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Credit: Archival audio and video clips courtesy the Association for Cultural Equity / Alan Lomax Archive

1 music

Lesson 1: Blues Basics

• “Homework Blues” (audio)
• “The Bo Diddley Beat” (audio)

Field Hollers and Work Songs

• “Fire! Fire!” (audio)

Unaccompanied Holler

• Vera Hall – “Another Man Done Gone” (audio)
• Joe Savage – “Dangerous Blues (1978)” (video)

Individual Holler / Work Song

• R.L. Burnside – “Wood-chopping Holler” (video)

Group Work Song

• Inmates at Parchman – “Oh, Rosie” (audio)
• Lightning Washington and Prisoners – “Good God Almighty (1933)” (video)

Lesson 2: Singing and Playing the Blues

Melody and Harmony

• “Melody” (audio)
• “Harmony” (audio)

C-Major Scales

• “C-Major-Scale (piano)” (audio)
• “C-Major-Scale Note Names” (audio)
• “C-Major-Scale Solfege (sung)” (audio)

Chromatic Scales

• “Chromatic Scale(keyboard and sung)” (audio)

Blues Scale

• “Blues Scale” (audio)

Examples of Mississippi Blues

• Howlin’ Wolf – “Dust My Broom” (audio)
• “John the Rabbit” (audio)
• “John the Rabbit (with piano)” (audio)

Improvisation Using Blues Scale Notes

• “Improvisation” (audio)

Triads and Chords

• “Triads” (audio)
• “Chords” (audio)

Illustrations of the 12-bar Blues

• “12-bar Blues” (audio)
• “12-bar Blues 1411 4411 5411” (audio)
• “12-bar Blues 1111 4411 5415” (audio)

Lesson 3: Instruments of the Blues

Spirituals

Blues Ballads

• “John Henry” (audio)

Diddley Bow/One-string Guitar

Acoustic Guitar

Acoustic Guitar with Slide

• Booker White – “Please Don’t Put Your Daddy Outdoors” (video)

Electric Guitar

• Mississippi Delta Bluesmen – “Give My Poor Heart Ease (1975)” (video)
• Howlin’ Wolf – “Meet Me in the Bottom” (video)

Harmonica

• Jack Owens and Bud Spires – “Catfish Blues” (audio)

Piano

Fife and Drum Band

• Napolian Strickland – “Somebody Knocking at My Door” (audio)
• “Gravel Springs Fife and Drum” (video)

Bones/Spoons/Sticks

• “How to Play Bones with Dom Flemons” (video)

Jug

• Whistler’s Jug Band – “Foldin’ Bed” (video)

2 meaning

Lesson 1: Themes of the Blues

Sacred and Secular Music

• Lovey Williams – “Going Away Blues” (audio)

Lesson 2: Emotions of the Blues

• Memphis Slim et al – “Source of the Blues” (audio)
• Memphis Slim et al – “Happy in the Face of Problems” (audio)

Lesson 3: Women and the Blues

• Rosa Lee Hill – “Rolled and Tumbled” (audio)

3 cotton

Lesson 2: Vocabulary

• Phineas Rockmore – “Boll Weevil” (audio)
• Unknown Axe Cutting Group – “Pick a Bale of Cotton” (audio)

4 transportation

Lesson 1: The Mississippi River

• Walter Brown and “Arthur” – “Roustabout Holler and Rocking the Load (1978)” (video)
• “Loading Cotton on Steamboats (1937)” (video)

Lesson 2: Trains

• Lovey Williams – “Train if I Ride” (audio)
• Jimmie Rodgers – “Waiting for a Train” (video)

Lesson 3: Highways and Automobiles

• James Son Thomas – “Highway 61 Blues” (audio)

5 civil rights

Lesson 1: General Complaints

• Anonymous – “Hidden Violence” (audio)

Lesson 2: Political Lyrics

• Big Bill Broonzy – “Black, Brown and White Blues” (audio)

6 media

Lesson 1: Early Years of the Blues

Lesson 2: Recording the Blues

Lesson 3: Radio and the Blues

Credit: Archival audio and video clips courtesy the Association for Cultural Equity / Alan Lomax Archive