Why aren't there any degree programs for the Blues?

[foolforthecity]

...why would you need or want a degree in the blues? Kinda' weird...

No diff from wanting a degree in any music area... a deeper dive to scratch an itch

 

[IamGroot]

Calling @5StringBlues for the BAT (Blues Aptitude Test).

♤♤♤♤♤♤♤
When you applied to Blues University, what type of questions did they ask on the interview?

 

[TexasHeat]

I wouldn't say there is any kind of "degree", it's more like... "shades" of Blue.

 

[jbhaugh]

Well, this is timely of you....
My short answer for you is, I don't know. However, I am in the process of applying for my GI Bill extension so that I can work on a degree in music.
What schools are you finding with jazz programs? I'm in Bay Village, not far from you.

I'm also from Ohio, and I know there's a Jazz Studies program in the music dept at BGSU.

 

[fretter]

 

[bass4more]

Studying the Blues at the University of Mississippi - Center for the Study of Southern Culture

 

[BOOG]

I'm also from Ohio, and I know there's a Jazz Studies program in the music dept at BGSU.

Hey Boog, great to know you're a local. I know that BGSU has a nice jazz program, and if you do a Google search on the subject there are a lot of schools that do.

Thank you for the info on BGSU. For me, it’s a little bit too far. CSU has a solid program and reasonable tuition rates. Baldwin Wallace, CWRU and Cleveland Institute of Music are top notch but out of budget. I’m approaching it as a career change to teaching and I have limited time and funding.
I’m thinking that for the OP’s purposes Terra State University is a possibility. Even if the most convenient/logical institution doesn’t offer Blues specific curriculum there’s something to be gained from any formal education. After that, it’s all in what you do with it.

 

[OogieWaWa]

Studying the Blues at the University of Mississippi - Center for the Study of Southern Culture

Thank you very much bass4more, I'll look into that.

 

[OogieWaWa]

I’m thinking that for the OP’s purposes Terra State University is a possibility.

Good point, I know their music department is pretty robust for a smaller community college. They work with Bass Player Magazine and the Rhythm Summit to put on the Midwest Rhythm Summit conference in the spring, and it involves quite a few heavyweights, I learned a lot there and met some great folks. I highly recommend checking it out for this spring, go to the magazine website as more info becomes available. It's worth the drive over.

 

[selowitch]

♫ I got me a Ph.D. in Woe Is Me. ♪

 

[BOOG]

Good point, I know their music department is pretty robust for a smaller community college. They work with Bass Player Magazine and the Rhythm Summit to put on the Midwest Rhythm Summit conference in the spring, and it involves quite a few heavyweights, I learned a lot there and met some great folks. I highly recommend checking it out for this spring, go to the magazine website as more info becomes available. It's worth the drive over.

Yes it is! It’s a phenomenal gathering. I went to 2018 but couldn’t make it this year. Any bass player within a 200 mile radius owes it to themselves to go check it out.

 

[Gad Zooks]

There is a deep rich history in the blues that no amount of playing or suffering will reveal.

A study is very worthwhile. It is fascinating and the more you dig in the more you uncover.

As someone mentioned, create your own learning. Books, youtube videos, recordings, coursera have free courses.

It lends itself very well to chronological study. Start in the Delta, follow the trade and migratory patterns up to Chicago. What happened in the southside and how that gave birth to the westside sounds. Etc,...

Deep Blues by Palmer for an excellent overall picture

Rollin’ & Tumblin’ by Obrecht for inside interviews with the players and their backgrounds.

Keith Wyatt Blues School to learn the chops. (50s Chicago style)

Get hold of the key recordings.

Its a never ending study.

 

[okcrum]

Thank you all very much for the replies. I was shocked when I saw four pages of them!!!

A few thoughts.

Just because you have lived the blues and "get" the blues doesn't mean that you can't also look for a pre-structured learning environment to work in to find out as much as possible on the subject. Those things aren't mutually exclusive. An approved course of study implies that a lot of areas may be found that self-directed learning might not cover. My desired end is the knowledge, not the paper degree itself. A degree program would simply provide a framework.

