Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

I'm Ms. Friar, and welcome to lesson two of unit where we're looking at blues music.

What we're going to have a go at doing now is singing notes within chords that we may use later on.

Chords are three notes played at the same time.

For example, I'm just playing that on an app.

This is the first thing we're going to sing.

♪ C E G C E G ♪ Depending on where your range is in your voice.

And we're going to do that four times.

So, let's do that first.

A one, two.

♪ C E G ♪ One, two, three, four.

♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ Good, well done.

Just join in, let's go again.

Four times.

♪ C E G ♪ or-- ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ whichever you'd rather.

Sing it with me.

After four.

One, two, three, and-- ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ Great, there's our first line of broken chords.

Then we're going to move to.

♪ F A C ♪ And we're going to do two of those, and then return back to two CEGs.

So-- ♪ F A C ♪ ♪ F A C ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ Let's do those four.

Two Fs, two Cs.

♪ F F ♪ Here we go, one, two, three, four.

♪ F A C ♪ ♪ F A C ♪ Good.

Now, go back down to-- ♪ C E G ♪ One, two, three, four.

♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ Okay, let's sing with me.

♪ F A C, C E G ♪ Here we go, two of each.

A one, two, three, and-- ♪ F A C ♪ ♪ F A C ♪ Go down to-- ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ Great.

Now, we've got one more chord to look at.

♪ G B D ♪ Me first.

♪ G B D ♪ ♪ G B D ♪ Good, so we've got-- ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ F A C ♪ ♪ F A C ♪ ♪ G B D ♪ ♪ G B D ♪ Good, so they're the three chords we need, and let's see if we can put them in a structure.

So our final row of four is a bit more complicated.

We've got-- ♪ G B D ♪ ♪ F A C ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ Let's just do those four, and then I think you've got the notes of the chords really clear in your mind, and we can carry on with the rest of the lesson.

♪ G B D ♪ ♪ F A C ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ Me first.

One, two, three, four.

♪ G B D ♪ ♪ F A C ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ Your go.

Two, three, four.

♪ G B D ♪ ♪ F A C ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ ♪ C E G ♪ Good! Well done.

That is not an easy warm up to do.

We've been singing broken chords in the first few minutes of our lesson, so, well done today.

Right, let's carry on, and make sure that you've got everything you need for today's lesson to go really well.

Okay, so the things you're going to need for today's lesson are a piece of paper or a booklet to write your notes on, or if you've got the worksheet, great, use that.

You're going to need a pencil, but also a different colour pen for marking and making any notes.

For our music making today, you're going to need at least a keyboard or access to a keyboard app, or access to a ukulele or guitar.

If you've got one at home, brilliant.

If you've got one at school, great.

If you're already a guitarist, even better.

But if you're more comfortable using either a keyboard, or a piano, or an app, they're the things that you're going to need today, mainly for making our music.

If you need to pause the video now and go and get anything on that list, and go and get anything on that list, please do so.

Come back, press play, and we'll look at our schedule for today.

Okay, first thing we're going to do is have a look at the "Why blues music was created?", okay? So, last lesson we looked at "where", now we're going to look at "why", so the reasons that that musical style developed.

Then we're going to recap the 12 bar blues structure in G that we also looked at in lesson one, just so that it's really clear in our minds exactly what that 12 bar structure sounds and looks like.

Then we're going to recap, 'cause hopefully, you know already what a chord is, but if you don't, we're going to look at that in detail, so no problem at all.

And then you're going to have a go at playing your own 12 bar blues chord progression.

It is really important that when we're looking at styles of music that are as iconic as blues, we understand some of the history and the context behind why this music has evolved.

Take a few moments to read through the paragraph on the left hand side, and then see if you can come up with an answer for the question at the bottom.

"Why do you think slaves would sing while they worked?" Okay.

Let's have a look at some possible reasons why there was singing and music during slave labour at the time.

So, there's two possible reasons.

The first one, it is believed that black people, who were enslaved at the time, sang to motivate them, to give them hope, considering how difficult their situation was.

And how amazing is it that something so creative would come out of such a difficult time? The other reason is it's noted in history that the words that they would sing or chant would be rhythmic with the slave labour they were doing on the plantations.

So, again, that rhythm, and that momentum of the music would keep them going, and keep them working during the time.

It's important that we talk about it in our school community and in our communities at home.

So, make a note of any of that information if you didn't know it before.

Let's keep that in the back of our minds as we go through and really appreciate how great blues music is and where it's come from.

Okay.

What we're going to do now is listen to a song.

Active listening.

Now, we're going to listen to a song called "Wade in the Water", and we're going to listen to a version that's sung by an artist called Ella Jenkins.

There are four questions for you to answer.

Take just a few moments to read through those questions now.

Okay, here's the clip for the first time.

