Swing dancing is often done to blues, jump blues, or rhythm and blues music. Blues music has a very characteristic, and easily recognised, structure. Before you read this page, make sure you have studied the page on chords and scales.
Many blues songs have a similar structure. The best way to describe this structure is to say that it consists of three phrases, where the second is a variation on the first, and the third provides a resolution. Here is a, somewhat nonsensical, example (if this is an existing blues song, could someone send me the title and artist?):
I'm going down to the railroad, gonna lay my head on the track.(For a whole blues song about trains, check out Freedom Train Blues, or many other songs from Harry's Blues Lyrics Online.) In the most common case, each of the phrases in a blues song is of equal length, typically 4 bars, which makes one chorus to be 12 bars. People often talk about 12-bar blues. These phrases can also be 8 bars each, giving 24 bars for a whole chorus. Mustang Sally is an example of a 24-bar blues.
I say, I'm going down to the railroad, gonna lay my head on the track.
And when that train comes a-rollin', I'm gonna pull it right back.
The 12-bar blues also has a very regular structure harmonically. If two musicians that have never met sit down, and one says "Let's play a blues in A", then from that point on they know precisely what to play. This is because the relative relation of the chords to each other is always the same. This relation is expressed with roman numerals (look up the link in the previous sentence), and for a blues progression this is the most common form:
1: I I I I 2: IV IV I I 3: V IV I I
Put on your favourite blues song and see if you can recognise some of this. Listen to the bass or the guitar: they will often repeat a certain riff. After this riff is played 4 times, it is altered or played at a different pitch. That is where the IV happens.
The chord progression given above is the most basic form of the blues.
Several variants, common and not so common, exist. For instance, there are
many ways to play the turnaround. The progression "I V" is almost
as common as the one given above. Example: Little
car blues by James Cotton.
Less common are variations in the first phrase. The "I IV I I"
progression is one that you will encounter every once in a while. Example:
Too tired by Gary Moore.
The tail-end of the blues progression, the last two bars, are called
the turnaround. The turnaround is of interest to swing dancers, because
it often gives a very pronounced end to the blues progression, and you want
to reflect that in the dance. Example: Little
Car Blues by James Cotton.
Blues music also frequently "hits a beak" right before the turnaround.
That is, the instruments (with the drum foremost) will give just one hit
on the first beat of the "IV" bar, and start playing continuously
again on the "I" bar. Example: All
walks of life by James Cotton, or Mustang
Sally by the Commitments or by Wilson Pickett. Note that Mustang
Sally plays each chord for twice as long as usual.
Occasionally the whole of the first four bars will be filled with breaks.
Example: Straighten up baby
by James Cotton, or Too Tired
(verse 2) by Gary Moore.
A very common variation on this is to stretch these first four bars to a
total of eight bars. This is somewhat of a stretch for your dancing creativity,
but you do not have to hit every last break. Example: Too
Tired (verse 1) by Gary Moore, or I
ain't drunk by Albert Collins.
This file is part of "Feel The Beat", a musicology course for dancers, by Victor Eijkhout (victor at eijkhout dot net), who appreciates being sent additions or corrections on the material in this course. Copyright 2000/1 Victor Eijkhout.
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URL: http://www.eijkhout.net/ftb/text_files/Blues.html
Last modified on: Sunday, May 6, 2001.