I play cello and I think it would be cool to learn popular songs but I need the sheet music. I just want to play them for fun so I don’t want to have to pay for the music. I want songs like ones by lady gaga, Taylor swift or other famous people like that. If you know where I could sheet music like that you will be my best friend. Thanks!
One way is structure. The Blues is based on a three-chord pattern: I-IV-V (1-4-5), and usually through a progression of eight or twelve measures/bars. This framework can be heard in the popular music throughout the 20th Century.
The Blues has also influenced popular music in form, usually taking the form AAB and call-and-response. Many cultures from around the world use call-and-response, as well as in West Africa. In the United States, it was first heard in church music and field hollers, which also had an influence on the Blues. A preacher or a lead field hand would call out a verse, and then the congregation or laborers would repeat the verse back. A strict interpretation would be:
I, A, Call
I, A, Repeat/Response
IV, A, Call
IV, A, Repeat/Response
V, B, Response
Another way is the the use of “blue” notes. Typically, they are described as flatted thirds, fifths, and sevenths (from the major scale), but they really are lowered by semitone. Semitones are not found in Western music, but are prevalent in West African music (an influence of Blues music) so Blues musicians found other means of achieving them: by use of the human voice, bending the sound pitch of a harmonica, bending the strings of a guitar, or by use of a slide on the neck of a guitar. Blue notes are so widely used, and are part of the popular music language, they sound perfectly normal, and usually go unnoticed.
Up until the 1950s, featured instruments were usually piano, saxophone, or clarinet. The guitar was a band instrument, rather than a solo instrument; however, with the popularity of musicians like Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley, and electric Blues musicians like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and BB King, the guitar became the driving force behind popular music.
I’ll post this for now, and probably come back to it later….
Up until the first half of the 20th Century, music was segregated the same as the country. Records made by African Americans were called “race” records, and played only on radio stations also defined by race. Even big bands of the Pre-war Era were not integrated, and white was marketed to the general population, while race records and black bands were marketed only for the black market; however, that did not stop many whites from getting the records. That might seem like a strange statement now, but back then, a white kid from Brooklyn would have to go to Harlem in uptown Manhattan to purchase black music or see black bands perform. This was actually the case of my father.
The real crossover began with Sam Phillips who had a record label in Memphis called Sun Records. The short story is that Sam was a big blues fan, and wanted to find a white singer that sounded black–meaning, someone who could sing and perform in a blues style, yet be white and appealing to whites. He found that exact performer in Elvis. This opened the door for a flood of music, black and white. Many black artists were sought-after by record labels, and white record-buyers, too. They were looking for music by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and Bo Diddley, but the music was still classified by race, just as it was in the decades prior to the 1950s.
Record companies started recording hit black music but covered by white performers. They knew that kids were buying the black music, but wanted to cash in on the larger, mainstream market. However, to paraphrase Little Richard, the white kids had Pat Boone’s versions of “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally” out in the open, but his records under the bed…. until mom and dad went out.
But by the close of the 1950s, popular music was once again changing, and many black musicians found themselves without contracts, ripped off, and very broke. At the beginning of the 60s, many blues, rock n roll, and r&b artists began playing in Europe, and influenced all of the early British Invasion bands, to include The Beatles, The Animals, The Rolling Stones, Them, The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things, etc.
I want to get some music for my friend, but I don’t know his taste in music. I just know that he played french horn in high school, and told me he still always spots that sound in music.
For example i know there is a taylor swift classical inspiration on itunes, but i want more. Just the music without words as i find that the music from songs i know is great to listen to whilst revising for exams, as i am not distracted by the words.
Many songs these days have impressive instrumental music in them, but the question is where can i find it?
Is these an album out there somewhere??
Thanks in advance for any replies
I am personally a fan, but it seems to me that there’s nearly NO ONE here who enjoys it. I’m not sure if it’s just my area, or my state, or my country, or what. Is classical music not very popular as a whole nowadays? Or is it more popular in other countries than here?
Thanks for answering.
I know the blues were very popular. How did this type of music influence the culture in the 20’s?
i understand organ music began in catholic churches or cathedrals , not sure how common in smaller churches or which parts, but how and WHEN did Classical music really gain popularity?
and how was it used?
how was it presented to people?
by “Classical” i am meaning , i guess , any type of music that has instruments in it such as piano, organ, flutes, string instruments etc.
again, which countries and in which areas did they first gain popularity and how usually presented?
and how it spread and CHANGED later?
how compared?
pleaase describe and explain.
Thanks for your answers!
The obvious example of this would be George Gershwin, but I was trying to think of some other examples, such as:
Leonard Bernstein – if you include “Broadway musicals” in the “Pop” category
Frank Zappa – composed several avant-garde orchestral works, like those on the “Perfect Stranger” and “LSO, Vol. 1 & 2″
Joe Jackson – educated at the Royal Academy of Music, and released 2 albums of instrumental compositions (”Will Power” and “Symphony #1″), thought to call those works “classical” is a stretch.
Anyone else you can come up with?
I’m interested in learning popular music styles. I’m a beginner but I’ve taught myself some music theory and know basic chords on guitar and keyboard.
What types of jazz music was popular in the 1920s, also known as the Jazz Age or Roaring Twenties?