Rhythm and Blues History Diante Mock Craven Early College High School February 16, 2010

Driving Question My driving question for this project is:  How has Rhythm and Blues music been influenced by other genres of music?

Thesis Statement My thesis statement for this project is:  Rhythm and Blues Music (R&B) is characterized by, any type of music from the black heritage that expresses emotion. R&B has been influenced by other genres of music such as Blues, Gospel, and Jazz.

Interesting Facts Singing or performing an rhythm and blues is relatively easy because any genre of music can be transformed into R&B. This allowed all kinds of singers to come together and make R&B music including:  Rappers  Gospel artist  Country singers  And many more…

Process

Research Research for this paper was relatively easy. There was an abundance of amount of information on music and dealing with Rhythm and Blues.  My best used sources were: New Georgia Encyclopedia  This mainly gave me the basis and the background of my genre of music New World Encyclopedia  This site mainly gave me insight on the many connections of R&B had to other genres of music such as gospel, blues, and jazz

Reflection After writing this paper I have realized: There was a lot of things I did not know  Thousands of connections between many different genres of music It has helped me look at music in a whole new perception  It has given me a new respect for all genres of music

Product

About My Product My product is based on the close relationship between R&B, rap, blues, and country music. In my product I used teaching and lecturing methods in order to help get my point across to my audience. Things used to enhance my lecture and help further bring out my point were:  Playing the keyboard to give the audience a chance to listen to a few different genres of music and realize the relationship and differences between them.  Handing out a small quiz in order to help the audience keep in their minds what they learned during the lecture In the end the audience should have had a complete and clear understanding on how the R&B music is a combination of these different genres of music and how all of the music sounds similar when you listen close enough to it.

Artifacts

Mentors My Main Graduation Project Mentor is (Coach) Christopher Barr. He is an honors history teacher at the Craven Early College High School. He has helped me in many ways including:  how to properly prepare my product  How to make sure I clearly stated all of the points I wanted to make when working on my product  Providing me with the proper environment in which to perform my presentation of my product There were other people that may have given me a few pointers along the way including other musicians and older singers. A special thanks to Mr. Johnny Ward! (multi-talented musician and singer.)

Connections My paper and product are basically illustrating the same points of the whole project in general. My paper explains how, that through other genres, R&B was formed. My product moves through the timeline of music and shows how music is progressed into R&B.

Final Summary

Reflection Although in my product presentation I was supposed to be teaching an audience, I believe I got the most out of the product as a whole. It caused me to have to look deeper into the music genre than I would have if I did not have to teach an audience. It also helped me better know the music that I play and helped me better understand why this genre of music was created. My product gave me a new respect for the music that I play and sometimes take for granted when I’m listening to it. I plan on using the information I have learned working on this project whenever I play on the keyboard or have to explain to someone why I enjoy doing what I do so much.

Advice For Future Projectors My advice to anyone planning to do a Graduation Project in the future would be to take it serious. Use the project and make it a part of your everyday life. I would not advise you to just treat it like another school project because then you will risk not getting the full benefit out of it and will prevent you from using the project to its full potential when you actually do graduate.