Read:

• Review this reading from Theory & Practice I, as needed: "Melody and Phrasing in Popular Music" (OMT)

• "Blues Melodies & Blues Scales" (OMT) - Read the first half "Phrase and Lyric Structure"

Explore

Go through the playlist of songs that you're currently listening to. It can be any genre or style of music that you'd like! Pick one or two songs to aurally analyze. Load your song into BriFormer or Audio Timeliner and mark out where you hear the phrases. Identify them using formal labels (a, a', b) to describe which phrases sound similar or different. Identify any other information you can hear, including cadences, keys, meter. Other than melodic material, are there any other parameters of music that the artist uses to delineate sections or phrases? (Consider instrumentation, vocal range, texture, lyrics, rhythm, key/mode, tempo, etc.) Be prepared to share your phrase analysis with the class. 

Discussion

• 12-Bar Blues: We can think of the 12-bar blues as a harmonic pattern, but it also tends to involve characteristic phrasing and sometimes even lyric patterns. Based on the reading and your knowledge of 12-bar blues, discuss these characteristics. Would you describe the 12-bar blues pattern as a 2, 3, or 4-part phrase structure? How would you describe it using formal letters (e.g. a, a', b)?