Anomale Used Blog: Queens of the Stone Age

From its very beginning, the blues has been a largely improvised music, created spontaneously without written music or prior planning. In the early days of the genre, poor African American farmers would often gather together on each other’s porches and in churches and homes to jam for hours. They didn’t have printed music, and so they would make up tunes and lyrics on the spot.

Singers or instrumental soloists can both do this act of invention, building from the chord progression, melody, and rhythm already being played... as the two in a musical conversation banter back and forth phrase by phrase. In fact, you improvise every time you have a spoken conversation. And it’s just the same between a harmonica and a singer, or a banjo player and a guitar player. Note that improvisation is no substitute for study or musicianship, on the contrary, the early blues musicians couldn’t read or write music so they developed new skills centered on listening to and learning traditional songs from other musicians.

Improvisation is also an important part of the blues because it allows for spontaneous, heartfelt personal expression of pain and longing for a better life.

Source: What Makes The Blues Sound Like The Blues? by Chris Slattery

Queens of the Stone Age - little sister