Keep those questions in your mind.

Remember, we are actively analysing the music while we're listening so that we can answer these questions.

Here we go.

♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ God's going to trouble the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ Okay, I'm going to play the clip again for you in a minute, just so that you can answer all of the questions there.

For question two, "How many phrases, lines, are in the first chorus?" The vocals you can hear is the first chorus.

So, you're counting how many phrases you can hear in this clip.

Okay, here's the clip for the second time.

♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ God is going to trouble the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ Pause the video now, and take two minutes just to finish off what you're writing, and check through your answers.

Let's go through those together, then.

Number one.

"True or false: "the male voices at the beginning sing in unison." "Unison" means that they are all singing exactly the same part.

And the answer is "false".

It sounds very similar.

They're singing at the same pitch, but actually, there's two lines.

One group are singing, ♪ Wade in water ♪ ♪ Wade in water ♪ and another part is singing, ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ so there are two parts singing together, but the pitch is the same.

Well done, if you got that.

"How many phrases or lines are there in the first chorus?" I was looking for "four", there's four phrases that can be heard in that first chorus.

Number three, "Which phrases are the same?" It's the first and the third phrase.

So, the first one is-- ♪ Wade in the water ♪ Second one is different.

♪ Wade in the water children ♪ And then the third one is the same as the first.

♪ Wade in the water ♪ And then the fourth is different.

Well done, if you recognised that.

And number four, "What do you think this song is about, and why?" Now, experts believe that there are two possible meanings.

One, the song is about being baptised in rivers.

And as you can see from that image, there was a strong religious belief in America, both in the enslaved West African communities, as well as freed black people in America, but also North American people.

And so, lots of people would be baptised, even as adults, in rivers.

The second is that enslaved black people sang this to one another to help them escape from plantations by wading through rivers, and then they would pass messages to one another through communities through the songs that they sung.

'Kay, if you got any of that right, well done.

Make sure you make any corrections, and let's have a look at the next part of our lesson.

Well done with the active listening task.

Okay, so now we know some of the historical reasons why blues music was created.

We're on the second part of our lesson which is recapping the 12 bar blues structure from last week in G.

On your screen is that 12 bar blues structure.

And instead of having the notes written out, we've got the degrees of this scale, or the chord numbers.

One, four, and five.

Just to recap those chord symbols, remember, they were written as Roman numerals.

So "one" look like that, "four" is the one before the five, and the "five" is the V, okay? So, there's our chord symbols for those chords and degrees of the scale.

Let's just recap this question.

"If G is number one," okay, 'cause that's the key that we're going to recap the blues bass line in, "what notes are four and five?" Take 30 seconds now to think.

"What notes are four and five?" Okay, let's reveal our answer.

So, the fourth and fifth notes that we would play in the 12 bar blues structure are: C, and D, 'cause we go G, A, B, C, D.

And that's how we find the degrees, or the notes and chords, we play in that structure.

So, this is what I want you to do now.

We're going to spend just five minutes recapping that structure and playing through it.

We're using just the three notes, okay? So, we're not playing the full chord.

It's just the bass line.

So, we'd play G.

G.

Bar two.

Bar three.

Bar four.

Change to the fourth, so second row of our grid, up to C.

Two of those.

Back down to G.

Bottom row, we've got one chord of five, chord four, and one.

So, just recap that pattern as a bass line.

That's what we did in lesson one.

But, to push yourself a little today, I'd like you to do two things.

One, see if you can come up with a more creative rhythm than just two notes.

Okay, so something of your own rhythm that's nice, and swung, and syncopated.

Also, here, I've got a drum backing track.

Let's have a listen to it.

If you're really confident playing the bass line already in the 12 bar blues structure in G, try doing it with that drum backing track, 'cause that's going to stretch you even further to needing to play it in time with another part.

Let me show you.

We change to C.

Then G.

♪ Up to D ♪ ♪ Then C ♪ ♪ Then G ♪ Okay, see if you can have a go at doing the first few bass line notes in that chord structure using that backing track.

Okay, so set yourself about five minutes.

We're just recapping the bass line we did from last week, but stretching it into a new rhythm, and using that drumming backing track.

Off you go.

Great, so let's see where we are in our lesson now.

We have looked at why blues music is created, we have recapped the 12 bar blues structure in G, focusing on keyboards, and playing it in a different rhythm, and maybe even along with that drumming backing track.

We're now going to have a look at what a chord is, which means we can then go on to play our own 12 bar chords.

Here's some key information that we need to remember.

Learning about chords is basically about learning a certain pattern.

So, let's read through these, and then I'll play an example for you.

The first thing you do is you find your root note.

Your root note is the bottom note of the chord.

It's number one, so, it'd be at the bottom here.

Here is a G chord.

