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Blues

His records of 1926-1938 were issued in many countries worldwide, and his name is still legendary among all Hawaiian steel players all over the world. .
             The steel guitar was unique from normal guitars because it didn't have a set standard tuning. The guitar was tuned to match the voice of the singer or the mood of the person playing the instrument. The guitar had anywhere from six to eight strings. As the instrument became popular it also began to evolve. More necks were added to accommodate multiple tunings. Because the tuning of the guitar had to do with the song they were playing it was useful to have multiple necks instead of spending their time retuning in the middle of a show or concert. .
             The guitars soon were known to have up to six different necks. The action was also raised to prevent the steel from buzzing on the metal frets. The instrument was then played by dragging a piece of bone, glass, or metal across the strings to produce the sound. This was known as slide guitar. Picks were used on the thumb and ring finger for a crisper sound. The steel drum was electrified in 1935 in Texas. .
             Rickenbacker was the first to market the electric steel guitar. This electric.
             steel guitar was called "Frying Pan" or "Pancake" because of the shape. New models like the National, Gibson, and Martin were shaped like a "Biscuit Box" and stool on four legs. The addition of pedals and knee levers was also a major .
             part of the development of the steel electric guitar. Pedals were used to control volume. However they could also be used to raise the pitch of a string by tightening it, or to lower the pitch of a string by loosening it. .
             The slide was first invented when Joseph Kekuku was walking home one day from the Kamehameha School for Boys in Honolulu in 1885. It is said that he was looking for a new sound for the guitar and picked up a railroad bolt or spike and slid it along the strings. Joseph was only eleven years old at this time and over the next seven years he perfected the art of playing with a slide.


Essays Related to Blues

1. Sonny's Blues and A Good Man is Hard to Find

For this paper, I decided to compare and contrast, "Sonny's Blues,"" by James Baldwin and "A Good Man is Hard to Find,"" by Flannery O'Connor. ... In "Sonny's Blues ", the theme of lightness and darkness are used as symbols to represent the positive and negative events in the protagonist's struggle to find a balance in his life. ... "Sonny's Blues"" tells the tale of the narrator's younger brother, Sonny, who has had a rough past that ranges from selling heroin, spending time in jail, and had difficulty living in his wife's family household. ... "Well, I need...

  • Word Count: 707
  • Approx Pages: 3

2. Comparing Rap and Blues Music

Blues music is very structured in its form. ... Call and response is common in blues. ... Blues can be both sung and spoken. ... Other styles began to develop, such as Chicago Blues, Kansas City Blues, Piedmont Blues, Saint Louis Blues, and other variations. ... Like Many other blues singers that did Chicago Blues, Chester was born and raised in the South. ...

  • Word Count: 1900
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Blues

The "elevation" of the blues by its integration into ragtime -- led by W.C. Handy ("Memphis Blues," "St. ... Performed as somewhat urbanized blues with large jazz-musician ensembles, Mamie Smith's 1920 breakout hit "Crazy Blues" and the ensuing (1923-on) recordings of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith first exposed the blues to a mass audience (this was despite the blues having been considered as primarily a man's medium!). ... A particular strain of the blues -- Georgia/Carolinas blues -- was gradually extending influence north through Virginia, and eventually came to be known as "Piedmo...

  • Word Count: 1753
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. The Evolution of Jazz

Once the blues made its way north, artists Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf dominated the Chicago blues scene, incorporating electric guitars and drums into their sets, exploring a more ambitious and raucous sound than was part of blues movement. ... Louis Blues" published in 1914. Mamie Smith is the woman who started Blues on record. Her "Crazy Blues" is considered the first Blues recording ever. ... Lastly, Bessie Smith defines the term of "classic" Blues singer; earned the title of "Empress of the Blues" with her sassy, bold songs that earned the respect of both Blues and Jazz artists....

  • Word Count: 2036
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Jazz And Blues

Rhythm and Blues: The Connection Between Them The stylistic, rhythm and melodic relationships between blues and jazz, many people have the ability to plat an instrument whether is it by ear or actually reading music. ... Blues originated in Mississippi around the nineteenth century. Blues or "12-bar blues", as it is called, has a standard chord progression. ... Blues or flatted notes are notes that are lowered a half step. ... Jazz and blues involve over sixty years of great artist....

  • Word Count: 337
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

6. The Weary Blues

One sees an example of how this unfolds in "The Weary Blues." The speaker in the poem documents the experience of listening to a piano player in Harlem play the blues. ... What the blues articulates is the simultaneous presence of the "tragic and comic aspects of the human conditions." ... The poem's last line, then, ignores the blues performer's ability to articulate pain and likewise to subsume it. ... What this implies is that "The Weary Blues" can also be read as an anti-Jazz Age poem. ...

  • Word Count: 547
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Sonny's blues

In James Baldwin's story Sonny's Blues, "blues" plays a very important part, even the story itself is a "blues", and there is a mood of unhappy throughout the whole story. Also, this is a story about being safe and taking risk, and between the meaning of "blues" itself and for the story, we can some relations in terms of this theme. "Blues" is a kind of music that to express a sad mood. ... The "blues", both as a state of being and as music, are basic to the structure of the story, and both the narrator and his brother Sonny have had their share. ...

  • Word Count: 498
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Jazz, Ragtime and Blues

Handy popularized "Memphis Blues" and made it a classic. ... On the contrary, blues utilized a more structural form. ... The blues often detailed the lives of the plantation slaves. ... Handy utilized these sorrowful songs to inspire his blues music. ... The blues also provided a means of communication with each other. ...

  • Word Count: 1458
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography

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