How to Write Blues Music

Blues music emerged in the mid to late 19th century as a form of expression for displaced African-Americans. Using an oral form of traditional African poetry, these songs were popular and could be heard all around the Mississippi delta region of the Deep South. Today, blues music is still widely popular and has influenced many other genres of modern music. Writing blues music is not technically complicated and typically requires more emotion than musical skill.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Guitar or other musical instrument (opt)

1. Find a subject or topic for your blues song. The primary purpose of blues music is to convey emotions and feelings, so subjects that evoke sadness, reflection or regret are popular themes. Think about events in your personal life, the lives people around you or in the news for ideas.

2. Write lyrics to your blues song. The most traditional format for a blues song is three stanzas, of three lines each, conforming to the AAB format. Simply put, each stanza or verse, has three lines; line one states an issue, line two repeats the issue (often with a slight variation) and line three resolves the issue. Rhyming is not required but can be used. For example:
   Line 1 -- My baby told me, she don't love me no more
   Line 2 -- Yeah, my baby told me, she don't love me no more
   Line 3 -- She's in love with another man, now she's walking out the door

3. Write music for your new blues song that fits with your lyrics. Again, basic blues music is simple and follows a standard musical pattern using the pentatonic scale. Using a common length of 12 bars, a typical chord progression would be I -- IV -- V, or the tonic, subdominant and dominant notes of the chosen scale. Using our previous example, where each chord notation equals one measure:
   Line 1 -- (I) My baby told me, (IV) she don't love me no more (I) (I)
   Line 2 -- (IV) Yeah, my baby told me, (IV) she don't love me no more (I) (I)
   Line 3 -- (V) She's in love with another man, (IV) now she's walking out the door (I) (V)

4. Play with feeling and lots of emotion to properly convey the style of blues music. For some examples of blues music in action, listen to the recordings of Robert Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters or Z.Z. Hill. These artists, and many more like them, are considered masters of the blues genre and can offer a great deal of direction and inspiration for writing blues music.

Tips & Warnings

• The minor pentatonic scale is also commonly used in blues music. Keep your songs simple to remain true to basic blues.

References

• More blues info on JazzClass.com