Sing the blues, in its own form.

What you'll learn

• Three lines: say it, say it again, answer it, humming the verse first, on Shorty George Blues
• The blue note: the blue note in the tune, a bluer ending, and a blues that doesn't have three lines, on Muscle Shoals Blues
• The band's turn: leaving room for the band, the fall at a line's end, and laying back, on The Fives, a train song
• Your blues: your own line, your answer line and your verse, to Shorty George's tune, kept as a song beside the printed verse

Where the blues comes from

The blues is African American music. It took shape in the Deep South in the generation after slavery, out of work songs, field hollers, spirituals and ballads, and was sung for years before anyone printed it. Blues sheet music began in 1908, and the first blues songs were printed in 1912, by Black and white songwriters drawing on what Black singers were already singing. In the 1920s Black women singers brought it to records. A printing is one version of a song that lived in many.

The blues isn't only sad: it is also how people sang their way out of sadness.

1. Stage 1Unit 1

   Three lines

   1. Say it, say it again Start here
   2. Hum it first
   3. The answer line
   4. One whole verse

2. Stage 2Unit 2

   The blue note

   1. The blue note in the tune
   2. A bluer ending
   3. Not every blues has three lines
   4. Muscle Shoals Blues

3. Stage 3Unit 3

   The band's turn

   1. Leave room
   2. The fall
   3. Lay back
   4. The Fives

4. Stage 4Unit 4

   Your blues

   1. Your first line
   2. Your answer line
   3. Your verse
   4. Your blues

More in Styles

• Folk and early music
• Yodeling
• Pop and country styling
• Musical theatre
• Whistling
• Live looping
• Sea shanties and work songs
• Classical singing basics