Beginner-friendly explainers covering blues music fundamentals — genres, instruments, history, and culture. Your starting point for understanding the blues.
In 1936, Robert Johnson sat in a San Antonio hotel room and recorded “Cross Road Blues.” When he sang the word “sinking,” his voice bent a note downward — not quite major, not quite minor, but somewhere in between. That note carried more feeling than a full orchestra playing at peak volume. It was a […]
What Are Blue Notes and Why Do They Sound So Sad? Read More »
Pick up any guitar. Play the notes A, C, D, E-flat, E, and G. What you just heard is the A blues scale — six notes that have shaped more music than any chord chart or theory book could explain. Furthermore, every blues song you have ever loved lives inside those six notes. The blues
What Is the Blues Scale and Why Does It Matter? Read More »
Count to four. Now count again, but this time swing it — make the first beat longer and the second shorter. That lopsided, rolling feel is the blues shuffle. It is the rhythm that drives nearly every blues song ever recorded. Furthermore, if you have ever nodded your head to a blues band without thinking
What Is the Blues Shuffle and How Does It Work? Read More »
What is delta blues? To answer that, picture a one-room juke joint near Dockery Farms, Mississippi, sometime around 1910. A man named Charley Patton is stomping his foot against a rough wooden floor, slapping his guitar like a drum, and hollering lyrics about floods, women, and hard living. The crowd presses in close. There is
What Is Delta Blues? The Raw Sound That Started It All Read More »
What is the 12-bar blues? Before you answer, consider this: in 1958, a teenager named Chuck Berry walked into Chess Records in Chicago and laid down “Johnny B. Goode.” The song exploded across AM radio. However, underneath that iconic guitar riff sat a chord pattern that Muddy Waters had been playing for years. Indeed, Robert
What Is the 12-Bar Blues? The Progression Behind the Music Read More »
What is blues music and where did it come from? Learn how field hollers, spirituals, and African rhythms created America’s most influential music genre.
What Is Blues Music and Where Did It Come From? Read More »
