Learning the Blues with Wynton Marsalis | After School Sessions for the Benedetti Foundation
Summary
TLDRThe video script is a comprehensive tutorial on the blues, a musical genre characterized by its emotive melodies and rhythmic shuffle pattern. It explores the blues' simple yet complex nature, starting with basic scales and progressing to the 12-bar form. The instructor emphasizes the importance of listening to blues songs and imitating melodies to truly grasp the genre's essence. They also discuss the blues' role as a form of emotional expression, using the metaphor of a train to explain its rhythm and the significance of its three-chord structure. The script concludes with advice on creating melodies through imitation and the use of vocal sounds on instruments to convey the blues' emotional depth.
Takeaways
- 🎶 The blues is a musical form that is both simple and complex, characterized by a specific scale and rhythm.
- 🚂 The shuffle rhythm, which is foundational to the blues, is likened to the sound of a train and combines elements of marches and waltzes.
- 🎵 The blues scale is a simplified scale that captures the essence of the blues, sounding like someone moaning or crying.
- 🎶 Learning the blues involves listening to and imitating blues songs, which is more valuable than just playing scales.
- 🎵 W.C. Handy, known as the father of the blues, is a good starting point for learning blues melodies.
- 📜 The traditional blues form is based on a 12-bar structure, which is symmetrical and travels through three chords: one, four, and five.
- 🎼 The progression of chords in the blues follows a pattern: one to four, back to one, then to five, down to four, and finally back to one.
- 🎤 The lyrics of the blues often follow a pattern of three stanzas, with the first two stating a problem and the third resolving it.
- 🎷 Blues playing involves creating melodies through imitation and experimenting with different vocal sounds on instruments.
- 🎶 The blues is not just a musical form but also a feeling and a system of melodies that can help people cope with difficult times.
Q & A
What is the blues described as in the script?
-The blues is described as a favorite form of music that is simple and complex, often sounding like somebody moaning and crying.
What is the significance of the train sound in learning the blues?
-The train sound is significant in learning the blues because it introduces the shuffle rhythm, which is foundational to the blues.
How does the script suggest practicing the shuffle rhythm?
-The script suggests practicing the shuffle rhythm by counting 'one two three one two three' to mimic the rhythmic pattern of a train.
What is the role of the melody in the blues as described in the script?
-The melody in the blues is likened to a train whistle, providing the song part of the music, while the shuffle rhythm represents the dance part.
What is the traditional form of the blues mentioned in the script?
-The traditional form of the blues is a 12-bar form, which is both complex and simple, and is counted in sets of four bars.
Which three chords are fundamental to the blues according to the script?
-The three fundamental chords of the blues are the one chord, the four chord, and the five chord.
How does the script recommend learning melodies for the blues?
-The script recommends learning melodies for the blues by listening to blues songs and imitating the melodies.
Who is suggested as a starting point for learning the blues?
-W.C. Handy, known as the father of the blues, is suggested as a starting point for learning the blues.
What is the significance of the 12-bar form in the blues?
-The 12-bar form in the blues is significant as it provides a symmetrical structure that travels through three chords, creating a sense of movement and resolution.
How does the script describe the process of creating melodies through imitation?
-The script describes creating melodies through imitation by playing a phrase and then singing or playing along, encouraging listeners to imitate the played phrase.
What is the role of call and response in the blues as explained in the script?
-Call and response in the blues is described as a democratic form where the singer calls out and then responds to their own call, leaving more room for response than for the initial call.
Outlines
🎵 Introduction to the Blues
The speaker begins by expressing their love for the blues, a music genre that is both simple and complex. They introduce the concept of the blues scale, which is fundamental to playing the blues, and demonstrate a simpler scale that they prefer. This scale, according to the speaker, evokes the sound of someone moaning and crying, which is characteristic of the blues. The first way to learn about the blues is through the 'sound of the train,' which is a metaphor for the shuffle rhythm. The speaker explains that the shuffle rhythm combines elements of marches and waltzes, creating a rhythm that is both stiff and triplet-like. They encourage the audience to practice this rhythm, which is akin to an Irish jig, and is a basic component of rock and roll bass lines.
