Year 8

How are instruments used to communicate the blues tradition?

Year 8

How are instruments used to communicate the blues tradition?

warning

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. In this lesson, we will learn all about the different playing and singing techniques heard in blues music. We will be able to identify these different techniques by ear.

Licence

This content is made available by Oak National Academy Limited and its partners and licensed under Oak’s terms & conditions (Collection 1), except where otherwise stated.

Loading...

6 Questions

Q1.
What is this instrument called?
An image in a quiz
Saxophone
Correct answer: Trombone
Trumpet
Q2.
Which of these instruments often play the melody parts in blues music?
Bass, piano and guitar.
Drum, bass and piano.
Correct answer: Trumpet, clarinet and vocals.
Q3.
What melodic idea is a 'head' in blues music?
An image in a quiz
The backing vocals.
The introduction of the song.
Correct answer: The main theme or melody which is repeated throughout.
Q4.
What is improvising in blues music?
An image in a quiz
Copying a part from someone else.
Correct answer: Making up melodies on the spot, during the live performance.
Reading the rhythm section from a lead sheet.
Q5.
What is the melodic structure AAB?
An image in a quiz
Call and response by copying the other part.
Correct answer: Two lines the same (question) and then a different third line (answer).
Verse and chorus.
Q6.
Name the song that made Duffy a famous artist.
2002
Love me like you do
Correct answer: Mercy

8 Questions

Q1.
What types of instruments were used in early blues music?
Brass and woodwind
Concertina and vocals
Correct answer: Percussion and guitar
Q2.
What technique is often used in blues singing?
Slap
Correct answer: Slides
Tremolo
Q3.
How is the drum kit often played in blues music?
Correct answer: With brushes
With sticks
With their hands
Q4.
What technique describes this: 'when the player uses their hand to make a sound on the fretboard when they play bass'
Correct answer: Slap
Tremolo
Vibrato
Q5.
What is a bottlenecking?
Moving your fingers very quickly when holding down the string so that the sound ‘wobbles’
Sliding on the same string to the next note to make it smooth
Correct answer: Using a bottleneck or other implement to cover all the strings and slide up and down
Q6.
What is a string bend?
Correct answer: Bending the string on the fretboard to alter the pitch
Moving your fingers very quickly when holding down the string so that the sound ‘wobbles’
Sliding on the same string to the next note to make it smooth
Q7.
What is a vibrato?
Bending the string on the fretboard to alter the pitch
Correct answer: Moving your fingers very quickly when holding down the string so that the sound ‘wobbles’
Sliding on the same string to the next note to make it smooth
Q8.
What is a crushed note?
Alternating really quickly between two pitches/chords
Bending the string on the fretboard to alter the pitch
Correct answer: Playing really short notes, usually a step away from the main note