if leading a dialogue with each other, arguing, competing.
The most common form of works is a period of 12 or 16 measures. The musical compositions of this genre have a characteristic feature - the use of lowered levels - 3, 5 and 7 in natural major. This is the blues mood. The subjects of the works are different, but for the most part it is unrequited love, hard overwork and bitter bondage of slaves. Under the influence of the blues, musical styles such as pop music, jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, soul and others arose.
The origin of the genre
In order to get a complete picture of what blues is, you need to figure out where it comes from. This musical form originated in ancient times, when Africans were used as slaves, worked on plantations, and did the most dirty work. They reflected the brunt of their lives in working songs originating in ethnic African music. Slaves sang during work and in their free time. Gradually, such songs improved, and at some point the blues style was born from them. It is difficult to say with certainty when this happened exactly. The birthplace of blues is considered to be the Mississippi River Delta. Most of the performers of this repertoire were slaves all their lives, and after the abolition of slavery, they worked at low-paid jobs, where they also did the most dirty work, some became tramps or interrupted by occasional odd jobs. Some managed to get into some small eateries by singers and musicians, but paid them little or even paid for food.
Types of blues
There are more than 10 varieties of this musical direction, the most striking of which are city blues, rhythm and blues and blues rock.
City blues (the original, the very first) appeared after the American Civil War in 1870. He was invented by African-Americans, who began to move to live in cities. This trend remains in America at the peak of popularity so far. Previously, the performers of the blues were exclusively men, but over time, women began to play it too.
Rhythm and blues appeared and became popular during World War II. The leading performers working in this style were among the first to be Joe Turnet and Jimmy Rushing. At that time, there were changes in the performance of the blues. New tools have appeared. To play the blues, they began to use electric guitars, electric organs, bass guitars, microphones appeared that reinforced the voices of vocalists, and drums. Thanks to all this, an ensemble of four people got the opportunity to sound louder and more powerful than a whole big band of 18 people. One of the most famous rhythm and blues artists is Chuck Bury, BB King and others. They further upgraded the blues, added jazz rhythms and boogie-woogie style to it, gradually leading it away from the original folk version.
Blues rock is an English direction, according to the official version, Jimmy Hendrix became its ancestor. This style is characterized by a very loud and aggressive sound of electric guitars, drive, power, a huge number of speakers, and, of course, improvisation. Nowadays, this direction is not so popular, and there are not so many artists who play blues rock.
In Russia
Russian listeners learned about what blues music is , around the late 60s - early 70s of the 20th century. Soviet people got acquainted with this musical style through such artists as Led Zeppelin, Johnny Winter and others. His own group, playing blues, appeared in the USSR in 1969, it was called "Successful acquisition", the leader was Alexey Belov. In the 80s of the 20th century, the number of fans of this trend in music increased, and there were much more performers! After the Soviet Union collapsed, the access of Russians to this kind of music expanded, a large number of albums for sale appeared, clubs opened, festivals began to be held.
Modern blues performers
In our country today there are such blues bands and solo artists, such as:
- Cradle Rock;
- "Zoo";
- Yuri Naumov;
- Lyapin Blues;
- "Zero";
- Ravonts
- Stainless Blues Band;
- "Quiet pool";
- The Apache Blues.
World blues stars:
- Peter Noveli;
- Joe Bonamassa;
- Candy Kane;
- Susan Tedeschi;
- Ken Saydak;
- Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears;
- Big Maybelle
How to learn to play the blues on the piano
Surely there are such music lovers who are interested in the question of how to play the blues. Of course, to begin with, you need basic command of the instrument and knowledge of solfeggio. First of all, you should understand that the main thing here is improvisation. To be able to play blues improvisations, you need to learn the form and harmony of the blues. First of all, you need to master the simplest way - it is built on the basis of minor pentatonic scale, it is necessary to add the 5th lower level to it. That is, a minor minor seventh chord is built, the 5th step is lowered and a blues pentatonic scale is obtained. There are various video tutorials with exercises that will help you achieve your goal. You can also find minus phonograms recorded in various keys, which can be used as the basis under which improvisations will be created. Then you can proceed to the development of major pentatonic.
Blues can and dance
What is blues in dancing? This is one of the most stylish modern areas. The blues dance is beautiful and harmonious. Previously, he was danced exclusively to the blues accompaniment. Now everything has changed. It is already being played to any slow melodies that are similar in rhythm to the blues, for example, R'n'B.
What is blues dance? It is brightness, beauty, romance, elegance, attractiveness. And although it is performed slowly, it will definitely give the dancers a charge of vivacity, positive energy and will help to gain self-confidence. This is a pair dance, where the partner and partner perform movements that are opposite to each other. The main steps are slow, long steps on the straightened knees, which alternate with short attached steps, accompanied by free leg kicks near the supporting leg and performed with the knees relaxed.
How does blues music affect a person?
Scientists have long been studying how a particular musical direction affects the human body and its psyche. According to researchers, blues music, like classical music, can best help to cope with depression, a bad mood, allows you to relax, give rest to body and soul. It helps to free oneself from bad thoughts. But the positive effect will be only if blues music is pleasant to the person who decided to listen to it in order to cheer himself up. If she does not like it, then the positive dynamics will be insignificant. Or she will not be at all.