🚂 The Blues and the Train Metaphor
The paragraph continues the train metaphor, explaining that the train's whistle represents the melody part of the blues, while the shuffle represents the dance part. The speaker emphasizes the importance of learning the shuffle pattern to understand the blues. They then delve into the concept of playing 'with the blues,' which involves playing around with the established shuffle rhythm. The speaker suggests that the best way to learn the blues is by listening to blues songs and imitating the melodies. They recommend starting with W.C. Handy, known as the father of the blues, to grasp the essence of blues melodies. The paragraph also touches on the 12-bar form of the blues, which is based on three chords: the one, four, and five chords. These chords are fundamental to western harmony and are essential to understanding the blues.
🎶 Understanding the 12-Bar Blues Form
This section breaks down the 12-bar blues form, explaining that it consists of three sections with one, two, and three chords respectively. The speaker counts through the bars to demonstrate the progression of chords in a blues song. They emphasize the symmetry of the form and how it travels through the one, four, and five chords. The speaker then plays a chorus of the blues, counting the 12 bars to give the audience a sense of what a complete blues chorus sounds like. They also discuss the idea of creating melodies through imitation, encouraging the audience to try to imitate phrases played on their instruments or by singing along.
📚 The Lyrics and Structure of the Blues
The speaker discusses the lyrics and structure of the blues, explaining that the blues is not a single entity but has many forms. They provide a basic example of blues lyrics, which typically consist of three stanzas in a chorus, with the first two stanzas repeating and the third providing resolution. The speaker uses the example of having the blues in the morning and at night, with the third stanza resolving the feeling by singing the blues all day. They also introduce an exercise for call and response, a democratic aspect of the blues, where the singer calls out and then responds to themselves. The speaker demonstrates this by recording themselves singing and responding to their own lyrics.
🎸 Creating Vocal Sounds in the Blues
The final paragraph focuses on creating vocal sounds when playing the blues. The speaker encourages experimenting with different sounds like growling, humming, and buzzing, and on string instruments, techniques like bending and sliding notes. They recap the key points discussed, including the blues as a form and feeling, the shuffle rhythm, the 12-bar form, the three basic chords, the importance of listening to blues, the call and response structure, and the creation of melodies through imitation. The speaker concludes by encouraging the audience to practice these elements to pursue the blues and expresses their pleasure in sharing this knowledge.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Blues
💡Scale
💡Train Shuffle
💡Melody
💡W.C. Handy
💡12-Bar Form
💡Call and Response
💡Vocal Sounds
💡Chords
💡Imitation
💡Resolution
Highlights
Introduction to the blues as a favorite form of music
The blues is both simple and complex
The blues scale is introduced as the foundation for playing
The importance of the shuffle rhythm in blues music
The shuffle rhythm compared to an Irish jig
The role of the train as a metaphor for the blues
The melody part of the blues represented by a train whistle
The concept of 'playing with the blues' explained
The value of listening to and imitating blues melodies
W.C. Handy as a starting point for learning blues
The 12-bar form as the traditional blues structure
The symmetry and structure of the 12-bar blues form
The three fundamental chords of the blues: one, four, and five
Counting and hearing the 12-bar blues progression
Creating melodies through imitation in blues
The significance of lyrics in the blues
The blues as a form of emotional expression and healing
The structure of blues lyrics with three stanzas in a chorus
The concept of call and response in blues singing
Vocal sounds and techniques used in blues music
Recap of the key elements discussed in the blues
Transcripts
[Music]
so
[Music]
so
um
[Music]
[Music]
today i'm going to talk with you all
about the blues
okay it's my favorite form it's an
unbelievable form of music
it is uh many things at once it's
it's simple and it's complex so we're
gonna focus on the simple side but i'm
gonna give you a little taste of what
the complexity is
it is a uh it's a scale
[Music]
that's what we used to play when we
first started off
i can be an even simpler scale
[Music]
that's the one that i like
it's the sound the sound of the blues
sounds like somebody moaning and crying
it's melodies
it's a rhythm
there's many things now the first way
we're going to learn about the blues is
through
the sound of the train so if you listen
to this this is called the old train
shuffle the first thing we're gonna talk
about is
what a train does the train is built for
motion it takes you from one place to
another place
so the first step of us learning the
blues is to figure out what is the
shuffle rhythm
so shuffles come from marches and
waltzes
so if we have a march it's going
very stiff rhythm
