Piedmont Blues History

Unlike many musical styles that have a defined beginning, blues crept into American culture unnoticed until someone decided to give it a name. Although many scholars have traced blues' roots to the period before the Civil War, when slaves gathered to sing songs they had learned in Africa, others suggest that blues may not have emerged as a unique style until 1900. Dorothy Scarborough and W.C. Handy both allude to blues originating in the early 1900s, after the style of black music changed from "coon songs" (Handy).

After Reconstruction, when African Americans began entertaining for the public, white southerners began ridiculing it, making stereotypes and playing parodies of black songs. Before this time, the preferred instrument for black music was the banjo, a variation of the stringed instrument most African Americans had learned to play in Africa. However, wanting their music to be taken seriously, some musicians abandoned the banjo and chose an instrument that allowed them to vary their playing significantly: the guitar. Maybelle Carter, one of the first musicians to don the guitar, discovered she could pick melodies from the strings rather than just strumming.

Blues musicians who shifted from the banjo to the guitar may have learned the art of picking a tune on one-stringed, homemade instruments. This homemade instrument may have introduced the "slide" technique typical of the later Piedmont Blues, mainly for the variation of notes since one string allowed less flexibility for melody. Many musicians recall learning "John Henry," a still-popular tune, because it was easy to pick on any stringed instrument.

| 1 | 2 | 3 |