Lesson video

Hi everyone.

And welcome to your music lesson, lesson eight is part of the unit three all around blues music.

We're going to do a singing warm up activity where we're going to learn just one floating verse from a really famous blues tune called "Wade in the water." You might have heard it in one of our previous lessons.

Brilliant singer called Ella Jenkins.

And this is the spiritual version.

I'll sing a line.

Then you sing a line.

There's four lines.

I think about four lines.

And then we're going to put it all together.

Me, first.

First line.

♪ Wade in the water ♪ Now you'll go one, two, three, four.

♪ Wade in the water ♪ Good my turn again.

One, two, three, four.

♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ God's going to trouble the water ♪ ♪ God's going to trouble the water ♪ Lovely, great singing! Well done, for getting straight into that.

We didn't even really warm up, but this is our warm up.

Let's do it one more time.

Call, response, call, response.

Try if you can to put sort of few of those blues styles into the singing.

So, the second line for instance.

There's a big slide up halfway through.

Actually in the first word.

So the first line is ♪ Wade in the water ♪ And note that I'm not singing ♪ Wade in the water ♪ Okay? 'Cause that's just not very blues style.

So it's, ♪ Wade in the water ♪ And then the second line is, ♪ Wade ♪ So there's a nice long slide.

♪ Wade in the water children ♪ And then this third line is like the first.

♪ Wade in the water ♪ And then the fourth line.

♪ God's going to trouble the water ♪ Okay? And try do that little run, ♪ Water ♪ At the end.

Okay.

Me, you, me, you.

And then we'll put the whole thing together.

One, two, three, um, ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ God's going to trouble the water ♪ ♪ God's going to trouble the water ♪ Lovely.

Let's do the whole verse altogether singing with me.

Here we go.

A one, ♪ Wait ♪ There's our first note.

One, two, ♪ Make it nice and bluesy and ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ God's going to trouble the water ♪ Lovely, great singing! And great start to today's lesson.

Let's go on and see all the resources that you need.

So in this lesson, you are going to need a piece of paper or a book.

If that's what you're working from and the worksheet if you've got that to hand as well.

You're going to need a pencil and a different colour pen, so that you can make any notes or mark any of your work.

And the only instrument that you're going to need for music making today is your voice.

And we've warmed that up with "Wade in the water" already.

Okay.

Let's have a look at our structure for today's lesson.

We're going to be starting by looking at how the blues singers show emotion.

Okay? So we know lots of styles of music, lots of different types of lyrics can really make us feel a certain emotion, but also will help the singer show an emotion.

So we're going to look at how a singer does that, especially in blues music.

Then we're going to look at how blues lyrics are structured and created.

They are laid out in a certain way.

And then we are going to have a go at writing and singing in a blues style.

Another great quote around blues music.

"Singing is an important part of blues "because it allows for heartfelt, "personal expression." And when you think about the roots of where blues music came from and the communities that were originally singing spirituals and work songs and blues music from the early 19 hundreds.

I'm not surprised that the lyrics are rooted in emotions and raw feelings.

Both around love, and loneliness and those kinds of things.

So singing is an amazing opportunity for people to express themselves.

Okay, active listening.

We're going to listen to a piece of music called "Thinking Blues." By Bessie Smith.

Bessie Smith was known as the Empress Of Blues.

And was one of the most famous female blues singers from the 1920s and 1930s in America.

While we listen to this clip, we're going to read through and answer the four questions on the left hand side.

So while you're listening, I don't.

So while you're listening I want you to think about the answers to these and get ready to write them down.

Name two instruments you can hear.

Describe Bessie Smith's style of singing.

What can you hear? There is call and response between which instruments? And the pattern of the lyrics is AAB.

What do you think this means? I'll play the clip for you twice.

Here we go.

♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ ♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ ♪ Thinking about someone who has treated you ♪ ♪ So nice and kind ♪ So, hopefully you've got answers now for questions one and two.

Here's the clip for the second time.

And then I'll give you a few minutes to write answers for all four.

♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ ♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ ♪ Thinking about someone who has treated you ♪ ♪ So nice and kind ♪ Take two minutes now.

Pause the video and finish writing your answers for questions one, two, three, and four.

Okay.

Let's go through those answers together.

Grab your pen of a different colour and let's get ready to mark.