now if we add to this the feeling of a
triplet like a trumpet would play
okay that's very stiff now when we put
the two together we get the shuffle
rhythm so it's a combination of
four and six so it sounds like this
so i want y'all to try to do that
one two three one two three one two it's
akin to irish jig
into motions of music all over the world
so that's a good way for us to practice
our introduction to the blues is learn
how to play that shuffle
now we've heard it our entire lives
that's just a basic rock and roll bass
line
so that's the first thing for us to
learn about the train is the shuffle
shuffle shuffle pattern and the feeling
of the blues now at the top
we have the melody part so what does
that train do it blows a whistle
so when you get the the song part of the
blues
is that train whistle and the dance part
is the shuffle
and now it's the second the thing we're
going to talk about with the blues is
playing
we play the blues we play with the blues
so when we start to play this shuffle
rhythm we have our basic
kind of marked shuffle field
then we start to play with it
[Music]
so on and so forth we just play around
with it okay
we heard about the train we learned
about the scale now let's talk about
melodies and and and listening
the best thing to do if you want to
learn how to play blues is listen to
blues songs
and imitate melodies it was a time we
used to learn with the scale first
but you could play up and down this
scale forever never come up with a
melody you could
one good melody is worth a thousand
scales so
i suggest listen to different people the
best place to start is w.c
handy the father of the blues learn some
of wc handy's music
and it'll it'll start you on the right
path a good example of a
basic blues song is uh
that kind of thing gets you started with
understanding what the feeling of
melodies are
with the blues now we're going to learn
and talk about the blues as a form
this could be a little more complex but
i told you in the beginning the blues is
complexity and simplicity
so the blues the traditional kind of
basic blues that we settled on has a 12
bar form
we count the bars like this one two
three
four two two three four now i'm gonna
give you ways
to to understand this form and
understand the perfect symmetry of this
form
the blues travels through three chords
here's the first chord we call it the
one chord
and the key of b flat
that's one now it's gonna travel
to the four chord
now we those of us who know about music
know that we call the four
one cadence and amen cadence like in
church here
so the blues is gonna start in the one
chord and it's going to travel to the
four chord
and from the fourth chord is going to
travel back to the one chord
now there's only one other car we need
to know and that is the five chord
[Music]
okay so the blues goes one to four
to one then it goes to the five chord
normally five will lead right to one but
in the case of the blues five
goes down to four then it goes to one
so those are the only cards you need to
know one five and four and those happen
to be a three fundamental
intervals in our western system
pythagoras discovered these
uh intervallic relationships long ago
and uh when you learn western harmony
the first chords you learn are one
four and five it's the only chords of
the fundamental blues
now let's learn how to count it and hear
it okay
we're going to start with four four bars
of the one chord
[Music]
two three
four okay that's the first section
so if you remember the first section of
the blues has one chord
and that chord is the one chord now
we go from that to
the second section the second section of
the blues has two chords
the four chord
okay let's say that again the 4-4 card
for two bars one
two and the one card for two
bars let's put that together and i'm
gonna count off the measures so
here's the top of the blues form one two
three four two
three four
five six
seven eight
so now through these eight bars we've
traveled through these chords
one chord four chord now
first section of blues has one chord
that's the v one chord
the second section you have two chords
no the four chord back to the one chord
now the third section has three chords
the five chord
to the four chord to the one chord let's
see how that sounds this is the third
section of blues
okay so that's that concludes one chorus
of blues now
let's do it i'm gonna count 12 bars and
you'll be able to hear what one chorus
of blue sounds like
one two
three four
five six
seven eight
nine ten
eleven twelve
and then we and we're back at the top
okay we've covered a lot of information
we talked about the sound of the train
we talked about the shuffle
we talked about melodies we touched on
the blues scale
which now we've turned we've talked
about the 12 bars
of the the blues now we're going to talk
about how to
make create melodies through imitation
so i'm gonna play something and i'm
gonna sing over it
and i want you to hear when i when i
when i play it if you have your
instrument i want you to try to imitate
it
uh if not you can just sing along with
me i'm gonna play a phrase
on the choruses of the blues and then i
want you all
to to sing along with it okay
let's see if we can get out get out get
out thing where you can hear what this
is i don't know if you'll be able to
hear it
you play that doo doo doo doo doo doo
[Music]
do
[Music]
