BLUES FEELS

Blues Is a 'feeling'

When we talk about 'feels' in blues, what we're really talking about is the unique rhythmic phrasing that underlie a lot of blues music.

Most blues tunes can be thought of as being in standard 4/4 time (there is a steady pulse of four beats throughout the music), but often each beat has a clear triplet pattern running through it. This is sometimes described as a 'shuffle' feel. Compare the 'feel' of the tunes below:

THE SHUFFLE FEEL ("12 FEEL")

The shuffle feel is an essential part of the blues, and is very similar to the 'swing' feel in jazz. As mentioned above, each pulse is broken into three parts; (1-and-a, 2-and-a, 3-and-a, 4-and-a). At faster tempos, the first and the second subdivisions are played as a single note, meaning that the beat is subdivided into two unequal parts, with the first subdivision lasting twice as long as the second. (1-a, 2-a, 3-a, 4-a)

Elevator to Heaven (Chris Bell)

This is an example of a slow blues shuffle. At slow tempos the 'triplet' pattern is really obvious.

Pride and Joy (Stevie Ray Vaughn)

At faster tempos, the middle note of the triplet is often missed out, giving the beat a 'lopsided' feeling, similar to a 'swing' feel. In swing, the 'off-beats' (or the last note in the group of triplets) is emphasised more heavily than the down-beats.

Blue Monk (Thelonious Monk)

This is a 'jazz blues' with a swing feel. Again the middle note of the triplet has been left out, and although the triplet feel is still there, it is less obvious than in a conventional shuffle.

Wipeout (The Ventures)

This is an example of a blues without a shuffle feel - this is often referred to by musicians as a 'straight' feel.

The sixteenth feel

The sixteenth feel is a common feature of 'funk blues' and blues-derived rock grooves. The 'sixteenth feel' is really just straight 4/4 time, but each beat is clearly sub-divided into four even parts. (1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a, 3-e-and-a, 4-e-and-a). Drummers will often spell out the sub-divisions on the high-hat, whilst keeping the 'down-beats' on the kick drum and snare. In this example by James Brown, the sixteenth feel is being played by the bass guitar.

EXERCISE ONE

Listen to the examples below, and identify the feel (Straight, Shuffle, Sixteenth or Swing). Clap, tap or play along, counting as you go.

JJ Cale: I Got the Same Old Blues

Freddie King: Same Old Blues

Frank Zappa: Stinkfoot

John Mayall - Train Song

Candy Dulfer: Pick Up the Pieces

Sarah Vaughn: Black Coffee

Etta James and BB King - There's Something on Your Mind

Dave Brubeck - Take Five

THE BACK-BEAT

A really important part of African-American music is the emphasis on the 'back-beat'. The 'back-beat' refers to those beats that are normally considered 'weak beats' in the traditional music of Western Europe. In 4/4 time, the weak beats are beats two and four, and beats one and three are referred to as strong beats.

(One - Two - Three - Four). Try counting and clapping on the 'strong beats' (One and Three). Sing a simple tune over this rhythm. How does this feel?

compare this to

(One - Two - Three - Four) Again, count, clap and sing. How do the two rhythmic feels compare? How much difference do you think accenting the back-beat makes.

Next, try combining the back-beat with a shuffle feel:

One-and-a, Two-and-a, Three-and-a, Four-and-a.

Like the blues, Irish music also commonly also uses subdivisions of triplets (12 feel), and sixteenth notes, (and dominant chords) but without the accented back beat. Listen to the difference a strong accent on the 'strong beat' makes to the feel of the music

Irish Reels (16th Feel)

Irish Jig (Triplet feel)

Slow Rock Blues (16th Feel with back-beat)

Slow Blues Shuffle (12 feel with back beat)

READING AND WRITING BLUES FEELS

Straight Feels

Each steady pulse is divided into two equal parts. Each subdivision is played by the closed hi-hat (the x's on the top of the staff.

Each pulse is played alternately by the kick drum and the snare, with the snare accenting the back-beat.

16th FEELS

Each steady pulse is divided into 4 equal parts. Again, each subdivision in this example is played on the hi-hat, with the kick drum on beats one and three, and the snare on 2 and 4.

Shuffle Feel 1

Here the hi-hat plays even sub-divisions of three. The '3' is written over the top of each grouping to tell the drummer that three eighth notes are played in the amount of time where two would normally be played. There is often a bracket written above each group as well.

SHUFFLE FEEL 2

Writing brackets and '3's all over your music can be messy and time consuming, so sometimes the TIME SIGNATURE of 12/8 is used instead. This has exactly the same rhythm as the example above. There is a slow four-pulse (this time represented by 'dotted' quarter notes) subdivided into three eighth notes. However, it's much easier to read and write.

SHUFFLE FEEL 3

As we mentioned earlier in this page, often the middle subdivision is left out, giving the music a lopsided pulse. In this picture, you can see how this can be written using either triplets or 12/8 time. (Note: both of these examples sound identical)

Shuffle Feel 4

Because we're now subdividing the beat into two (uneven) parts, we can go back to using a simple subdivision of two. The metronome mark in the top right corner tells the drummer to read each pair of eighth notes as our lopsided 'triplet' pairings. This is now played identically to the 'shuffle feel 3' examples above, but looks exactly the same as the 'straight' feel, making it really easy to read.