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Subject Areas |
Art and Culture
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Music |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - African-American |
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U.S. History - Other |
Literature and Language Arts
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American |
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Time Required |
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Three to four class periods
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Skills |
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listening skills
musical analysis
literary analysis and interpretation
information gathering and research
critical thinking
creative writing
collaboration
Internet skills
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Learning the Blues
Introduction
This lesson introduces students to the blues,
one of the most distinctive and influential elements of African-American musical
tradition. Students take a virtual field trip to Memphis, Tennessee, one of the
prominent centers of blues activities, and explore the history of the blues in
the work of W. C. Handy and a variety of country blues singers whose music preserves
the folk origins of this unique American art form.
Learning Objectives
1) To become familiar
with the characteristic form and sound of the blues. (2) To learn about the history
and evolution of the blues in relationship to the African-American experience.
(3) To examine the structure and language of blues lyrics. (4) To compose blues
lyrics that reflect present-day attitudes and concerns.
Guiding Question: What are the
blues and how does this form of musical expression reflect the African-American
experience?
INTRODUCTION To prepare
for this lesson, review several short articles on the history of the blues that
are available through EDSITEment at the River of Song
website. You may wish to begin the lesson with a short background lecture based
on these articles, or you may prefer to draw on this information for context as
your students explore the blues on their own. - At
Play in the Delta, by Michael Luster
(http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/music/e3-play.html) A
history of the blues from 1900 to the 1990s, describing some of its many permutations
and setting it in the context of other forms of recreation characteristic of life
in the Delta region. - Tennessee
Blues and Gospel: From Jug Band to Jubilee, by David Evans and Richard M.
Raichelson
(http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/music/e3-tennessee.html) A review
of African-American musical traditions in Tennessee that highlights the importance
of Memphis as a center of the blues, with a history stretching from the hits of
songwriter W. C. Handy to the innovations of electric guitarist B. B. King, and
provides background on the parallel development of gospel music in the region.
- Southern
Music, by Bill C. Malone
(http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/music/e3-southern_music.html) A
broad historical survey of the many types of music bred in the South -- minstrelsy,
gospel, ragtime, jazz, blues, country, Cajun, zydeco, and rock. Some
additional online resources for study of the blues include:
- The Blues Foundation
(http://www.blues.org/index.cfm) An
organization dedicated to preserving blues history, celebrating blues excellence,
and supporting blues education, which offers lesson plans and other classroom
resources at the Blues
in the Schools section of its website. - The Delta Blues
Museum
(http://www.deltabluesmuseum.com/) A growing center for the study
and continuing development of blues traditions which features a History
of the Blues exhibit at its website. Information on blues history and links to
the contemporary world of blues performance are also available through leading
blues publications such as Living Blues, Blues
Review, and Blues World.
PART I: THE SOUND OF THE BLUES
1
Introduce students to the blues with a visit
to the Delta region via the River of Song
website. Summarize or have students read Southern
Fusion, the website's introduction to the musical traditions of the Delta.
Then listen to samples of the blues performed by three musicians mentioned in
this article. (You must have the RealPlayer software installed on your computer
to listen to these audio files. RealPlayer is available free of charge through
a link on the River of Song website.) - Robert
Lockwood, Jr., "Sweet
Home Chicago"
(http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/artists/media/e3-robert-a.ram)
- Jack Johnson, "Can't
Live Happy"
(http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/artists/media/e3-jack-a.ram)
- Little Milton, "Grits
Ain't Groceries"
(http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/artists/media/e3-little-a.ram)
2
Help students recognize the basic 12-bar
blues structure shared by these very different sounding performances. Explain
that the blues is usually built on a unit of 12 measures which is divided into
three sections of four measures each, with each measure having four beats. The
first section has one chord associated with it, the second section has two chords,
and the third section has three chords, with the chord changes arranged to make
up this sound pattern: 1 1 1 1 | 1 1
1 1 | 1 1 1 1 | 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 | 2 2 2 2 | 1 1 1 1 | 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 |
2 2 2 2 | 1 1 1 1 | 1 1 1 1 This basic
12-bar unit is called a "blues chorus," and as they tap, clap, or hum along with
the samples listed above, your students will discover that each is approximately
one chorus long. To reinforce this understanding of blues structure, have students
listen to Robert Lockwood, Jr.'s performance of a chorus from "Take
a Little Walk with Me" as they follow along with the score.
