What is the Blues?
The blues is a genre of music that was meant for people to be able to express what they were going through or what was going on around them. This was done by conveying the music in a soulful way, along with how the music was formatted. This type of music is meant to be relatable and accessible to all, regardless of musical training. In this post, I will show how easy it is to express yourself musically.
How do I come up with lyrics?
First, come up with your topic. It can be whatever you would like to express; it could be about your personal life, a good experience, a bad experience, or the social/political situation of where you live. For the sake of this post, let’s say the topic is cloudy weather, and at the end, the sun comes out. Your first two lines will be expressing the distress you may feel about the weather; then, the last line will be the relief you feel after the sun comes out.
LINE 1: This morning, I woke up, and it was cloudy all day,
LINE 2: I left my house, and still the clouds in the sky
LINE 3: And as soon as I started to drag, the sun came and shined through.
By this, you can tell I am not a lyricist; however, that is not the point of the blues. The point is to be able to express yourself in a structured manner. An instrumentalist can also do this! Similarly, the first two lines consist of the same pattern of musical notes, and the third line is a concluding line that ties the melody together. The 12-bar blues harmonic form supports the melody.
Conclusion
Although the blues was most created and most popular during the late 19th century and early 20th century, the influences of blues lived on beyond its primetime and is even responsible for influencing the creation of jazz.