5 & 7 march 2012

12 bar blues


reflection question: how does the blues influence jazz in its early development?


the blues, perhaps more than any other music, is jazz greatest influence. From the time when jazz evolved from the sounds of the Mississippi Delta a century ago right up to the modern jazz of today, the blues has been a benchmark for jazz musicians. from the perspective of musical structure, jazz as we know it would not exist without the blues. The twelve-bar blues chorus, with its familiar harmonic structure and narrative form, was the single most popular template for early jazz improvisation, the walking base were the major impact blues had affected to jazz music. without blues, jazz wouldnt be so special. 


in instrument class, we rehearsed our 12 bar blues as an ensemble and accompanied the other instruments playing, also, we developed our 12 bar blues using the blues scale. we also learned the technique of walking base. this is used in the bass instrument, but it is also often used in piano for the left hand.