This classic example of the Delta blues can be found among the Extension
Activities in the Teacher's
Guide area of the River of Song
website. (To play this sample you must have Quicktime software installed on your
computer. Quicktime is available free of charge through a link
on the River of Song website.)
3
Complete this introduction to the sound
of the blues by having students listen to several full-length performances accessible
through the River of Song
website. Encourage students to tap, clap, or hum along as they listen to these
blues tunes, in order to become familiar with the rhythms and harmonics of this
remarkably versatile musical form. Afterwards, ask students where else they have
heard this beat and three-step chord progression to help them recognize how the
blues has influenced rock, country, hip-hop, and jazz. - Mose
Vinson, "My
Mule" and "44
Blues" (incorrectly listed as "Gambler Blues")
(http://www.pantheonarts.com/Folklore/MyMule.ram) (http://www.pantheonarts.com/Folklore/GamblerB.ram) Click
"Memphis
Music" on the homepage of the Memphis Convention
and Visitors Bureau website, then scroll down to the "Memphis Music Links"
pop-up menu and select "Center for Southern
Folklore," which provides links to eleven selections by this longtime Memphis
pianist. (To hear these audio files you must have the RealPlayer software installed
on your computer.)
PART II: BLUES HISTORY
1
Turn next to the history of the blues, beginning
with a visit to Memphis, called the home of the blues because, as the urban center
of the Delta region, it was the place where blues performers first brought their
music to national attention in the early decades of the 20th century. Within Memphis,
Beale Street was the percolator of this creative activity, and your students can
tour this neighborhood with blues legend B. B. King through the segments of an
oral history video titled "All Day and All Night: Memories From Beale Street Musicians."
- Part
I and Part
II of this video are available at the Center for Southern
Folklore website. These segments include a live performance by B. B. King,
documentary photographs and footage of Beale Street in the days when it was a
crowded, vibrant African-American community, and reminiscences of the district
by blues musicians and other longtime residents of Memphis.
- Additional
segments of the video can be accessed by clicking Pantheon Arts. Scroll
down for links to Part
III, Part
IV, and Part
V, which include a live performance by blues pianist Booker T. Laury and reminiscences
about Beale Street night life and some of its greatest musicians.
- To
play these videos you must have the RealPlayer software installed on your computer.
Note also that the links provided here are for highspeed (200 Kbps) connections
to the Internet. Lowspeed versions (34Kbps) are also available at the Center
for Southern Folklore and Pantheon Arts websites.
2
In
addition to providing a portrait of the people behind the blues, the "All Day
and All Night" video can help students appreciate two essential factors in the
development of this music. - First, students
should recognize that the blues is a highly sophisticated art form rooted in folk
traditions. As B. B. King explains, Beale Street was the place where "country
boys" like himself came to school themselves in the blues. There he met musicians
playing the blues on instruments he had never seen, worked with musicians who
could translate the blues into musical notation, and shared ideas with musicians
who performed the blues in many different styles. He emerged from this school
a virtuoso performer who eventually achieved international stardom. Yet his music
remains rooted in the folk traditions of the blues and in the good-times, after-hours
atmosphere of Beale Street itself.
- Second, the
video can help students understand that, in the broadest sense, the blues expresses
a deeply philosophical attitude toward life. Rufus Thomas provides insight into
this aspect of the blues when he explains the appeal of Beale Street: "When you
went to Beale Street, if you had problems or troubles or something away from there,
once you got to Beale Street -- no problems! no troubles!" Yet the music performed
on Beale Street was mainly about problems and troubles, about sadness, discouragement,
defeat, and disappointment -- all the emotions we mean when we say, "I've got
the blues." Playing the blues, however, transforms these emotions into feelings
of joy, excitement, and optimism. Scholars explain that the blues developed as
a creative response to the hardships of African-American life, expressing a spirit
of affirmation in the face of adversity through irony, rhythmic intensity, and
melodic invention. But this affirmative spirit is not escapist. The blues is a
music that confronts harsh realities, incorporates pain, and crafts this experience
into an art that inspires a sense of hope and community.
