What characteristics define the Chicago blues style?
What characteristics define the Chicago blues style?
Chicago blues is based on the sound of the electric guitar and the harmonica, with the harmonica played through a PA system or guitar amplifier, both heavily amplified and often to the point of distortion, and a rhythm section of drums and bass (double bass at first, and later electric bass guitar) with piano depending …
What are the musical characteristics of the Chicago electric blues?
Chicago blues fed their sound through PA systems or guitar amplifiers, which supercharged their sound, often to the point of distortion. It also added a rhythm section patterned after R&B and jazz lineups, with bass—a double bass at first, and later electric bass—drums, and occasional piano.
What are some musical characteristics of the blues?
The main features of blues include: specific chord progressions, a walking bass, call and response, dissonant harmonies, syncopation, melisma and flattened ‘blue’ notes. Blues is known for being microtonal, using pitches between the semitones defined by a piano keyboard.
How did blues styles evolve in Chicago?
Urban blues started in Chicago and St. Louis as music created by part-time musicians playing in the streets, at rent parties, and other events in the black community. Chicago blues was heavily influenced by the Mississippi bluesmen who traveled to Chicago in the early 1940s.
What scales are used with blues music?
The major blues scale is 1, 2,♭3, 3, 5, 6 and the minor is 1, ♭3, 4, ♭5, 5, ♭7. The latter is the same as the hexatonic scale described above.
What instruments were used in Chicago blues?
| Chicago blues | |
|---|---|
| Typical instruments | Electric guitar, harmonica, drums, piano, bass guitar, saxophone |
| Subgenres | |
| Electric blues | |
| Fusion genres |
What are the musical roots of rhythm and blues?
Historically speaking, though, “rhythm and blues” as we understand it today most often describes a style of music that developed after World War II that combines elements of pop, gospel, blues and jazz with a strong back beat.
How do you describe blues music?
The blues has a distinct melancholic and somber tone, which is achieved through vocal techniques such as melisma, rhythmic techniques such as syncopation, and instrumental techniques such as “choking” guitar strings on the neck or applying a metal slide to the guitar strings to create a whining voicelike sound.
When did the Chicago blues originate?
In Chicago, the emergence of blues culture in the 1920s coincided with increased musical performance and recording nationwide and paralleled the dramatic growth of black urban enclaves during the Great Migration.
What key is blues played in?
Blues guitar keys The two most common keys in blues music are E and A. There are others, but these two keys are the most common.
What is the blues scale called?
The blues scale (or Pentablues) is the pentatonic scale plus one note. This note became known as the “blue note“, and is the flat fifth in the case of the minor pentatonic, or the flat third in the case of the major pentatonic.
