From Work Songs to Hip Hop · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.

How the blues kept traveling

Arts & Music · Music · ages 14-16
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. The blues grew out of African American life in the Deep South.

    Circle one:   True   False

  2. Which roots fed the blues?

    • Work songs, field hollers, and spirituals
    • Marching bands and opera only
    • Video game music

  3. What does call and response mean in a blues verse?

    • Play louder each time through
    • Sing a line, repeat it, then answer it
    • Sing once and stop

  4. A rock guitarist bends a note the blues way. What does that show?

    • Rock invented bending alone
    • Later styles kept the blues chords and attitude
    • Blues players copied rock records

  5. A song loops twelve measures of chords under every verse. What pattern is that?

    • March form
    • Lullaby verse
    • 12-bar blues

  6. How does Ellison build scenes in Invisible Man?

    • Like shopping lists, never repeating
    • Like timetables, fixed and flat
    • Like blues verses, returning to ideas with a twist

  7. Why does the history behind the blues matter to the music?

    • Old songs always sound better
    • It was never just a sound: it turned hard times into song
    • History sets the ticket price

  8. A learner claims jazz owes nothing to the blues. What evidence answers them?

    • Jazz uses no chords at all
    • Blues came after jazz ended
    • Jazz took the blues chords and attitude forward
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

How the blues kept traveling W1-mt_6cNI4oKzCA-s1

  1. True · Its people, place, and history define it.
  2. Work songs, field hollers, and spirituals · The blues reaches back to songs of enslaved people and sharecroppers.
  3. Sing a line, repeat it, then answer it · Line, repeat, answer: that is the blues verse shape.
  4. Later styles kept the blues chords and attitude · The bend is the blues traveling forward into rock.
  5. 12-bar blues · Twelve measures of looping chords is the 12-bar pattern.
  6. Like blues verses, returning to ideas with a twist · His scenes improvise on returning ideas, the jazz and blues way.
  7. It was never just a sound: it turned hard times into song · The blues carried injustice, heartbreak, and hope at once.
  8. Jazz took the blues chords and attitude forward · The line from blues to jazz runs through chords, attitude, and culture.
Worksheet · LightMySky