Blues Music Fieldwork Research Paper

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On going about my beginning my fieldwork project; I wanted to do my project on a community that I had great interest in. A community that I would have great understanding based on my field in music. That is what I chose to do my fieldwork project on blues music. We will be looking at the history and development of blues music from the 1910s to the modern day. Blues music dates back to the very end of the 19th Century in American history – specifically African-American history. It mainly originated on the Southern Plantations from slaves, ex-slaves and the descendants of slaves—African-American sharecroppers who sang as they worked the long hard days on the cotton fields. It's generally accepted that the music came from work songs, field…show more content…
Mainly specialising in Delta Blues, Johnson in his own time was most respected for his ability to play in such a wide variety of styles from raw country slide guitar to jazz and pop licks and to pick up guitar parts almost instantly upon hearing a song. An important aspect of Johnson's singing was his use of microtonality. These subtle inflections of pitch help explain why his singing conveys such powerful emotion. His hits include "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" and "Sweet Home Chicago" . Ma Rainey was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was titled as The Mother of the Blues. Ma Rainey was known for her very powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a ‘moaning’ style of singing. Her powerful voice was never adequately captured on her records, due to her recording exclusively for Paramount, which was at the time known for its below-average recording techniques and poor shellac quality. However, Rainey's other qualities are present and most evident in her early recordings, "Bo-weevil Blues" and "Moonshine Blues" . With great musicians and performers such as these, it is understandable that blues flourished so

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