We’ve Got the 12-Bar Blues

What happens when music, history, and storytelling come together in the classroom? Let’s step into the 12-bar blues—a musical form rooted in culture and emotion—and discover how structure and creativity can live side by side. In this lesson, students not only learn the foundations of form and harmonic structure, but they also find their own voice as they compose an original blues song. By blending personal experiences with artistic expression, students don’t just study the blues; they live it, feel it, and create it.

Music Standards:

• Apply an understanding of musical form and harmonic structure through the creation of a new or improvised artistic work.

• Identify the context of musical ideas within genre, culture, and an historic period.

• Relate personal experiences with an artistic idea.

ELA Standards:

• Determine a theme and main idea.

• Add music and lyrics to a presentation to communicate main ideas or themes.

• Apply an understanding of the structure of ideas and concepts within a text.

  1.What is the blues?

  The blues originated in the American South in the 19th century, and developed out of many types of African-American music. In addition to how the blues sound, the music also provides a way for people to tell a story and share emotions. Blues stories are often about sadness and struggle, but also offer some hope and determination for overcoming the challenges. 

  Traditional blues have a specific musical form, which is represented in 12 measures of music (bars) with a set of harmonic progressions. A 12-bar blues song consists of three phrases, each 4 measures long, and lyrics that follow an AAB pattern. The first Phrase introduces the idea (often a problem or struggle), is repeated or restated in phrase two, and then a comment or resolution to the problem is stated in the third phrase.  

  • Why is it important to express how we are feeling, even if it might be sad or painful?

  • How might music and storytelling help us get through a difficult time?

  2. Listen to a blues song. 

  Invite students to clap & tap rhythmic patterns along with the music. Listen for the change in melody and the repetition of patterns. Suggested listenings:

  • “Everyday I Have the Blues” by B.B. King

  • “Give Me One Reason” by Tracy Chapman

  3. Creating My Own Blues 

  • In small groups (or as class) write a 12-bar blues in AAB form. Think about a topic that you want to write your blues lyrics about. For example, it could be something hard in your day or something that has been bothering you. 

  • Come up with two phrases: one that describes your problem and another that resolves it. 

  • Play a 12-bar blues track to accompany your song and perform for the class.

  
  Further Exploration: Check out this lesson and additional resources on the 12-bar blues through Carnegie Hall’s Link Up: The Orchestra Swings Educator Resource.

LITERACY CONNECTION 

Blues Journey 

by Walter Dean Myers & Christopher Myers

In this beautiful picture book, poetry and art weave together to explore the struggle, grief, hope, joy, and love that is the blues. Through blues-style verses, we learn about the experiences of African Americans from the end of slavery through the beginning of the civil rights movement.

Written by Amy Kirkland, Partner Learning Specialist