Welcome to the Summer 2024 Paperless Jam Series! Thanks so much for joining me and making this investment in your own learning and musicality. Here’s a recap of the songs and general ideas we covered at our Spirituals Jam …
Contextual / Historical Note. I enjoy teaching Spirituals (mostly from the African-American tradition), for several reasons:
- Musically, they have repetitive chord patterns and lyrics that make them very accessible for a learning-by-ear setting.
- Historically, these songs come to us in the 21st century from communities of enslaved people from the 18th and 19th centuries (possibly earlier?), by way of communities of musicians like the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who were among the first to put these traditional tunes to tape, and activists like the recently deceased Bernice Johnson Reagon, who imbued these songs with renewed meaning and urgency during the Civil Rights Movement. While they were inspired by and reference specific stories from the Christian Bible, these songs also remind us of both the suffering and the resilience of the black and brown communities who have stewarded these songs through the centuries, and the freedom from racism and dehumanization they still seek.
- This is all to say that I teach and share with you these Spirituals not in any effort to evangelize or promote any particular religious belief, but to hold this history and its people in our musical circle, and to remember those who are still seeking their freedom from violence and hate around the world. Music has always and will always be a part of necessary action for change.
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Listen to the Fisk Jubilee Singers’s original 1909-1911 recording here and 1980s recording here.
Hold On (Gospel Plow / Eyes on the Prize)
Listen to the Fisk Jubilee Singers’ 2003 recording here. Also recorded by Native American jazz singer Mildred Bailey (1939) and adapted during the Civil Rights Movement as Eyes on the Prize.
We didn’t get to Down By the Riverside, but here are the tutorial and play along for that song if you’d like to try it on your own:
Other Resources
Zooming In and Zooming Out
Learning a chord progression is not something that comes easily to everyone, but it is one of the essential skills of being able to make music with others, especially in a jam setting. No matter what chords or how many measures, each time you make the effort, you are deepening your sense of musicality and building essential musical skills.
One thing I would encourage you to remember is that learning to play a song together involves both zooming in and zooming out …
- Zooming In / Focus. Learning a chord progression involves counting out beats and measures and working on smooth transitions from chord to chord. There’s a lot to focus on as you put the pieces together. Take the time you need to work on any sticky spots that come up, including strum patterns, tricky chord changes, etc.
- Zooming Out / Big Picture. After giving some time to specifics, make sure you give yourself the chance to sit back, look around you, take a breath, and just play and enjoy the song. If it helps to visualize the chord progression in a particular way, that’s a great way, too, to get your head out of the details and feel and hear the song as a complete whole.
Make Your Own Index Cards
Based on the patterns we discussed at the jam, and videos above, feel free to make your own index card notes from them. The most important thing is that you MAKE YOUR OWN INDEX CARDS so that you are processing the information you find most useful. If you like, you can make some notes on the opposite side about the lyrics. Moving forward, feel free to have these index cards on hand to *remind* you of the chord progression, but once you’ve reviewed the visual, toss it to the side and play! 🙂
Strumming Support
Here are links to tutorials to help you work just on the strum patterns for each song: