Materials to Download
All the practice videos on this page support the songs included in the packet of music below:
Tutorials & Practice Videos
Key of C: Sweet Home Chicago
Be sure to listen to these original recordings by Robert Johnson, who was the first to record it, and Eric Clapton, who brought a lot of these old blues tunes back into mainstream generations later.
See the Variations packet above to follow along with the complete version of this song:
Key of G: Gulf Coast Blues
This song was written by early jazz pioneer Clarence Williams and recorded by Bessie Smith in 1923. It helped launch her career – she was later considered The Empress of the Blues. Listen to that recording here. (Note: There is an intro verse to the song, the part we sing and play begins around 0:58.
Key of D: St. Louis Blues (Basic)
This song is by the so-called “Father of the Blues” W.C. Handy, who traveled the south, listened and studied the blues forms being played in different communities, and then incorporated the styles and forms he heard into his original compositions. These songs ended up making their way to urban audiences in the north and onto recordings by the likes of Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong, thereby shaping much of what because the mainstream idea of “the Blues”. My favorite recording is this one by Billie Holiday. (Note: There in interlude you will hear that’s not included in our class arrangement.)
See the Variations packet above to follow along with the complete version of this song:
Key of A: Backwater Blues
The release of this original song by Bessie Smith (original recording here) coincided with the Great Flood of 1927, which displaced over 600,000 and was one of the events that contributed to the Great Migration of black citizens from the south to the north in the early 20th century. It became a song that profoundly affected black communities everywhere and told the story of so many families affected by floods in the Delta region.