What constitutes "blues"?

["IronMan Mike Curtis" <ironman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

What makes a song "blues"?  Well, a lot of blues has 12 bars and I/IV/V
changes - but so do a lot of country, rock, jazz, etc.  You can find 12 bars
and I/IV/V changes in just about every genre.

Hank Williams' country classic "Mind Your Own Business" is a standard 12 bar
format, but Hanks not a blues singer, nor were his bands (featuring pedal
steel guitar) "blues".  When Hank performed it, this "blues format" song was
pure country.  However, this tune has been covered by a lot of blues
artists, who MAKE it into "blues".

Miles Davis' jazz classic "All Blues" uses a very slight variation on the 12
bar format.  Despite the title, you won't hear this played on any "purely
blues" stations.

The Blues has no monopoly on this format.

A lot of blues uses forms that differ from the "standard I/IV/V 12 bars".
John Lee Hooker is famous for his disregard for hard fixed form and chords.
Many of his most famous works have just one chord.  Baby Please Don't Go
uses a single chord, or in some versions uses a IV as a bridge.

Bobby Blue Blands most well known blues tune "Love Light" vamps on a I/IV
change throughout.

Arguably the most well known blues song of all time, Stormy Monday, starts
off sounding like a I/IV/V 12 bar blues, but in the middle goes through a
II, III, flatted III, and such.  Of course these are what musicians call
"chord substitutions".  They're used profusely in jazz - which is why SM has
a "jazzy" sound.  But no one would argue that T-Bone Walker was anything but
"blues".

I've been to a lot of "blues jams" where nothing but 12 bar "blues songs"
are played, and yet the music that resulted was anything but blues.

Blues is not a format.  It's a style, a WAY of performing music.  Blues has
a particular feeling.  There are certain notes that "don't appear on the
piano" that are generally present in blues.  If the singer or musician is
unaware of these notes, the music will not have a bluesy sound to it.  This
is one major reason a lot of white singers and musicians sound - well - so
"white".  Classical European music is strongly rooted in a strict "12 tone
scale".

It's a cultural thing.

The African-American culture is more rooted in microtones and such.  A lot
of blues traces its roots to field hollers, where there were no instruments,
just the human voice.  There are certain fractional notes that impart
certain emotions.  By not having the "restraints" of a 12 tone scale, the
voices were free to find the "best" note to express a particular emotion.

If you're a blues player, you definitely owe it to yourself to seek out and
study field hollers.  Listen to the feeling, phrasing, lyricism, and the
*EXACT* pitches they sing.  You'll notice that they seem just a tad "off"
compared to a piano.  No that's not your ear playing tricks on you.  That's
your ear telling you the truth, and your heritage telling you that your ear
must be mistaken.

BTW field hollers have no chords, and are often rather free form.

I've heard it said that "blues is a feeling".  There's a lot of truth in
this statement.  It's tailoring the music to bring the song to life, to sing
a "sad" word "sadly", a flirty word flirtatiously, a joyous word joyously,
all with a certain cultural influence.


- -IronMan Mike Curtis BonTemps Blues Band  http://www.ironmancurtis.com
Southland Blues Magazine http://www.SouthlandBlues.com TU 8pm (jam)
Starboard Attitude/Redondo Santa Monica 3rd St Promenade, various times
email my cellphone (2 lines max) mailto:ironmanc@xxxxxxxxx