this is you
does you do
[Music]
[Music]
do
[Music]
okay that wasn't bad after we got
started
so that is that is a a
way to learn melodies through imitation
now let's talk about something else
we're going to talk about the words of
the blues
and what they mean now there are many
different types of blues
so it doesn't fall into one thing but
just as just to generalize and give you
a basic example of the blues
you play the blues you stomp the blues
you clap the blues and dance and all the
things you do with the blues
to make yourself feel better in this
time of covet
the blues is like a vaccine you give
yourself a little bit of what's going to
come to you
and it makes you feel better about it
and you can fight it off when it's when
it's with you
so let's take uh
blues basically has three stanzas in a
chorus i showed you all the three
sections
so what are the three stanzas in general
stanzas will have uh
two two two stanzas will repeat
and the third will give some type of
resolution so i'll i'll make up
three stanzas and i'll give you an
example you say i got my blues
in the morning i got my blues
at night i'ma repeat this
i got my blues in the morning
i got my blues at night now i'ma resolve
it
i sing my blues all day i know it's
gonna be
right
so you see i give two i got my blues in
the morning i got my blues at night
then i sing another one i got my blues
in the morning i got my blue tonight
then the third one i say
i sing my blues all day it makes me feel
all right
that's it even though i sing my blues
all day it makes me feel all right
i know it's gonna be all right i know
everything is gonna work out
in some kind of way i'm not playing
blues to feel worse about
i'm not playing blues to feel worse so
that's the blues calling me right here
i'm not playing the blues to feel worse
about my condition
now i'm gonna show you all another
little basic exercise
and this helps with the blues you can
actually take record yourself singing it
and answer yourself and this is going to
this is going to going to going to help
you to uh
to to work on call and response
because the thing about singing on these
stanzas in the blues you actually have
more space
for responding than you do for calling
so it's a very democratic form in that
way so i tell you i sing something to
you
and then i want to hear you respond to
it so
[Music]
if my tape my thing worked i want you to
listen to how i i
respond to myself it's a good exercise
for you all
uh to work on your blues
[Music]
is
[Music]
i've seen the blues all day
[Music]
blah
[Music]
[Laughter]
[Music]
hey
[Music]
so you see that's that's another way for
you to work on your blues
you you you you sing it
on to the form and then you make up
these things now i'm going to end what
i'm what i'm what i'm showing y'all
by talking about how to make vocal
sounds when you play with the blues
i want you to work on this sound
[Music]
but i want you to do different things
with the notes
you can growl and hum and buzz you can
make that kind of sound so it sounds
like
[Music]
for my for my spring players y'all can
do all kind of scraping and scratching
and doing do all
different things but the main thing you
can do really on string instruments is
you can bend notes
you can slide around on a note so when
you play a phrase
[Music]
ah
[Music]
i want you to work on different ways to
moan and laugh and cry these notes
when you get those things together then
you're gonna be playing the blues
okay let's do a quick recap of things
that we talked about
we said the blues was a form it's blues
is a feeling the blues is
a sound it's a system of melodies we
talked about
the blues as a rhythm the shuffle rhythm
we talked about the train
and we said that the blues is uh the the
shuffle
and it's the train wilson
we learned about the the three basic
chords of the blues the one the four and
the five chord
we learned about the the the overall 12
bar form of the blues like 12 months of
the year a dozen eggs
so many things have 12 signs of the
zodiac
so we learned that there's one chord in
the first section two chords in the
second
and three chords in the third section we
went through one
moves to four chord goes back to one
chord goes to five chord four
chord one chord we talked about
uh that blues scale we talk about the
need to listen to the blues we
reference wc handy and we talked about
how we needed to have an understanding
of the sound of something and not just
to learn it through scales
we talked about call and response we
learned the three stanzas of the blues
and we said that the first two stanzas
generally tell you something
uh very bad that's going on in the third
stanza resolves it
then we talked about the fact that the
blues leaves more room for a response
than for call and finally we ended up
talking about
creating uh we created create melodies
through imitation
and then how to create these vocal
sounds on string instruments on brass
instruments
you just got to sit down and moan and
make all these different sounds you want
to make and then do them on your
instrument
i hope these things help you in your
pursuit of the blues
and i look forward to hearing you play
it's been a pleasure talking with y'all
and i hope you took something of value
away from this thank you very much
okay
there you go
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