Five Notes, Many Voices — Robert Jones

This video opens with an 1894 film clip of Native Americans dancing and drumming, the earliest film available of this nature. This video's objective is to showcase the importance of the minor pentatonic scale and show how that scale can be heard in blues and other styles of early American folk music. The point is made that blues music is a uniquely American style of music that utilizes African and Native American ideas of scale and African ideas of improvisation, played largely on European instruments, using lyrics derived from American culture and experiences. Blues is uniquely American music and has a lot to teach us about America’s history and culture.