blues music

• where did the blues have a lot of musical influence from?

  African-American culture/africa
• what instruments were used to accompany vocals in delta blues ?

  guitar

  harmonica
• what is a slide guitar technique?

  sliding an object across the guitar strings (glass or metal) to create a glissando effect
• was the early blues slow and emotional ?

  Yes.
• what musicians made blues music popular in the 1920's?

  Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson
• what had happened to blues music by the 1940'-50's?


  it included a range of other instruments and had a developed a new title (rhythm and blue / r'n'b
• what is the blues scale?

  a scale made up of a flattened 3rd,5th and 7th note of the major scale
• what is a minor pentatonic scale ?

  a five note scale
• what is a bent note?

  flattened notes
• what is melisma ?

  multiple notes are sung on a single syllable.
• what is the definition of the word subdominant ?

  Fourth degree of the diatonic scale.
• what is the definition of the word dominant in music?

  the fith tone or degree of any major or minor scale
• what is the 12 bar blues?

  a 12 bar chord using primary chords
• what is a riff?

  a short repeated pattern
• what is syncopation ?

  Rhythmic emphasis on off-beat or weak beats.
• what is swing technique in blues music ?


  notes that are always syncopated rather than played evenly
• what is triplets in blues music ?

  3 notes played in the space of 2
• what is walking bass ?

  Bassline that moves in crochets
• what is pizzicato ?

  plucked strings
• what instruments are often used in blues music ?

  saxophone, acoustic guitar + electric guitar, dixieland drum kit