Writing A Blues Song

Feeling ‘blue’ – sad, unhappy, miserable, down, these are all words associated with the style/genre of blues.

Jimi Hendrix put it poetically: ‘blues is easy to play, but hard to feel’. This is so true. Some of the greatest blues musicians had the hardest of times, Bessie Smith, Howlin Wolf and Robert Johnson being a few out of many truly ‘blue’ artists.

It is important to note that there are many styles of blues, what will be discussed here is what I like to refer to as ‘Raw Blues’, back to basics blues.

So here we go. ‘Raw Blues’ lyrics have much repetition. Your opening line should repeat itself.

For example, taken from the great Crossroads by Robert Johnson here is the opening verse:

I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees.

I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees.

Asked the Lord above for mercy

"Save me if you please."

Your lyrics do not need to be complicated to be great. But remember, you are writing a blues song – stick to the genre.

Ok, so you may not have experienced real hard times. But everybody has experienced some form of pain, try to express this. Depressing, I know, but this is blues!!

Moving onto the music, the chord structure for blues is usually I, IV and V. For example in the key of C the chords would be – C, F and G. However, when writing blues it is best to use dominant 7^th chords: C7, F7 and G7 (in the key of C).

This article is aimed at helping you to write a blues song. Adding the essence/soul/feel/heart (or broken-heart) to the song is down to the performer – you.

Discovering New (and old) Music

When I began to seriously study music (at the tender age of 17) I met an eclectic mix of people. There were the long haired leather clad metal heads, the peace loving flower power hippies, gangster/hip-hop r&b rappers, bubble gum popsters and mods complete with Beatle haircuts. All had varied tastes, but with one thing in common - we were all undeniably in love with music.

It was during these years of studying, I discovered how narrow my music taste was. In my extreme ignorance, I thought listening to The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix was enough (of course they are amazing), I didn't think I needed to listen to any other bands/artists. A good friend of mine recommended I listen to Led Zeppelin, yes I'd heard the name before I said, but didn't think I would enjoy them. HOW WRONG I WAS!

After listening to Communication Breakdown and Babe Im Gonna Leave You, I was hooked. I bought every single Led Zeppelin album and played them religiously. My ears had opened musically and my ignorance began to fade away. Curiosity struck and I found myself wondering where Led Zeppelin's inspiration had come from.

Much research later and I had discovered several artists, previously unbeknownst to me. They included Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, Otis Rush, Howlin Wolf and Bo Diddley. Tantalizing my musical taste-buds, my research stumbled across Jazz (I knew Blues and Jazz were related) and I soon became a fan of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.

Looking back, what's amazed me is how opened minded I became once I gave other bands/artists a chance. Had I been reluctant to listen to Led Zeppelin (or any other artist/band), I wouldn't have discovered such other wonderful music.

Since becoming musically liberated, I have discovered many songs/compositions that I really enjoy (some which I never would have dreamt of listening to before). Of course, it is not just classic rock, blues and jazz I listen to now, I will always give any piece of music a chance.

So my point in writing this article is to say don't just sit there and listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers (although they are pretty funky) find out who they are inspired by and give them a listen. Expand yourself musically, go to your local music store and buy a cd from a completely different genre that you normally listen to. Actively listen to the songs, if you enjoy them great, if not at least you gave them a chance.

Don’t limit yourself when you could be discovering much new (and old) brilliant music.