Blues Flashcards
What are the different sub-genres of blues?
Country, classic, instrumental.
What is country blues?
Typically a soloist who would accompany themself on guitar, banjo, or fiddle. Led by a vocal line.
What is the basic harmonic blueprint for country blues?
12 bar blues.
What is classic blues?
Typically a female vocalist accompanied by a jazz band/piano.
Developed in minstrel shows.
What is instrumental blues?
Essentially jazz players and composers adopting the blues for instrumental performance.
How does the blues scale have pizazz?
It has ‘blues notes’, which lie outside the conventional major/minor scale. It creates melodic tension.
What are the significant blues notes?
Minor third, flattened fifth, flattened seventh.
What is the significance of ‘tonic’ chord in blues?
It is essentially a dominant seventh chord, due to the flattened seventh in blues scales.
