Blues Journey

Overview

Journey with us as we trace the blues from its early beginnings in southern American fields to its global impact on music today. Through informative interviews and a wealth of music clips, you'll learn the ins and outs of blues music and find out how the history of the blues has been brought to life on stage at the Kennedy Center.

Suggested Use

Studying the blues is an excellent vehicle for integrating language arts, history/social studies, and music standards. Have students write down what they know about blues music, then instruct them to listen to the audio clips in Blues Journey. Next tell students to write an essay describing what they know about blues after reading and hearing about its history. You may also wish to lead students through any of the following activities:

• Learning the history of the blues coincides with learning about African slavery, the Great Migration, and racial discrimination and prejudice. Use Blues Journey as a jumping off point for discussing the African-American experience in the early 20th century.
• Go over the characteristics of the blues by reviewing the "Knowing the Blues" section of the site. Play different types of music for students and see if they can identify blues music from among the samples. Next have students listen to music by Cat Power and Gnarls Barkley on audio clips on the site. How is music by these artists similar or different than blues music? Can students find examples of music by other contemporary artists that have characteristics of the blues?
• The blues were used as a means of self-expression and a way to overcome personal and social challenges. Ask students to write blues lyrics about a challenging moment or event in their lives.
• Read about the legend of "The Crossroads" in this site. Discuss how "crossroads" are metaphors for a period of tough decision-making. Have students write an original story in which a main character must make a difficult decision.
• Refer to the sections "Mapping the Blues" and "Knowing the Blues" in this site. In groups, students can compare and contrast different blues styles. Have students conduct independent research on blues musicians mentioned in these sections. Instruct them to choose five to eight songs by an artist and list them on a "CD jacket." On the CD jacket, students can write background information about the artist, including his or her contribution to the blues.
• Listen to the audio clip in the "Spreading the Joy" section. Lead a discussion about technology today. How are today's technologies (i.e., iPods, the Internet—especially My Space, CD burners) shaping music? What is different about the way we listen to and discover music today than before the Internet was invented?
• Review the section "From Page to Page to Stage." Discover the challenges of adapting a book for the stage. Tell students to pick a scene with a lot of dialogue from a book or story they are reading in class. Have them adapt the scene for the stage by revising descriptive paragraphs so that the story can be told solely through dialogue. Encourage students to choose costumes and props to make the scene come to life.
• Use this site in conjunction with the ARTSEDGE lesson, "Twelve-Bar Blues," in which students learn how to compose a melody using a 12-bar blues chord progression.
• Analyze blues lyrics by musicians discussed in this site. Refer to the ARTSEDGE lesson, "Poets Got Them Blues" to explore how historical events and social issues shaped songs by W.C. Handy, Skip James, and J.B. Lenoir.

Technical Requirements

This multimedia resource is bandwidth-intensive, requiring a high-speed Internet connection. Users should be equipped with speakers (or headphones in a lab or classroom setting) and will need Flash 8 installed on their computers.