The 12-bar Blues Form in Jazz

The 12-bar Blues and Jazz

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Objectives

1. Demonstrate an understanding of form and harmony in music and how the 12-bar blues form is structured.

2. Demonstrate an understanding of how the 12-bar blues form is handled in a jazz context.

3. Demonstrate an understanding of the how the 12-bar blues form organizes the song lyrics.

4. Students will write a blues stanza that follows the format found in the last stanza of Billie Holiday's rendition of "Fine and Mellow."

Overview of the Blues Form in Jazz

You should recall that in the last module, we covered the topic of folk music and looked at the early or country blues as an example. The blues is one of the most important forms of folk and pop music to come out of America. The reason is that it has influenced so many other genres of music, including jazz, pop, country, and others. The lyrics are generally simple and straightforward, telling a story about a lost love or something not working out. It does this not in haphazard ways. There is a traditional form that organizes both the music and the lyric stanzas. So let us get familiar in depth with the music and lyrics of the blues and see how jazz musicians adapted the form in their genre of music. In the process, we are going to get fairly technical, probably more technical than in any other part of the course. So bear with it and put on your thinking caps. What you will walk away with is a good understanding of how the parts of music--the melody, lyrics, rhythm and harmony--come together in a blues song. That carries a pretty high cool factor. If you happen to play the guitar, you may also walk away with an understanding of how to play a 12-bar blues.

To accomplish all of the above, I will give you the basic things you need to know in a stepwise sequence.