So, we know G, as the root note, is the one at the bottom.

Number one.

Then we miss one note and add the next one.

That gives us three.

So, we miss A, we play B, we miss another note, and add the next.

So, we miss C, and play D, and you should have three notes.

So, let's play those now.

So, we play G as our root.

We miss A, we play B.

We miss C, we play D.

Let's see if I can show you that.

Okay, so, G.

We miss A, we play B.

We miss C, we play D.

And there is our three note G chord.

And that's the first one in our chord structure of the 12 bar blues.

Keep that in your mind.

All the information about root notes, and playing one, three, five, one, three, five.

It's a bit awkward to hold my hand like that.

And that are the fingers that you need to use, 'cause it also helps us remember, one, two, three, four, five, where the notes are in the scale as well.

All these techniques link.

So, now we know what a chord is, how we find a note within a chord, and find the root note, the bottom note of that chord.

Let's put those skills to the test.

If the root note is C, what would the chord be from these three options? Now, this should be quite simple.

So, we're going to do these ones quickly.

Write your answer down, or tell the screen in three, two, one.

Yep, the root note is the bottom note, so that is our C chord.

If the root note is C, the chord would be CEG.

Let's do another one.

If the root note is D, what would the chord be? Taking answers in three, two, one.

Yes, it's our pink chord.

The bottom note is D, so the chord notes are D, F sharp, A.

Lovely, final one.

If the root note is G, what would the chord be? Ready in three, two, we should have this by now.

Yes, it's the last chord.

G is at the bottom, so the other notes are GBD.

So, we know why blues music was created.

You've had a go at recapping and playing through the 12 bar blues structure in G, the transposed key from our last lesson.

We know what a chord is, and we've worked out how the root note is used to create a bass line, which is also what we played through earlier on.

And now, we're at the point where you're going to have a go at playing your own 12 bar blues.

Cool.

So, you'll recognise this grid.

Instead of just playing the bass line, we're now going to move from the lower part, our left hand, to the higher part, our right hand, to play these chords.

So, the chords are as follows.

We've got G, G, G, G.

Then C.

Then G.

Then we play D, then C, then G.

Now, the last box of my grid is now coloured white, and there's an extra note, or root note, in there now, that's highlighted yellow.

Take 30 seconds now, and think what that might be.

Why might we have two options of two different chords or bass notes to play in the last bar, or in the last box of our grid? Okay, so, let's have a think.

When it's G, let's play this last row.

So, D, C, and G.

Okay, G makes it sound finished, okay? We've completed the whole 12 bar blues structure.

Playing D makes it something called a "turn around" chord.

And what that means is the band can start the structure again, because it leads really nicely into playing the first G of the 12 bar blues structure.

So, I'll play the last row again, but this time playing a D chord, which is our turn around chord, and that's going to lead really nicely into starting the structure again.

That is called an "imperfect cadence".

"Imperfect" meaning it's not finished, we want to carry on, there's more to listen to.

So, let's play this last row, the last four bars of the structure, and you can hear the difference.

So, I play D, C, G, but I play D, and that helps us go back into G.

And we can start again.

So, that is a turn around chord.

It means we can go all over again.

Otherwise, we'd have a really short piece of blues music.

Okay.

On the screen now, it shows you exactly where you need to put your fingers for the notes of the chords if you're going to play them on the piano or the keyboard.

If you'd like to, I've also got a slide here that shows you how to play the ukulele chords.

So, if you've got access to a ukulele, and you're quite confident playing that, please do.

'Cause once you've got your fingers around these chords, it can sound great on a string instrument like the ukulele.

The other option, which you would commonly hear in a blues band, is guitar.

These are finger charts.

This top bar means the head of the fingerboard, the head of the guitar, and these mark the strings.

These dots show you which frets and which strings you need to put your fingers on so you can play these open chords.

So you can play these open chords.

Of course, still in the 12 bar blues structure.

What I have for you now is some brilliant videos.

This is Tim, and he is a guitarist.

He's very.

This is Tim, and he is a brilliant guitarist.

He has been playing for years.

He is a self-taught guitarist mainly, but when he was younger, he spent quite a lot of time learning how to play chords in lots of different ways, and in lots of different techniques.

What I'm going to show you now are four videos.

The first one shows you those open chords in a simple strumming pattern.

Here we go.

This is a basic blues chord progression in G major using open chords.

Great.

So, there's one way that you can play them.

Open chords, simple strumming, and you just follow the 12 bar blues structure.

If you're quite an able guitarist, or if you practise that, and you want to have a go at another option of playing the 12 bar chords, this is a technique called barre chord.

And it's essentially where you use your first finger of your left hand to cover more of the strings, almost like acting like a capo.

He's also strumming in a different pattern.

