Music Analysis <The Blues>

Ji Min Kim

To me Jazz and Blues are romantic. It sounds great than like rock songs. I am not meant that blues are the best. However, blues sound is so romantic. Always when I listening to those blues songs. I start to imagine people who play blues in hotel. Anyways, today I am going to analysis two blues songs. The two songs are “Green sleeves” by John Coltrane and “Vibraphone blues” by Lionel Hampton.

There are differences between “Green sleeves” and “Vibraphone blues” about pitch. Both of them are blue and jazz as you already know. So talking about “Green Sleeves” first. This music is jazzy music that actually there is no blues note. Several chords are used in this music. Basic jazz chords are 7th, 9th and 6th. In this case, there are lots of grace notes. Grace notes are like small melody and those melodies have short time. Also there is drop-offs melody. When you hear this song on 3:42. New instrument comes out, which is saxophone. Saxophone does some drop off by holding breathe for a long time. Furthermore, it improvised. Saxophone comes out and the saxophone is the solo for this jazz. On the other hand, “Vibraphone blues” is a blue song and of course it has the blues notes. The differences between “Green Sleeves” and this was, someone sing a song in this case. Which is more effect to listener. Listener can understand what the producer want to tell to listener. It has some vibrato to show the expression of romantic.

The rhythm is easy for in jazz music. There are lots of swing rhythm and syncopation. In this case, the syncopation was one first beat. The first beat had long notes and it occurred syncopation. Additionally, the player emphasis one the first note. It was like strong light light light and it kept repeating. The time signature was about 4/4. On the other hand, it also contained swing rhythm. Swing rhythm was necessary in blues. Syncopation was also used in it. But not too much like swing rhythm, only a little bit. In this music, definitely I felt laid back. This music makes me easily to get sleep. It was hardly to find emphasized beat. Sometimes when the player want to emphasis lyrics, then they usually emphasis that beat too. This one’s time signature is about 4/4.

Now lets look at dynamics. “Green Sleeves” has contrast dynamic. Which is the solo part and just main part. Solo part comes form 3:42. Usually, the main part and decorating part was smoothed and had little melody. However, on 3:42, saxophone just coming out and the dynamic became unstable and strong. In solo part, there is accent at first. The first part of music is crescendos. It goes up and sometimes it decreases a bit (diminuendos). On the other hand, the blue was not really contrasting in here. There are not really strong accent sounds in this music.

Some parts were crescendos. When it goes up, the sound become stronger and more powerful.

Different kinds of timbre are used in Jazz and blues. First looking at jazz. The instruments that are used were bass, drum, piano and saxophone. There is no singer that sings this song. Saxophone makes special jazz sound. It has strong melody line and also do some drop-offs. Furthermore, brushes on a drum also make jazzy sound. Usually, not many music use brushes on a drum. However, especially in jazz they do; makes sound softer. The instruments that are used in blues are piano, drum, and bell sound… Singer sings a song in this music. He doesn't really changed voice to express atmosphere. He just sings normal but sometimes he high his voice or fast saying like “baby baby”.

Looking at the texture of jazz and blues. In jazz, there is not much contrast between heavy and light textures. For this one, the heavy texture will be main melody (saxophones) and the light one will be used blushes on drum. Also this jazz is a cool jazz. It is not like huge orchestra, it is just a small ensemble group. There is no contrasting between heavy and light textures in blues. This one is also small ensemble.

Jazz and blues, they all contain structure in their song. Even though, they are Jazz, they used 12-bar blues structure. Main melody is saxophones and there is a base line. Which 12-bar blues also have. In this case, repeating melodic has been used. Base line and main melody line always repeat. There is instrumental improvisation. When there is only base sound. It creates spot by using imagination. On the other hand, the blues of course, it has 12-bar melody. It also repeats the melody. As I said before, there is vocal in this music. However, actually it doesn't have chorus for vocal. Only a person sings a song.

There is tempo in jazz and blues. This jazz music has normal tempo, not fast not slow. It creates mood, which is making me feel sleepy. I feel like I am in some kind of restaurant and having dinner with this song. There is contrast of tempo in this piece. First part was slow then it goes powerful by adding more strong sound and faster. On the other hand, this blue is slow and makes people to relax. Oh, this song makes me feel sleepier. The mood for this will be romantic. This also reminds me thinking that I am in a restaurant. There, not much tempos are changing. It consist same tempo.

I analysis jazz and blues. However, sometimes it is wrong answer, because I was just writing essay like answering the rubric questions. In rubric questions, there are many words that couldn't understand. I didn't enjoy during writing an essay however, because of this opportunity, I learned more about jazz and blues. I feel like I am more friendly with jazz and blues than before.