Some people are just life-long learners that enjoy doing things that support it, I'm one of them, it's my 'other' hobby. I've got the time now, and the resources, I like learning and applying new things, why would I not want to pursue something that I have so much interest in if it were available? Having it in an on-line environment would be even better.

Again, thanks for all your insight!

It sounds like what you're looking for is blues history, at least in part. There's a pretty good reading list here if you want to strike out on your own. You'd no doubt get most of these assigned in a structured program. I've read a couple of these and I haven't been disappointed, but I don't call myself a bluesman. Other misguided souls have, though.

 

[honeyiscool]

As others have said, it's a pretty limited form. There's occasionally more to it than 1 4 5, but those are exceptions to the rule, and even those exceptions are formulaic.

There's history to be learned, for sure, but the point of a music program is to teach you how to play music.

I worked with a guy who was an excellent blues guitarist and singer. Traveled around, played all kinds of blues clubs. But when I worked with him, he had some thoughts about branching into other genres because the blues wasn't booking well anymore. So we got together and tried a few different songs. It was kind of a disaster, because in all those years of playing within those boxes that the blues keeps you in, he hadn't really learned how to play outside that box. He had blues chops for days, but that was it.

So I think that if you want to be well-rounded as a musician, you need a music program that maybe touches on this as one form. If you want to study music history and especially folklore in music, you can get a degree in that, and you'll have some knowledge of the blues. But I don't think there's an advantage to studying only the blues as a player, as you're only imposing limits on what you'll end up learning.

Disclaimer: I love playing the blues so I'm not casting aspersions. Just making some observations.

I often play with a guitarist who is an amazing player who can play circles around me but plays pretty much in only in a rock context. He often ends up picking my brain about diminished chords and 7/9 chords and stuff that I just sort of do by second nature from my various classical and jazz background. Meanwhile, he teaches me how to really sell the downbeat and to dig in and give everything I have to every performance. There’s so much to learn from different genres that really, just learning one as a study is cool and all, but you should really study everything if you can.

 

[Montana Matt]

I learned everything I know about the blues by collecting coins from a burning phone booth.

 

[Real Soon]

Well, I got gifted a book a while back, the "Big Book of Blues", and I couldn't unlock it at the time as I didn't have enough blues in me soul.

But a couple breakups and a police call and a few bouts of too much drinking later, I think I've got enough of it in me to learn the lore.

Those things are true but I managed to be innocent in the police call happenings so hey heh--and the book itself is fantastic. And as I'm seeing, there's some scholarship out there about the history of the blues. My stepfather, with whom I regularly play gigs (incl this coming Sunday at Northside Tavern in Atlanta, one of the preeminent blues music establishments in the region), ran a radio show devoted to it on WRFG for two decades, and it's possible that just talking with cats like that is the sort of thing a would-be blues historian needs to either learn a degree's worth or even establish a blues history study program.

 

[JimmyM]

The blues would make a one, maybe two semester course, and it's really not that broad a subject once you learn how to put walking bass lines together.

 

[IamGroot]

 

[BazzaBass]

So I'm interested in a post-graduate course, being retired I've finally got time. I really love playing the Blues and all the history and background and theory and everything. You'd figure someone would offer a program somewhere.

Ha, it appears everyone has a jazz program, but I don't see anything specifically for Blues. What the heck?

I really don't like much jazz, and I have zero interest in getting into something that only has Blues as a sidelight. Yeah, maybe the common roots are there, but come on.

The whole thing could cover a huge area just by itself, it's not that narrow of a focus or anything. You could spend a lifetime learning about it. Arguably it may be shy on the technical side, but still. What, maybe we're not "good enough" for the university types?

Anyway, just my rant. I'm not knocking the jazz crowd by any means, I really admire you folks, but it's just not my thing.

This is a really interesting Blues podcast Blues Unlimited - The Radio Show | Free Podcasts | Podomatic

 

[Acoop]

Why is the internet full of 10 year olds playing the blues?
I like the blues, understand it and play it well. ... I like jazz, understand that and also play it pretty well. ... I find very few musicians understand the music they play, they just copy. Some copy it better than others. ... Think of music as a language, ... if you don't get it, you don't get it.