He's playing in a more rhythmic strumming pattern, which is commonly found in blues music.

Let's watch.

This is the second strumming pattern, down-up, with barre chords, in G major.

Great, so there's the second video using barre chords as a technique, and there's a nice down-up strumming pattern.

Another one that I wanted to introduce to you is the use of seventh chords.

In blues and jazz music, as well as notes one, three, and five in our chords like we've looked at, one, three, five, guitarists, and pianists, and composers, would also put the seventh note of the scale on top.

And it gives it that bluesy, jazzy feel.

But here they are on the guitar again, with an even more challenging strumming pattern if you want to try that as a guitarist.

Here we go.

This is the same third variation of strumming pattern, down-up-palm, with G major seventh in barre chords.

Lovely.

So, what Tim did there is a very similar down-up-down strumming pattern, but he used the palm of his right hand to mute the strings, and that makes it seem really rhythmic.

And that's exactly what we would hear in blues music.

The final video is just going to show you those three types of strumming, so that if you want to have a go, you can vary and practise the more challenging ways to play the 12 bar chords.

Here we go.

These are the three variations of strumming pattern, again, in barre chords and sevenths, just to run through.

Number two.

Number three.

Great, fantastic demonstration videos there for you guitarists, or those of you who would like to try for the first time, the different stages of how you can learn these chords, right from basic open chords in a simple strumming pattern, through to playing them as barre chord sevenths in a really bluesy and rhythmic way of the up-down strumming pattern, but then you mute the strings with your palm in between.

I really hope some of you guitarists, and anyone who wants to have a go, tries experimenting with these techniques within blues music.

It would sound brilliant.

Okay.

So, a big chunk of your lesson, now, you're going to spend practising this in whichever way you choose you want to do it.

So, you're going to play those 12 bar blues chords in G, exactly like Tim has just shown you.

There's the structure for you to follow.

"One" is chord G, "four" is chord C, and "five" is chord D.

But remember, you can rewind to any part of the video that you want to if you just want to check you've got those chords right again.

So, here is a simple one-three-five chord progression in G following the 12 bar blues structure.

CEG.

Back down to GBD.

Then you've got D F sharp A, CEG, GBD, GBD.

That's the one way.

That's the simplest way to start off practising.

Then what you can do is you can move it into a more interesting rhythm.

Okay? Just to start to get into more of a bluesy feel.

An easier way of playing piano chords is to play something called "inversions".

Instead of having to jump around the piano like this, you can move your fingers in just small distances.

So, I take GBD as it is, I can find CEG by keeping my thumb on this G, and moving my three and five to this CEG.

So, now I've got-- And I've only had to move from there to there.

So that's the same CEG, but I'm playing inverted, GCE.

The same you can do for the D major chord.

Here's GBD.

G, B, D.

I'm going to keep this D, instead of hopping all the way up to this F sharp and A, I'm going to use this F sharp and A, 'cause it's near to my D.

So I go G, F sharp, A, D.

One, two, five.

CEG.

So let's pay the whole 12 bar bar-- Sorry, let's play the whole 12 bar blues chord progression, but using inversions.

G, B, D is my first chord.

Here's C.

Down to G.

Here's D, then C, then G.

And don't forget our turn around chord.

We go back to D, 'cause that means we can start again.

Now, the final version I want to show you is adding a seventh note.

Seventh notes are the seventh note of the scale.

So, this is one, two, three, four, five, like we learned.

We go six, seven, and we play four notes.

Whether it's the F there, or the F here.

That's the seventh note of the scale, and it has a really soulful, bluesy feel.

And lots of guitarists and pianists do this.

So, the seventh note of G is F.

Here's C, the seventh note of that is B flat.

And here was our D chord inverted , the seventh note is C.

So, to add sevenths, you add F to G, B flat to C, and C to D.

Let's show you that in the full structure.

So, here's the 12 bar blues structure in G with seventh notes.

One, two, three, and-- One, two, three, four, one, ready, change to C.

With B flat.

I go back to G.

Here comes D with the C note, then C with B flat, and G.

I might turn around chord five to go back to start again.

Okay? And there are the different ways that you could play this chord progression on a keyboard or piano.

Enjoy! So, spend a good 15 minutes practising this 12 bar blues chord progression.

Practise it multiple times on your chosen instrument with the turn around chord, and start to get into a really bluesy rhythm, or extending into the seventh notes.

Enjoy, off you go.

Well done.

Hopefully, you're really starting to get into the groove with this 12 bar blues chord progression.

Make sure that you share your performance with somebody at home or at school, or take a recording of yourself so that you can share it with somebody else.

Please do go ahead and take the quiz all around the 12 bar blues chord structure.

I want to see everything that you've learned today.

And I look forward to seeing you in the next lesson.

Well done today.

Take care, bye!.