Popular Music History
There is an old saying that goes, “There is nothing new under the sun,” and I believe that this saying is especially true in music.
Popular song genres – pop – including folk songs, Broadway show tunes, the blues, jazz, and rock, share elements with older genres and subgenres while introducing new harmonic practices and musical forms
Prior to the 1950s the 12-bar blues and verse-refrain form were popular. These were later overshadowed by the contrasting verse-chorus and simple verse-chorus forms.
Quaternary Form
Songs with four phrases are described as being in quaternary form. Phrases can be four to eight measures long; the term thirty-two-bar form is used if the phrases are 8 bars long. The first two phrases often begin the same and change at the cadence, followed by a contrasting section – known as the bridge – and a restatement of the first phrase.
The bridge may tonicize another key – usually preparing to return to the original key wit bh a half cadence or no cadence to provide harmonic wiggle room.
Potential Quaternary Designs
Below are some possible phrase combinations, the most common of which is a b a c with no bridge and a contrasting period. If the c section appears third then it fulfills the role of the bridge.
- a a b a
- a a’ b a
- a b a c
- a b c b
- a b c b’
- a b c a
- a b c a’
Popular Song Structure
Verse – an extended section of a song that is usually repeated two or more times featuring different texts over the same music. This section is similar to a recitative.
Refrain/ Hook – the familiar part of a song, usually identified as the song’s title or theme. This section may be performed on its own without the verse. This section normally features the same music and text. This section is similar to an aria.
Harmony in Popular Music
In popular styles, a major or minor 7th may be added to chords on almost any degree of the diatonic scale without changing the root, inversion, or function of the chord in the phrase.
Any triad or 7th chord may be extended; the added 6th and the 9th are the two most common extensions. No matter what the quality of the underlying harmony, the added six is generally a major 6th, and the added ninth is usually a major 9th except in the case of dominant 7 chords where the 9th may be minor.
Pitches added to seventh chords are sometimes called extension (the jazz aficionados call them “tensions”). One should be careful not to confuse the usage of the 6 to mean figured bass rather than to denote an added 6th to the chord.
Mixture chords are also employed in popular songs, but their use may differ from the usage in 19th-century music.
The Blues
African-American musicians in the south, particularly in the Mississippi Delta region, pioneered the blues which became an essential influence of rock and roll in the 1950s and many genres today.
Blue Notes
The characteristic notes of the blues are the b3, #4/b5, and b7, which help to create a sense of sadness that contrasts with the major-key accompaniment. The use of the minor tones in the melody with major tones in the accompaniment blurs the lines of the feelings the listener will experience.
These tones are all native to the minor pentatonic, except for the #4/b5 – when this note is added to the minor pentatonic we have the Blues Scale.
The blues scale is not a true scale but it gives a selection of notes to be used when improvising a melody.
Twelve-Bar Blues
As the name implies, the form is 12 bars with three four-bar phrases. The first four-bar phrase feature tonic harmony, with the second four bars alternating between two bars of subdominant harmony and then returning to tonic harmony for the second half of the phrase. The last phrase features the dominant harmony in the first bar, followed by the subdominant harmony and two bars of tonic harmony. One exception to this structure is the optional use of the dominant seventh (V7) harmony in the ultimate bar – called a turnaround. The turnaround leads to the beginning and a repeat of the progression.
The harmonic sequence is usually called the song’s changes – short for the chord changes.
In addition to the use of the V7 in the last bar of the phrase for the turnaround, some persons add the 7th to other chords and some persons add the 6th and 9th tensions to give variety to the changes.
Lyrics
The blues feature minor-sounding vocal melodies that may describe hard times, lost love, or other sorrows over harmonies in the parallel major key.
The lyrics often use colloquial terms with multiple metaphorical meanings and sometimes sexual innuendos.
Phrases one and two normally describe a problem, while phrase three expresses the consequence.
Performing The Blues
In the blues idiom, the melody and harmony are repeated at least twice followed by improvised instrumental solos over the 12-bar changes, and finally, the original melody and harmony to end the piece.
Improvised solos became a distinctive feature of Jazz and other popular music that arrived after the 1950s. The main motif of the song is called the head.
Youtube Resources
12Tone provides an in-depth historical analysis of the blues and its relevance in many important popular styles. He says, “The Blues is possibly the most important musical invention in America and the world.”
The genre lent a voice to struggling communities in the late 1800s, and it’s persisted in one form or another ever since, helping shape the musical vocabulary of a nation and the world. The Blues helps you understand modern music. You can learn a lot about the Blues just by studying its signature song form: The 12-Bar Blues. It’s an iconic device that’s been used to great effect by artists in all sorts of styles for over a century, and it just might be the most influential chord progression ever written.
Youtube user – Viktor Kaganovich – says: There’s no way to explain the blues and the plagal cadence at the end, and the somewhat unusual 12-bar structure without addressing the West African griot tradition and the neighboring traditions, the Chadic/Yoruba/Niger continuum. There you get your shuffle rhythm, you get your blues scale, you get your ”staying on the tonic for as long as I feel like it, then go to the IV sound for a culmination and then go back” thing, you get a lot of 14 bar (three phrases for 12 bars and a 2-bar tag) form or similar. Introduce the V chord briefly, drop the tag and you get the blues.
School of Yule creates educational and art videos to cultivate knowledge and a love of art. The YouTube channel is a raw archive of all the ‘successful’ footage that has been filmed in the name of the School of Yule.
This video shows you how to write a song with the 12 Bar Blues. Find out how to: play the chords on both piano and guitar, apply words to the music through speech, melody, and harmony, write lyrics, play an instrumental solo, and structure songs.
Gareth from Music Matters explains how the 12 bar blues pattern works and how you can have hours of fun with it. He looks at the basic chord scheme, 12 bar blues construction, and he demonstrates various ways of working with a bass line and with the chords. Even if you’ve never played 12 bar blues before you’ll soon be making great music.
Cliff Smith Guitar Lessons provides this free backing track for the 12-bar blues in C.
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