R&B V.S. Soul & Jazz

What I learned from asking: “What attributes do R&B and Soul share?”

I learned that, because soul is a subgenre of R&B, they have a lot of attributes in common! While R&B and soul have some differences, they both share the fact that the base of the song is driven by rhythm and drums and rely on vocals to drive it and keep it moving forward. One way the vocals are similar is, because one of soul’s biggest characteristics is passion, many R&B songs can be categorized as soul because of the fact that many singers write about things that effect them and have some sort of meaning.

What I learned from asking: “How is R&B different from Soul?”

I learned that while both genres focus profoundly on vocals, R&B veers more toward the meaning of the lyrics being mainly about “love” and personal growth, Soul leans towards their lyrics being more passionate and filled with gospel messages as proven by the article “Origins and Influence of Soul Music” when it says “its differences include its use of gospel-music devices, its greater emphasis on vocalists, and its merging of religious and secular themes.” Another example on how they are different is how they are made. Soul music “is a subgenre of R&B that emphasizes an…emphasis on the piano and drums versus guitars”. This speaks for it’s self in that while they are similar in many ways, every genre is different. If it wasn’t, there would be no genres!

What I learned from asking: “What attributes do R&B and Jazz share?”

I learned that Jazz and R&B are both very similar in the fact that they both use many aspects…from each other. They both use rythm and use of sticking to a strict tempo even if Jazz’s improvisation makes it feel otherwise. They both also come from “The Blues” as shown in how passionate both genres of music are, a big attribute of The Blues. R&B relays most of its passion in the meaning in the lyrics as stated before while Jazz uses sounds and “scatting” to add variety and obviously create passion.

What I learned from asking: “How is R&B different from Jazz?”

I learned that, as stated before, one of R&B’s defining characteristics is how much effort the artist puts into making the lyrics meaningful and connect with the listener. While Jazz does have some structure when it comes to lyrics, one of IT’S defining characteristics is the fact that they use improvisation to “spice up” or add variety to the song. This is shown in an article named “Jazz and R&B Music” when it says “Improvisation is used in jazz primarily to show expression and creativity on the spot, and this is done through changes in rhythm and embellishment of melodies”. This shows that while R&B and Jazz are similar, every genre has something that makes them unique.

Takeaways:

My takeaways are that R&B, Jazz, and Soul really are not too different. While all three have major differences, they all also have a very similar “base layer” that they build their songs from. This doesn’t mean that they are all the same, as stated before, they all have big differences as in the use of improvisation when making Jazz as well as the shifting of focus towards gospel when singing Soul.

Takeaways on the whole project:

I’ve learned that R&B is a genre that has a lot of history, a lot of structure, and affects people, artist included, with its use of lyrics and passion. It is a genre that has the potential to touch everyones hearts because of how meaningful the lyrics are.

But lyrics are not the only thing that defines R&B. It has many other pieces and parts that all combine to make R&B what it is today. This includes pieces and parts from other genres! R&B is the combination of the best parts of a multitude of genres making it sound the way it does. Some examples of this are, passion, it’s heavy use of drums, and most of all, it’s heavy reliance on vocals.

How my project is going:

My project is progressing faster than it was, but not at the speed I would like. I still have a lot to do with my music and I have not done much mixing so I still have a lot to do. But what I have done is, record my chords on the classroom guitar and used that in my song. It is the chord progression Am, C, G. I also made a melody in logic as well as other basic thing like drums and audio files. I have also done a lot of construction and arranging/ planning. This is shown in the picture below as well as the chord progression I recorded.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1beJkILsQ7NNTyDYIteC3RcjWwRmsdEQm/view?usp=share_link

Besides my project, I have spent a lot of time researching and finding information on, well, whatever my blog post is about. First I looked up the origins and how it was made and how it has grown, which led me down multiple rabbit holes making me research how it compares to other genres and what effect those genres had in making R&B what it is now.

Questions:

Which genre’s lyrics focus mainly on religion?

A) Jazz

B) Rock

C) R&B

D) Soul

What type of strategy is unique to Jazz that helps add variety to it?

A) The addition of adjacent melodies

B) The use of long breaks/silence

C) Improvisation

D) Rhyming