What do you know about the Blues?

What do you know about the Blues? You have five minutes to get your ideas together and then someone from your group will tell the class everything you know!.............

During the 18th and 19th centuries thousands of people were taken as slaves from West Africa to America.

For these Africans life became a nightmare. Many died on their long journey by sailing ship.

Those that survived were sold in auctions and put to work on farms in the Southern states of America. Families were often split up. Children were taken from their parents and husbands from their wives. The life of slavery was hard and cruel.

Why did America need slaves? Read this carefully – you need to remember it for homework! Slaves were needed to keep the economy of this new country (America) solvent. As a result, by 1619, the first Africans were arriving at Jamestown, Virginia. Poor whites also worked during this period as indentured servants. A "contract" said that this service would last from four to seven years - thereby the said would then become free. During this early period, some of the first enslaved Africans worked their way out of this system and became free tradesmen and property owners on American soil. The quest for more land and an economy based upon profit were two of the major points that escalated the demand for more slaves in America. Therefore, Black slave workers became highly prized commodities in a system dependent upon lots of manual labour. The entire southern American economy and the states in that warm region needed labourers to work on the plantations dealing with rice, indigo, tobacco, sugar cane, and cotton. Other slaves laboured as dock workers, craft workers, and servants. Slaves in the northern American region laboured on small farms and as skilled and unskilled workers in factories and along the coast as shipbuilders, fishermen, craftsmen, and helpers of tradesmen.

Growth Slavery on American soil grew at such a fast rate that, by 1750, over 200,000 African slaves were here. Fifty years later, that number grew to 700,000. In South Carolina alone, African slaves outnumbered the white population, and they made up more than one half of the populations in the states of Maryland and Virginia. The free Black American population did expand to about 40,000 throughout the colonies by 1770. Abolition The system of slavery was so entrenched in the daily routines on American soil that it had to be dealt with as a National issue. Lengthy debates, political compromises, moral dilemmas, slave rebellions, and a Nation divided against itself suddenly had to face the issue of enslaved Africans existing on American soil. America condoned the "peculiar institution" of slavery from 1619 up until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which abolished "slavery and involuntary servitude" on December 18, 1865.

Slaves were in the fields from sunrise to sunset and at harvest time they did an eighteen hour day. Women worked the same hours as the men and pregnant women were expected to continue until their child was born. The death-rate amongst slaves was high. To replace their losses, plantation owners encouraged the slaves to have children. Child-bearing started around the age of thirteen, and by twenty the women slaves would be expected to have four or five children. To encourage child-bearingsome population owners promised women slaves their freedom after they had produced fifteen children.

Homework Questions • Why were slaves needed? • When did the first slaves arrive in America and where? • Why did the demand for slaves keep going up? • Name 5 things that were produced on the plantations. • Name 5 other jobs that slaves did. • How many slaves were there in America by the year 1800? • When was slavery abolished? • At what age did girls start having babies? • Why? • How long did the slaves work for each day?

‘We were worked in all weathers. It was never too hot or too cold; it could never rain, blow, hail, or snow, too hard for us to work in the field. Work, work, work, ..... In a few months I was broken in body, soul, and spirit.’ Frederick Douglass

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) The time came when I must go to work on the plantation. I was less than seven years old. On the plantation of Colonel Lloyd I was left to the tender mercies of Aunt Katy, a slave woman who, ill-tempered and cruel, was often guilty of starving me and the other children. One day I had offended Aunt Katy and she adopted her usual mode of publishing me; namely, making me go all day without food. Sundown came, but no bread. I was too hungry to sleep, when who but my own dear mother should come in. She gave Aunt Katy a lecture which was never forgotten. That night I learned as I had never learned before, that I was not only a child, but somebody's child. My mother had walked twelve miles to see me, and had the same distance to travel over before the morning sunrise. I do not remember seeing her again. Frederick Douglass

Music and Dance For the Africans music was a way of life. It is not surprising that music played an important part in the lives of African slaves. In the songs Slaves expressed unhappiness. They also had songs for healing the sick and lullabies for the babies. While working in the fields the slaves also sang rhythmic tunes to keep the beat as they worked.

While on their way (to work), the slaves would make the dense old woods, for miles around, reverberate with their wild songs, revealing at once the highest joy and the deepest sadness. They would compose and sing as they went along, consulting neither time nor tune. The thought that came up, came out--if not in the word, in the sound; --and as frequently in the one as in the other. I have sometimes thought that simply listening to some of those songs would do more to help people understand the horrible character of slavery, than reading whole volumes of philosophy on the subject. Frederick Douglass

Part 2

Can you spot the pattern? What are the ‘rules’ for the Blues lyrics below? You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, crying all the time, You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, crying all the time, You ain’t never caught a rabbit, and you ain’t no friend of mine I got a woman, mean as she can be, I got a woman, mean as she can be, Sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me

Answer! You ain’tnothin’ but a hound dog, crying all the time, You ain’tnothin’ but a hound dog, crying all the time, You ain’t never caught a rabbit, and you ain’t no friend of mine I got a woman, mean as she can be, I got a woman, mean as she can be, Sometimes I think she’s almost mean as me The first two lines are the same. The third line is different – but rhymes

What about the music? The blues chords associated with a twelve-bar blues are typically a set of three different chords played over a twelve-bar scheme. Can you fill in the other note names in the second grid? Remember every bar has four beats in it

Scales Once you have learned the chord pattern, the next thing is to learn the Blues Scale. What is a Scale? A scale is a collection of musical notes that provides material for part or all of a musical work. As you can see, this uses all the white notes between C and C!

Blues Scales In Blues and Jazz music however, these notes are slightly adapted to include some of the black notes. In the case of the scale, we are going to add Eb and Bb. Listen to how this changes the ‘flavour’ of the scale.

Improvising – it’s fun!! If you use the notes which are starred your improvisation can’t go wrong!!

Now you have your blues scale, you can start improvising. This is when you make the music up as you go along! The diagram below shows you when to improvise in your group’s Blues piece. Words.......... Words........... Improvise......... Improvise..... Words.......... Words........... Improvise......... Improvise...... Words.......... Words........... Improvise......... Improvise......

Blues listening comparison Make short notes on the extracts that you hear and then write out a full comparison using full sentences in your book..... neatly!!

What do you know about the Blues?