PART
III: BEALE STREET BLUES
1
To highlight the artistry of the blues,
have students examine W. C. Handy's "Beale Street Blues" (1916), one of the songs
that helped create a national audience for what was at that time primarily an
African-American folk music tradition. Handy is often called "The Father of the
Blues" for his string of early blues hits, including "Memphis Blues" (1912) and
"St. Louis Blues" (1914), and because he established a publishing house that made
blues music widely available outside the African-American community. In "Beale
Street Blues," Handy celebrated that community, creating a portrait of what he
called "the best and worst of the Negro life." - Handy's
original score for "Beale
Street Blues" is available through EDSITEment at the American
Memory website in the collection "African-American
Sheet Music, 1850-1920." (Use the Title
Index on the collectionÕs homepage to locate the sheet music.)
- Have
students notice that in this composition Handy combines a blues tune (which begins
at the bottom of page 4) with a fairly conventional popular song. Those who cannot
read music may appreciate this distinction by comparing the lyrics for the two
parts of the composition. Note, for example, that the non-blues lyrics are descriptive
while the blues lyrics use metaphor to express a feeling or state of mind. Note
also that the non-blues lyrics are set in a conventional two-couplet, four-line
ballad stanza while the blues lyrics are set in the distinctive three-line blues
chorus form which repeats the first line before closing with a rhyme. Like the
chord progression that characterizes the blues, this verse form establishes a
pattern of call and response that creates a very different effect than the squared-off
pattern of the ballad stanza.
- Several historical
performances of "Beale Street Blues" are available on the Internet at the Red Hot Jazz
Archive, including a famous 1927 recording by the Memphis blues singer Alberta
Hunter, who is accompanied on pipe organ by the jazz pianist Thomas "Fats"
Waller. This performance opens with Waller playing and improvising through Handy's
composition from beginning to end, after which Hunter enters to sing the two blues
choruses. For a different treatment, listen to the 1943 radio performance by jazz
trombonist and vocalist Jack Teagarden, accompanied by the Paul
Whiteman Orchestra. Teagarden sings one stanza from the non-blues part of
the song as a lead-in to the blues choruses. To play these recordings you must
have the RealPlayer software installed on your computer.
2
After
they have analyzed the song, have students compare Handy's musical portrait of
Beale Street with the portrait provided by the musicians in "All Day and All Night."
Remind students that Handy preceded those musicians by a generation or more. In
what respects was his impression of Beale Street similar to theirs? In what respects
does he seem to present a somewhat stereotyped view of this community, reflecting
the racial prejudices of his times?
3
Explore this aspect of Handy's art further
by having students comment on the cover of the "Beale Street Blues" sheet music,
which shows Gilda Gray, a singer who popularized the song on Broadway in the Shubert
Gaieties of 1919. Explain that it was typical at the time to feature star performers
on sheet music as a way to promote sales, and typical also to feature white performers
like Gray, due to prejudice against African Americans. In his autobiography, Father
of the Blues (1941), Handy recalled encountering this prejudice when he tried
to interest a music store owner in his first blues composition: "At the time I
approached him, his windows were displaying 'At The Ball' by J. Lubrie Hill, a
colored composer who had gone to New York from Memphis some time earlier. Around
it were grouped copies of recent successes by such Negro composers as Cole and
Johnson, Scott Joplin, and the Williams and Walker musical comedies. So when he
suggested that his trade wouldn't stand for his selling my work, I pointed out
as tactfully as I could that the majority of his musical hits of the moment had
come from the Gotham-Attucks Co., a firm of Negro publishers in New York. I'll
never forget his smile. 'Yes,' he said pleasantly. 'I know that -- but my customers
don't.'" - Have students debate Handy's response
to the prejudice he faced. Some may feel, for example, that he compromised his
heritage by featuring a white singer on his sheet music, by echoing the stereotypes
of his times, and by accommodating the blues to the conventions of popular song.
Others may take the position that through such compromises he was able to make
the blues an essential part of America's music, with a worldwide influence, and
able to gain financial success and fame for himself as a music publisher and composer.
