Lyrical Patterns
Most commonly, lyrics are in three lines, with the first two lines almost the same with slight differences in phrasing and interjections.
- I hate to see the evening sun go down,
- Yes, I hate to see that evening sun go down
- 'Cause it makes me think I'm on my last go 'round
- W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues"
However, many songs exist that are written in the blues chord progression do not use the three-line form of lyrics. For instance, "I'm Moving On" has a verse in the first four bars and a chorus in the final eight bars:
- That big eight-wheeler rollin' down the track
- Means your true lovin' daddy ain't comin' back.
- I'm movin' on, I'll soon be gone
- You were flyin' too high for my little old sky
- So I'm movin' on.
- Hank Snow's "I'm Moving On"
Here is an example showing the 12 bar blues pattern and how it fits with the lyrics of a given verse. One chord symbol is used per beat, with "-" representing the continuation of the previous chord:
- I - - - IV - - - I - - - I7 - - -
- Woke up this morning with an awful aching head
- IV - - - IV7 - - - I - - - I7 - - -
- Woke up this morning with an awful aching head
- V - - V7 IV - - IV7 I - - - I - V V7
- My new man had left me, just a room and an empty bed.
-
-
- From Bessie Smith's "Empty Bed Blues".
-
Another example, "Johnny B. Goode" (written and first recorded by Chuck Berry), applies a "shuffle" or "light 'swing'" rhythm to one of the more common twelve-bar progressions:
| Line | Pickup | Measure 1 | Measure 2 | Measure 3 | Measure 4 | ||||
| 1 | Deep | A (I) | down in Lou'siana, close to | A (I) | New Orleans, way | A (I) | back up in the woods among the | A (I) | evergreens, |
| 2 | There | D (IV) | stood a log cabin, made from | D (IV) | earth and wood, where | A (I) | lived a country boy named | A (I) | Johnny B. Goode. |
| 3 | He | E (V) | never really learned to read or | E7 (V7) | write too well, but he could | A (I) | play a guitar just like a- | A (I) | -ringin' a bell. |
Another progression, D-D7-G7-A7, appears in this collection (Axelsson & Strängliden 2007, 55).
Read more about this topic: Twelve-bar Blues
Famous quotes containing the word patterns:
“One can describe a landscape in many different words and sentences, but one would not normally cut up a picture of a landscape and rearrange it in different patterns in order to describe it in different ways. Because a photograph is not composed of discrete units strung out in a linear row of meaningful pieces, we do not understand it by looking at one element after another in a set sequence. The photograph is understood in one act of seeing; it is perceived in a gestalt.”
—Joshua Meyrowitz, U.S. educator, media critic. “The Blurring of Public and Private Behaviors,” No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behavior, Oxford University Press (1985)