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.
Offered By
The Blues: Understanding and Performing an American Art Form
University of RochesterAbout this Course
Skills you will gain
- Music
- Chord
- Jazz
- Jazz Improvisation
Offered by

University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is one of the nation's leading private universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University provides exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by its Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and the Memorial Art Gallery.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
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.
Blues Scales
Lesson 2 dives into what makes the blues tick, beginning with an examination of the blues scale and the basics of jazz rhythms and blues riffs. Students will then explore call and response techniques and application of the blues scale in improvisation through demonstration with a live musician.
Keyboard Realization
Lesson 3 introduces the concept of guide tones and its association with invertible counterpoint. Four-part and five-part chords are discussed in detail by exploring their construction and function, as well as techniques to facilitate good voice-leading between chords using chordal inversions.
“Bird” Blues and Other Blues Progressions
In lesson 4 students analyze harmonic progressions from 3 jazz standards: “Now’s The Time,” “Billie’s Bounce,” and “Blues For Alice.” Practice techniques are discussed, including ear-training strategies, rhythmic displacement, and voice-leading exercises.
Reviews
- 5 stars86.93%
- 4 stars10.70%
- 3 stars1.45%
- 2 stars0.36%
- 1 star0.54%
TOP REVIEWS FROM THE BLUES: UNDERSTANDING AND PERFORMING AN AMERICAN ART FORM
Very good and enjoyable mix of practice and theory - from basics to more advanced with good explanations throughout. I just wish I was a better piano player to be able to take full advantage of it!
(my-spacebar-does-not-work)---anyway-excellent-course-tought-by-a-knowledgable-instructor.-A-tremendous-amount-of-information-and-insight.-Highly-recommended.
Everything is clearly explained and demonstrated. It was great being able to downloads course videos and transcripts for reference.
Great teaching needed to go through each lesson a few times to maximise information transfer and now need to practice the theory! Thanks for this course.
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