- In the context of this debate, have students try
to imagine what it was like to see Gilda Gray perform Handy's song. What effect
would the lyrics have when she sang them? To what extent might her performance
have reinforced racial stereotypes, like the songs of the minstrel tradition?
To what extent might she have helped weaken those stereotypes by giving white
audiences access to the African American experience expressed through the blues?
- Similar questions arise in connection with the recordings
of "Beale Street Blues" listed above. One is a performance by black artists, Fats
Waller and Alberta Hunter, which was originally issued as a so-called "race record,"
produced exclusively for an African-American audience. The other is a performance
by white artists, Jack Teagarden and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, which was originally
part of a national radio broadcast. Ask students whether they were aware of this
element of segregation as they listened to the two recordings. Does it have an
effect on the quality of each performance? Does it have an influence on our response?
From what point of view might one argue that these recordings simply document
two ways of performing the blues? From what point of view might one argue instead
that they document the blues and its pale imitation?
- As
a coda to this discussion, inform students that Alberta Hunter and Jack Teagarden
both played a role in eliminating segregation from American popular music. Hunter
was the first African-American singer to record with a white band ("Tain't Nobody's
Biz-ness If I Do" with The Original Memphis Five in 1923) and later went on to
become a Broadway star, while Teagarden performed with African-American jazz musicians
throughout his career, most notably as an original member of Louis Armstrong's
All-Stars. In addition, students should note that both performers virtually eliminate
those parts of Handy's song that echo the stereotypes of an earlier day, reducing
his composition to its essence, the blues.
PART
IV: BLUES ROOTS
1
Turn finally to the folk tradition that
gave rise to the blues with a visit to the "Southern
Mosaic" collection at the American Memory
website, which preserves sound recordings, field notes, and photographs from a
folk music collecting trip through the South undertaken by John and Ruby Lomax
in 1939. John Lomax made similar trips throughout the 1930s in an effort to capture
and preserve folk traditions then giving way to the influence of popular music
due to the spread of radio and the phonograph. Stopping at prisons, farms, schools,
and churches, he eventually collected more than ten thousand recordings, which
remain the foundation of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress.
2
Introduce this aspect of blues history by
having students explore the photographs included in the "Southern
Mosaic" collection, which document African American life in the rural South
during the 1930s. Students can browse this archive using the photo
index, or, to speed this part of the lesson, you might have them examine two
contact sheets that gather together a variety of photographs: - Portraits
of African Americans, including Moses Platt, taken during recording expeditions
in Louisiana and Texas
(http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/ppmsc/00600/00634r.jpg)
- Portraits
of musician Bill Tatnall of Frederica, Ga.; Luneda Commeaux of New Iberia, La.;
Prisoners at Darrington State Farm working in the woodyard; A mountain woman in
the hills near Austin, Tx.
(http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/ppmsc/00600/00670r.jpg)
Have students compare the culture and
society portrayed in these images with the culture and society of Beale Street.
Ask students to consider how the role of the musician and the social purpose of
music might differ in these rural and urban settings. Remind them that the blues
draws its strength from hardship and pain, expressing a spirit of affirmation
in the face of adversity. What kinds of hardship are evident in these photographs?
How could the blues help people cope with these conditions?
3
Next, have students listen to several examples
of the rural blues collected on the Lomax field trip, focusing on the lyrics.
The "Southern
Mosaic" collection includes transcriptions of two of the songs listed here.
Have students transcribe the third, "Lighthouse Blues," or provide them with copies
of the transcription offered below. (To play these audio files, you must have
RealPlayer software installed on your computer.) - "Worry
Blues" performed by Jessie Lockett
Recording (http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcss39/259/2596b3.ram) Lyrics (http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcss39/st0010/0001.gif)
- "Grey Horse Blues" performed by Smith Casey
Recording (http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcss39/259/2597b2.ram) Lyrics (http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcss39/st0011/0001.gif)
- "Lighthouse Blues" performed by Roger "Burn Down" Garnett
Recording (http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcss39/267/2677a2.ram) Lyrics
I
'member [?] I talked to my Sara the whole night long I 'member [?] I talked
to my Sara the whole night long I tryin'to teach her and show her, now, which
way right from wrong. My Sara got teeth like
the lighthouse on the sea My Sara got teeth like the lighthouse on the sea Every
time she smiles, the light all over me. I'm
going to write me a letter and mail it in the air I'm going to write me a letter
and mail it in the air I'm going to tell my Sara I'm on the road somewhere.
