Talk:Eight-bar blues

Variation

What about:

T T T7 T7
S S Sm Sm
T T D7 D7
T T D7 D7

Seems to me (I could well be wrong) those are the chords to a lot of blues: "Ain't Nobody's Business", "Cherry Red", "In the Dark", etc.)

Jfitzg

I Want a Little Girl

Um isn't "I Want A Little Girl" a 32 bar AABA? -- Infrogmation 21:38, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It's an 8-bar blues with a bridge, as is "In the Dark." Maybe that point could be made in the article. John FitzGerald 18:13, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

I say we change this... This doesn't seem to be about 8-bar blues structure at all, honestly. Here are some blues songs that are actually 8-bar: Jim Lee (Charley Patton), Lord, Send Me An Angel (Blind Willie McTell), Crow Jane (Skip James), and Key To The Highway (Big Bill Broonzy). The structure is I7-V7-IV-IV7-I7-V7-I7-V7. 8 bars. I suggest this article be pasted into the 16-bar blues article, and a new 8 bar blues article be created. What do you all think?

D.E. Cottrell 04:52, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I think the last guy is right. And i find it funny you Americans can't even put up a correct blues page whereas it's basically your music.

Problematic article

"Brits and Jews are the saviors of the blues" say I, and I'm not either.

A pretty uninformative article overall. I don't think anyone who doesn't already play the blues could understand what these chord progressions are about.

I removed an example that was a twelve-bar blues (with feeble, wiki-exclusive lyrics).

This article, plus blues ballad and16-bar blues need to be looked at together.

Ortolan88 17:46, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't believe this to be true. The notation here should be understandable to most people who play music. Especially those whose instruments of choice can be used to play chords. The values represent scale degrees as opposed to absolute chords so they can be used in any key. e.g. I IV V blues can be played in the key of C where the chords are C the one chord, F the four chord, and G the five chord. The C scale is C, D, E, F, G, A, B. The chords come from the first, fourth, and fifth notes of the scale (or scale degrees in fancy talk). Or played in A where similarly the chords are the A, D, and E chords. This is properly called Roman numeral analysis, and is quite common short hand speech when teaching others new songs. I will add a little blurb to the article to point people to the right place if they have the same issue you are having. BTW, if you play music and haven't heard of this, it is somewhat surprising. It is very common. But not so much for melody only instruments like trumpet (I play this as well as guitar), sax, etc.Theshowmecanuck (talk) 03:26, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

8 and 16 bar blues should not be linked together into one article. 8 bar blues is so common and distinct that it is nearly or just as dominant as 12 bar blues. As well 16 bar blues has much more in common with 12 bar blues than with 8. 8 bar blues is a far different animal than 16 bar blues. Theshowmecanuck (talk) 03:33, 18 March 2012 (UTC)

How are 8 & 16 bar blues far different? Hyacinth (talk) 00:17, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Ain't Nobody's Business

Could someone confirm that the above track refers to Jimmy Witherspoon's 1949 hit? And if so, then "internal link" it to Witherspoon's article page. I don't agree that this article is only of interest to people who already olay the blues - I've always loved that track and would like to know a bit more about the blues. Thank you. 83.180.161.164 11:30, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Well Mr. 83, "Ain't Nobody's Business" is a blues standard, written back in the 1920s by a very little known piano player named Porter Grainger (no article at this writing). Witherspoon certainly had a hit on it (a hit that gave him a career, according to him), but before him came Dinah Washington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, etc.

I didn't say the article was only of interest to people who already play the blues, I said the musical part about the chord progression was probably incomprehensible to someone who didn't already play.Ortolan88 18:32, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Just added "Ain't Nobody's Business". Ortolan88 20:47, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

I Want A Little Girl!

Who was the first artist to record that song?

This song was first performed in the alte 1920s by McKinney's Cotton Pickers, the leading jazz orchestra of the day, which also introduced James P. Johnson's "If I could be with you (One hour tonight)" and "Baby Won't You Please Come Home". According to this interview with pioneer blues shouter Jimmy Rushing, the singer on all three of these classics of jazz-into-pop was George "Fathead" Thomas. Ortolan88 (talk) 20:19, 22 August 2008 (UTC) PS I already knew about McKinney's, I got George Thomas by googling the song title and the phrase "first record", a little trick others may want to try when they need information. O88

A Different Version, Perhaps

Here is yet another (different and more complex) 8-bar blues, as I learned through various sources. It occurs in "The Lonesome Road", "The Nearness of You" ("A" section), Cherokee ("A" section):

I | I7 | IV | iv | I vi | ii V7 | I | (V7) |

e.g.

C | C7 | F | Fm | C Am7 | Dm7 G7 | C | (G7) |

It seems similar to the first one mentioned on this page. The first four bars are the essential part. The last four could be replaced with other variant turnarounds.

I'm not sure what defines a blues, other than a turnaround to IV and then back in the first half of the changes, but a definition (as opposed to just giving examples) would be worth stating, if someone knows.

Rmkeller (talk) 04:15, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Merge with Twelve-bar blues

This could easily become a section of Twelve-bar blues, maybe along with Sixteen-bar blues in a new section called "Blues progressions of other durations" or something?BassHistory (talk) 10:33, 8 December 2010 (UTC)

Are you saying that this article is unlikely to be expanded or that it requires the context of twelve-bar blues per Wikipedia:Merging#Rationale? Hyacinth (talk) 10:32, 9 December 2010 (UTC)

Please see Talk:Sixteen-bar blues. Thanks.BassHistory (talk) 11:05, 9 December 2010 (UTC)