Number one, name two instruments you could hear in that clip.

So from the band that was playing, there was a trumpet, vocals, piano, drums, and trombone.

So if you got any two from that list, well done.

Number two, was describe Bessie Smith's style of singing.

What can you hear? So here we were looking at the way that she was singing her voice and the way that she used her voice.

And here are some suggestions.

It's very freely sung.

So what I mean by that is the rhythms of the patterns that she's singing are not really straight and rigid and singing like this.

She kind of went with the expression of her voice and decided to pull some things and slow some parts down, and speed some other bits up.

So it sounded free.

She also used lots of slides.

That's called portamento in singing.

♪ Did you e ♪ So that.

Is a great big slide and a portamento.

And this is used a lot in blues music and Bessie Smith does this a lot in her vocals.

This really shows emotion and attitude.

Okay, you can hear there's lots of emotion and attitude and attack and accents on certain notes and parts of the lyrics that she's singing.

Well done.

If you spotted some of those techniques in her voice.

Three, there is call and response between which instruments? The answer is vocals with the trumpet and trombone in turns.

So she would sing a line.

And then the trumpet would respond and then she'd sing another line and then the trombone would respond.

Well done.

If you recognise that the trombone had a mute.

So the sound was a little quieter than it usually is, but if you got vocals of brass, great, well done.

Four the pattern of the lyrics is AAB.

What do you think this means? So AAB means that the first two lines of the verse are the same and the third is different.

AAB.

One and two are the same.

B is a different line in the verse.

Great, make sure all of your work is marked for this part of the lesson.

And you've taken down any of those answers if you didn't have them, it's good for your revision.

And let's look at the next part of the lesson.

So we've had a look at emotion and the way that Bessie Smith sings and the techniques that she uses to show emotion.

Let's have a look in a bit more detail how blues lyrics are structured.

Okay.

So let's look at these two verses from Bessie Smith's "Thinking Blues." And we've got two verses.

The one you've just heard.

♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ And you can see the similarities.

So we've got the structure, AA and B.

And it's the same thing with the next verse AAB.

The actual pictures are very similar.

But remember she changes emotion and she changes the pattern and she sings in her style to show the emotions of what she wants to get across in the song.

So it varies singer to singer as well.

In a minute, we're going to sing through that first verse together.

And the way that I will sing will probably be different to the way that Bessie Smith's sings will be different to the way that you sing because that's what blues is all about.

Blues is about singing a song that is sort of personal, and you sing it in the style that you want to.

Not any blues song or blue singer will sound the same because they've got their own technique and their own emotion to show.

But let's give it a go.

First line.

Call, response.

♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ You'll go, one, two, three ♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ Good.

Second line, my go.

♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ You'll go.

One, two, three.

♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ Good.

Third line.

My go.

♪ Thinking about someone who has treated you ♪ ♪ So nice and kind ♪ You'll go.

One, two, three, ♪ Thinking about someone who has treated you ♪ ♪ So nice and kind ♪ Okay, great.

Well done.

It's hard.

Singing blues is hard because there's so many options and so much freedom in all the blues notes.

So well done for being brave and showing confidence and joining in.

Let's do the whole verse altogether.

And remember, as long as you've got the main pictures there it's okay if the way you sing it is a little different.

Make it your own.

Make it personal and emotional to how you want to sing it.

And if you want to pause the video after we've finished and practise singing through it, please do okay? It's really fun to have a go at singing some blues.

Let's do all three lines altogether, so singing together.

And so we put the pattern and the structure of the AAB in our minds.

Here we go.

A two, a one, two, three.

♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ And a one, two, three.

♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ Then line one, two.

♪ Thinking about someone who has treated you ♪ ♪ Nice and kind ♪ Good.

Well done.

Like I say, if you want to pause and practise that verse, or have a go at doing the next verse or go back and listen to the clip, please do so.

Explore blues singing and practise having a go at it yourself.

Okay, let's have a look at the questions on the right hand side and see if you can answer them.

Now we've had a go at singing through that top verse.

Number one.

What structure have they been written in? Number two.

Do just the lyrics repeat or the pictures as well? Number three.

Which phrases rhyme? And number four, how do the lines of the lyrics connect to one another? So think about what the words are actually saying and how the words in each line connect to one another.

Or do they at all.

Pause the video now and take three minutes to answer those four questions.

Okay.

Let's go through those answers.

Different colour pen.

Hopefully we know now that both those verses are in the AAB structure.

And the terminology for this, the way of describing these repeating lines within verses that sit on their own is called floating verses.

The answer to number two is some of the pictures are repeated like the ends of lines and phrases, but there's not entire lines that are exactly the same.

Okay? So if you think about the first line, ♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ Is different to the second line.

♪ And did you ever ♪ Doesn't go as high.

♪ Did you ever sit thinking ♪ ♪ With a thousand things on your mind ♪ But, ♪ Thousand things on your mind ♪ Is the same.

So often the ends of lines and phrases have similar or the same pitches.

Number three, the end phrases on each line.

So if you think you've got things on your mind, things on your mind.

So nice and kind.

So the end phrases on each line rhyme.

You begin to read, you could begin to read.

I want to be.

And that there is the vowel sounds arriving between b and read.

Number four.

How did the lines connect to one another? A is a question or it represents an issue.

And then five is the answer or the conclusion to that.

So did you ever sit thinking with a thousand things on your mind? So it's a question that she is putting out to the audience or she's singing about herself.

But then the B line is the answer.

She's telling us, "Thinking about someone who has treated you "so nice and kind." So she's telling you who she has sat and thought about a thousand times over.

Question, answer.

If you got any of those, right.

Well done.

Write down any of those answers you were unsure of.

So you've got them.

Great job with singing.

And now we really understand how blues verses are structured.

Okay.

Now time for you to have a go at doing this yourself.

Writing and singing in a blues style.

Okay, time for you to have a go at writing some of your own lyrics.

Writing lyrics can be tricky, but we've got a structure to follow and a starting place.

Blues lyrics are raw and full of emotion dwelling on love or loneliness.

Like I've said before.

The easiest way to think about it is, like we looked at Bessie Smiths lyrics as a question or a theme for the A phrase and then an answer or conclusion for your B phrase.

For each one, you want them to be eight beats long.

So to fit into one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Okay, so that's a line fitting in eight beats.

Remember, once you've worked out what phrase you want A to be, your just going to repeat it twice.

And then you want to come up with a new phrase for the B line and that is a response.

So, here's mine for an example.

My A, line is, Oh, I miss my baby feels like time to go.

Oh, I miss my baby feels like time to go.

Okay? So I had to make sure that I was going to say them.

And I do that sometimes.

I write my lyrics out and then before I add pictures to it, I think about the rhythm and if it fits into the eight beats.

Oh, I miss my baby, it feels like time to go.

Once I've got my A.

I know it's just going to repeat, but the pictures will be slightly different, remember.

Now B needs to be some sort of response or conclusion to that.

Oh, I miss my baby feels like time to go.

And the end of that line needs to rhyme.

I wrote a love letter.

They really need to know.

I wrote a love letter or I wrote a love letter, they really need to know.

Okay? So pause the video here, draw out your grid and spend a good 10 minutes.

Longer If you need to, thinking about three lines.

The ends have to rhyme.

They need to fit within eight beats.

So, do practise singing them, singing the pattern of how you want the words to fit within those eight beats.

Off you go.

Okay, so once you put your lyrics written out here are mine in my three phrases, AAB.

Just like we were working out how to improvise or how to create our phrases in between the head in our previous lessons.

You're going to use the same blue scale to create these.

To create the pictures to your lyrics.

It's exactly the same thing.

So have those in your head.

And when you create your pictures to these, I suggest you have a keyboard app or your instrument.

If you're used to playing music on a certain instrument.

Or a keyboard perhaps to hand.

Because it helps you work out the key.

Okay? We want to be in G cause that's what we're so familiar with.

That's the key we've been working with.

So,.

I have those in my mind and I have a think, okay.

I'm going to start on G because that's just always a good place to start.

And I'm going to try and think of the similar kind of like, bluesy phrases that Bessie Smith was singing.

♪ Oh Oh I miss my baby feels ♪ That's a nice blues note.

♪ Oh I miss my baby feels like time to go ♪ ♪ Oh I miss my baby feels like time to go ♪ Yeah, I like that.

And it fits within the eight.

Do you think I sang that in a really bluesy style? ♪ Oh i miss my baby feels like time to go ♪ I don't think I did.

It didn't sound like the emotion that came across.

So let's think about what we can add to make this sound more bluesy.

So, Bessie Smith used accents on certain notes.

She did a lot of slides to show emotions on certain words.

And she sang quite freely.

Okay? So it wasn't as pattern as rhythmic as I did it.

♪ Oh I miss my baby feels like time to ♪ So I'm going to hold some of my notes, I'm going to slide to some of my notes.

Let's have a play.

So I'm going to oh, slide my very first note.

♪ Oh, I miss my baby ♪ So there's like a little run.

I've got two notes on.

♪ Oh, I miss my baby ♪ So I've decided to put emotion on baby.

But perhaps I decided to put emotion on miss because I really miss them.

♪ Oh I miss my baby feels ♪ ♪ Feels ♪ So I'm going to slide on feel to show the singer what I'm really feeling.

♪ Oh I miss my baby feels like time to go ♪ I'm going to hold on go for a bit longer.

See? that's got so much more emotion compared to the first time.

Second line.

Need to change the pitch slightly, but same words.

♪ Oh I miss my baby feels like time ♪ ♪ time to go ♪ So I'm going to go higher at the end of that one.

♪ Oh I miss my baby feels like time to go ♪ And now my third one is the response to this.

And I'm going to start on a different note.

'Cause both my eight lines start on G.

So I'm going to change it.

Get more blues scale.

♪ I wrote ♪ We're going to start at the end of the scale.

♪ I wrote a love letter ♪ ♪ They really need to know ♪ And now I've ended up back on G.

Which always sounds good.

Okay.

Let's sing all three lines together.

So you can see how I've decided to put the pictures to my verse for this lyrics.

To my verse.

♪ Oh I miss my baby feels like time to go ♪ Five, six, seven and ♪ Oh I miss my baby feels like time to go ♪ One, two, ♪ I wrote a love letter ♪ ♪ They really need to know ♪ And there's my three lines.

Did you notice how at the end of those lines, I left two bars? A good sort of seven, eight beats gap.

Can you remember why? Write it down or tell the screen in five, four, three, two.

It's because I'm leaving a gap for the call and response.

Like Bessie Smith did in her song.

If I was writing this, I would want an instrument to respond to my call.

♪ Oh I miss my baby feels like time to go ♪ ♪ Oh I miss my baby feels like time to go ♪ ♪ I wrote a love letter ♪ ♪ They really need to know ♪ So that was me just improvising a few things using my piano app.

But you can see with the gaps I left.

I would plan if I was writing this piece of music to have a blues instrument respond in between my vocal calls.

So when you write yours and you put pictures to it, count a gap of two bars, seven or eight beats for another instrument to create a call and response.

Hey, welcome back.

I'm sure your blues verse is sounding really stylish and you're putting loads of emotion in your voice.

Now it's time to put that into the context of the rest of your band.

Because we've created lyrics built around G we can use the 12 bar blues chord progression that we have done in previous lessons.

And so I want you to have a go at singing your blues verse with that chord progression.

Please think about the emotion of your voice and how you would like to come across.

Remember we want it to be stylish and we wanted to sound bluesy.

You could do this in a pair or a group performance.

If you've recorded the chords or maybe the walking baseline, then you can sing your verse over the top of that recording.

Spend a good 15 minutes singing through this first, making sure it's in the right place and the timing with the chords, enjoying doing it, be brave, try to be confident and expressive with your performance.

And of course enjoy it.

Also, don't forget to go and share this with somebody.

It takes a lot of creative energy to come up with some lyrics for a song.

And I really want somebody to see your brilliant work.

Welcome back.

I'm sure your blues verse is sounding brilliant with the 12 bar blues chord structure.

Well done today.

Like I said before, it takes real bravery and it can take some of you off your comfort zone to do a whole lesson on singing.

But I think it really helps us develop as musicians if we practise it as much as we can.

I hope you've enjoyed it.

I definitely have.

I love the way that blues singers show expression and emotion.

I think it's always really impressive, are really beautiful to listen to.

Please go and take the quiz after this lesson so I can see everything that you've learned about blues singers and blues lyrics.

And I hopefully will see you in the next lesson.

Take care.

Bye.