Course Introduction Video

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Do curso por University of Rochester

The Blues: Understanding and Performing an American Art Form

305 ratings

University of Rochester

The Blues: Understanding and Performing an American Art Form

305 ratings

The blues is an American art form and the most important musical form in jazz. Although there are other formal paradigms of the blues, such as 8-bar or 16-bar, this course focuses on different incarnations of the 12-bar blues. There are considerable differences between Early Jazz blues, Swing blues, Bebop blues, Modal blues, and Post Bop blues. Each type has its unique harmonic syntax, melodic vocabulary and, associated with them, improvisational techniques. While other aspects of jazz performance practice have been constantly changing from one stylistic convention to another, the blues has never lost its identity and expressive power, and continues to exert a powerful influence on the harmonic and melodic syntax of jazz. This seven-week course explores important aspects of the blues, blues improvisation, basic keyboard textures, jazz harmonic and melodic syntax. Topics include: (1) Blues Progressions; (2) Blues and Other Scales; (3) Improvisational Tools, and others. This course will also cover valuable theoretical concepts enabling the student to master the art of jazz improvisation. Each topic will be introduced from a practical perspective with the clearly stated goal: to improve one’s improvisational skills. Jazz improvisation is rooted in spontaneity, creativity, self-expression and, at the same time, self-control and order. A unique pedagogical approach based on a one-to-one musical interaction conducted with different instrumentalists will help to reinforce many of the concepts introduced in this course and realize its stated objectives.

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Blues Progressions – Theory and Practice

Lesson 1 focuses on foundational aspects of the blues, examining its history, innovation, and evolving harmonic structure. At the end of this lecture, students should have a firm understanding of the harmonic structure of the basic, generic, and minor blues forms, as well as a familiarity with the A A’ B phrase-structure of the blues.

Course Introduction Video6:00

Conheça os instrutores

Dariusz Terefenko
Associate Professor of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media
Eastman School of Music

[MUSIC]

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to a series of seven lectures on the Blues.

My name is Dariusz Terefenko and

I teach Jazz theory at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

The course is entitled The Blues, Understanding and

Performing an American Art Form.

[MUSIC]

This course is a comprehensive study about the most important musical form in jazz,

the blues.

The material is presented through a close examination

of key theoretical concepts as they relate to the blues.

These concepts are then immediately put to practical ends

using various exercises, drills, and

improvisational activities involving different jazz musicians.

Charlie Carr on trumpet, Christian Crawford on trumpet, Luke Norris

on the saxophone, Tyrone Allen on the bass and Daniel Sunshine on the drums.

In addition to the exploration of the blues,

this course in keeping with its overall hands-on pedagogy,

surveys a variety of improvisational techniques.

As well as it introduces useful strategies of chord realization on the piano

using different blues progressions as a point of departure.

So in addition to learning about key theoretical concept

improvisation techniques and functional keyboard,

you will also learn how to interact with a rhythm section and with a pianist.

More practical sessions later in the course will feature jazz musicians

demonstrating different approaches to improvisation and

illustrate ways of interacting with the rhythm section.

You'll also be able to play with your own live rhythm section and

try various concepts introduced in the course.

The main objective of this course is to develop A set of practical skills

enabling you to navigate through different blues progressions on your instrument.

And to realize them comfortably on the piano,

employing a variety of keyboard textures.

[MUSIC]

Let's begin with just a general description of the contents.

The first thing we will do in lecture one is introduce

different blues progressions through the prism of historical evolution.

To develop strong improvisational skills

we must have a command of the basic theoretical concepts.

Although this course is not about jazz theory an understanding

of key theoretical concepts is necessary to develop and

improve your improvisational skills.

In lecture two, we will exploit different blues scales,

discuss their expressive potential, and

talk about jazz rhythm and the importance of jazz articulation.

With lecture three, the focus shifts to the piano.

Having introduced various piano textures, I will show how to put them to practical

ends by demonstrating how to realize different blues progressions on the piano.

With four functional keyboard textures, I'm certain that both

pianists and known pianists alike will find something

useful to help them develop their keyboard skills.

Having explored different piano textures and keyboard techniques, lectures four and

five will closely examine a half a dozen of blues progressions from lecture one.

Because the main goal of this course is to develop solid improvisational skills,

the final group of lectures, lecture six and seven,

will explore a number of improvisational techniques such as motivic development,

improvising with guide tones, using different types of chord arpeggiations.

Exploring pentatonic collections, different scalar patterns, and others.

And with the help of live rhythm section and

other instrumentalists who will demonstrate

how to improvise over different blues progressions from earlier lectures.

Each session features a carefully selected material,

which is presented in a very compact manner and

to fully benefit from this course it is extremely important to study the material

and complete all written assignments and practical exercises.

I hope that you're as excited as I am to embark on this fascinating

journey about the blues, a truly American art form.

Thank you.

[MUSIC]

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