Instruments

Early Blues Instruments

1890 - 1900
During the early stages of blues, instruments were regulary absent from the songs. Slave workers would usually be working the fields and would only have their voices to produce songs. They would usually involve body purcussion such as hand clapping, stomping or clicking their fingers to help aid with the structure of the song.

1900 - 1910
As Blues was becoming more popular and well known throughout America, the standards of the instruments was progressing. They were moving away from the traditional body percussion soley there to keep the beat and were experimenting with instrumets that had been discarded in the streets. African-Americans were living in poverty at the time and would spend most of thier time on the streets of the cities searching for work and food for their famillies. One of the main instruments found on the streets was the guitar. Many songs were created accompanied by the guitar.At this stage, blacks didnot have accessto pianos, and even if they did, they were usually out of tune.

Blues was getting recognised by many peopleat this stage,andpeople were happy enough to let blues artistsplay intheir clubs at night. Piano and guitar were used very regulary in every blues song which gave a great contrast to the voice of the singer.