How Jazz and Blues has Influenced Modern Music

Jazz and blues popularity declined as the 20th century went on. However, many of its rhythms and energy has been absorbed into other styles. Both jazz and blues are still present today as modern music and are present in other genres of music too.


Rock and Roll
Rock and roll emerged from blues music. At the start it sounded very similar and it often used the same chord progression as blues. Eventually rock and roll broke away from blues and it started to use louder drumming and different lyrics aimed at a difference audience. It has, however, still retained the rhythmic blues feel in many songs.


R&B
Jazz and blues is also present in many other genres of music such as R&B. R&B is a term that refers to a wide range of music from soul to disco music. R&B has changed drastically in recent years and many of it no longer resembles blues music. However, there are still some R&B songs with a bluesy feel.


Hip Hop and Rap
Hip hop music is often similar to blues in the way that its lyrics are often straight to the point and contain dark themes. The lyrics are often about the bad situations the artists used to be in and how they felt. Free style rap is also similar because it contains rap solos that are similar to instrumental solos in jazz and blues.

Rhythms and the Blues Scale

What makes jazz and blues such a great genre of music is its' rhythms. There are some easy rhythm patterns and some very hard ones. The pules of a song is usually broken up into triplets. The emphasis of the song can be put on any one, two or three of these triples. Putting the emphasis on a triplet can give a song a brilliant feel.


Jazz and blues often also use syncopation. This is where the emphasis is put on the off beat. So if there are 4 beats in a bar, the emphasis is put on beat 2 and 4.


The blues scale is basically just a bluesy sounding series of notes. You can use these notes to improvise or write songs. The major blues scale is arranged like this starting on the note of whatever key you are in;

Intervals

Interval: 1 - b3 - 4 - b5 - 5 - b7

The minor blues scale is arranged like this;

Interval: 1- 2 - b3 - 3 - 5 - 6

The blues scale can be fun to improvise around. You can use it to improvise over a 12 bar blues. 12 bar blues are very common in blues music. They are basically 12 bars with notes arranged in a certain  pattern.



An Introduction to Blues

Music is a wonderful thing. It is it's own form of communicating feelings and emotions. Music can inspire, encourage and bring people together. Jazz Blues music is no different. Blues music originated in the 'Deep South' of America in 'African-American' communities. Blues has influenced almost all modern music including rock and roll, country, jazz and mainstream popular music. W.C. Handy best described blues in this one famous quote;

'The Blues... it's 12-bar, bent-note melody is the anthem of a race, bonding itself together with cries of shared self victimization. Bad luck and trouble are always present in the Blues, and always the result of others, pressing upon unfortunate and down trodden poor souls, yearning to be free from life's' troubles. Relentless rhythms repeat the chants of sorrow, and the pity of a lost soul many times over. This is the Blues.'

Blues isn't the happiest of music genres. It tends to focus on rhythm quite a lot and the lyrics often talk about the troubles of the composer. However there is some upbeat styles of blues. One example of a blues artists with this style is B.B King. In my blog, I will look at the different styles of certain artists, blues rhythms, famous pieces and more. If you have an interest in blues, I am sure you will find my blog interesting.

Jazz is usually quite upbeat and can contain very difficult rhythms and notation. Jazz was born in New Orleans around 100 years ago. Many great jazz artists have come from New Orleans since then, for example, Professor Longhair.


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