I stopped still and listened, I heard somebody calling
me I stopped still and listened, I heard somebody calling me It wasn't my
regular [?] but my old time used to be.
4
Discuss the call and response or question and answer structure
of these blues choruses. Point out, for example, how the first line of "Worry
Blues" implicitly raises the question answered by the last line of the chorus:
Some people say that the worry blues ain't bad (What do
you say?) But it's the worst old feelin' that I most ever had.
This same technique is used in the second chorus of "Grey
Horse Blues" to create suspense and add an element of plot:
Saddle up my old grey
mare, hitch up my old grey mare (Why? Where are you going?) I'm goin'
find Corinna, she's in the world somewhere. In
"Lighthouse Blues," the call and response technique generates a sense of mystery
around the song's central metaphor by causing a listener to wonder momentarily
what it might mean:
My Sara
got teeth like the lighthouse on the sea (This sounds grotesque or maybe
crazy -- what's he talking about?) Every time she smiles, the light all
over me. (Now I get it -- amazing!) Point
out also how this call and response structure carries over into the relationship
between words and music within each song. In general, each four-bar line of the
chorus is about half lyric and half instrumental response to the lyric. The performer
seems to alternate between private dialogue with his instrument and public dialogue
with his audience, conveying both a sense of isolation brought on by personal
hardships and a sense of community achieved through mutual understanding.
5
Follow this formal analysis with discussion of the language
used in these examples of the rural blues. Note, for example, how the metaphor
of travel and the road is used to convey not a sense of direction and purpose,
as we might expect, but a sense of dislocation and endless wandering.
I'm going to write me a letter and mail it in the air I'm going
to tell my Sara I'm on the road somewhere. Note
also how the language of human relationships is used to create a complete world
within each song. The singer of "Grey Horse Blues," for example, is a man surrounded
by women (mother, sister, lover, even his trusty mare), while the singer of "Worry
Blues" inhabits a world of public indifference to his private pain:
If any one asks you who composed this song, Tell him you don't
know who wrote it, but he's done come and gone. Finally,
note how these songs create intensely dramatic moments with fragments of dialogue
and colloquial detail:
Oh, mamma, tell me what
in the world is on your mind. "Every time I think, I just can keep from crying."
With verbal devices like these, the blues singer
succeeds in telling a story through his song, though it is a story told obliquely,
conveyed more by the power of suggestion than in clear-cut narrative terms. As
a complement to their close reading, have students fill out the story for each
of these songs by describing the situation and what happens in a paragraph.
6
Conclude this lesson by having students compose their own
blues choruses modeled on these examples. Encourage students to choose topics
based on their own experience (for example, "Homework Blues" or "Busy Signal Blues"),
and invite them to perform their songs in class.
Extending the Lesson
Continue your study
of African American musical traditions with the EDSITEment lesson plan on Spirituals,
which focuses on the role these songs have played in the struggle for freedom.
Or explore the special exhibit, "The
Development of an African-American Musical Theatre, 1865-1910" (part of the
African-American
Sheet Music, 1850-1920 collection at the American Memory
website) to learn how African-American performers and composers overcame the stereotypes
of minstrelsy to finally conquer the Broadway stage. Other Information
Standards Alignment
- NCSS-1
Culture and cultural diversity. more
- NCSS-2
Time, continuity, and change. The ways human beings view themselves in and over time. more
- NCSS-3
People, places, and environments. more
- NCSS-4
Individual development and identity. more
- NCSS-5
Individuals, groups, and institutions. more
- NCTE/IRA-1
Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works. more
- NCTE/IRA-12
Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information). more
- NCTE/IRA-3
Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes. more
- NCTE/IRA-6
Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts. more
- NCTE/IRA-8
Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge. more
- NCTE/IRA-9
Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles.
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