[Politics_Observer]

This was one of my favorite cadence songs I used to sing when I served. "For nothin' in this world is free..." Most of the service members in the video are not infantrymen though:

[Local Localist]

Does this count?

[Rancid]

Does this count?

Not exactly, but maybe?

The key feature of a cadence type of song is the call-response-form. This is a key feature of work songs, which is where these military cadences find their roots. In America, the work (or rather, the salve work) song evolved into gospel music (when slaves started to convert to Christianity) and blues music. Blues being the mother of all modern and popular music.

@Politics_Observer's army chant shares its roots with progressive metal like this:

[Politics_Observer]

@Local Localist

Your video reminds me of pirate shanties sung by pirates. @Rancid Actually hit the nail on the head that cadence songs in the U.S. Army probably ultimately came from slave songs of African Americans. African American soldier Willie Duckworth is credited with being the first to create army cadence song. Probably not just for the U.S. Army but started this trend for armies around the world. Here is an NPR story on this:

Think about all of those Hollywood depictions of the American military, from Stripes to Full Metal Jacket to Cadence. In almost every one, a bunch of guys will jog past the camera at some point, singing and stepping in unison.

The first time that happened was in 1944, when a particular rhythm infiltrated the segregated Army. The cadence was credited to a soldier named Willie Duckworth. As told on a V-Disc, one of the inspirational recordings made during World War II by the U.S. military and sent to troops overseas, Duckworth was "chanting to build up the spirits of his weary comrades."

Until just this spring, Bobby Gerhardt served in the Army as a wheeled vehicle mechanic. He says he has spent more than nine years marching to, running to and calling cadence. His favorite to call follows the rhythm of Duckworth's now 70-year-old composition, though with updated lyrics.

"When I joined I had no idea how anything worked. Everything was brand new," Gerhardt says. "For me, hearing that first cadence the very first time was awesome. Because you always wanted to hear what the next verse was. So you always wanted to keep up so that you could hear the person calling the cadence so you knew what to say back to them."

The infectious appeal of cadences is used to motivate and coordinate people who might not have anything else in common. But they also do something more fundamental.

"The main purpose that I was always taught with staying in step and keeping up with the cadence, was that it would help your breathing and help your cardio if you could run and sing and manage your breath at the same time," Gerhardt says.

Cadences get a group of people doing that in unison. They rely on the call-and-response action of work songs, so they come from a long tradition. Richard Rath, an associate professor at the University of Hawaii, and author of the book How Early America Sounded, says slaves brought work songs here, and they developed to help deal with dangerous jobs.

https://www.npr.org/2014/06/16/32258990 ... -came-from

[Rancid]

@Rancid Actually hit the nail on the head

The last couple of months I've been 100% focusing my guitar playing on blues music. I never played blues in my life until now, but decided to do it because blues is, as I said, the mother of all modern music (Jazz, Rock, Swing, Country, Bossa Nova, punk, metal, grunge, you name it... mother of them all). The only type of rock music that does not use blues scales/patterns/etc. is Nu Metal.

call-response, is one of the things I learned about while practicing blues music. Also, the British Invasion happened because the English were HUGE fans of Black American blues artists. These artists were more accepted and popular in the UK than in the US. Because in the US they were much more racist towards black artists (no way to sugar coat that). The UK artists on the other hand, were inspired, and would invite these Black Americans to tour in the UK. Eventually, UK folks created their version of rock, then they started imported that into the US. They had an easier time popularizing it in the US because the Brits were white.

So basically Black Americans influenced American music by first exporting their art form to the UK, then those UK artists imported back into the US. Had those Brits been black, the British invasion wouldn't have happened.

When you study and learn all of this, you realize how black history is really American history, and we should really teach black history as part of the regular curriculum rather than segregate it to just February.

[Julian658]

8)

The last couple of months I've been 100% focusing my guitar playing on blues music. I never played blues in my life until now, but decided to do it because blues is, as I said, the mother of all modern music (Jazz, Rock, Swing, Country, you name it... mother of them all). The only type of rock music that does not use blues scales/patterns/etc. is Nu Metal.

call-response, is one of the things I learned about while practicing blues music.

A five note minor scale that is great for soloing over a major chord. As a teen I used to watch good guitarists and wonder how come they know which notes to play. Way back them there was no you tube and teaching books were non-existent or awful. There was no tab or transcriptions of tunes. And if you found a transcription it was 90% wrong.

A lot of great songs are based on the blues even if the blues are not easy to recognize. "I Feel Fine" by The Beatles is a blues tune.

[Rancid]

A five note minor scale that is great for soloing over a major chord. As a teen I used to watch good guitarists and wonder how come they know which notes to play. Way back them there was no you tube and teaching books were non-existent or awful. There was no tab or transcriptions of tunes. And if you found a transcription it was 90% wrong.

A lot of great songs are based on the blues even if the blues are not easy to recognize. "I Feel Fine" by The Beatles is a blues tune.

Yea, very true. Now that I have a better understanding of blues. I hear it in so many songs now.

Here's one of my fav bands of all time. Very bluesy punk:

[Politics_Observer]

@Rancid

The last couple of months I've been 100% focusing my guitar playing on blues music. I never played blues in my life until now, but decided to do it because blues is, as I said, the mother of all modern music (Jazz, Rock, Swing, Country, Bossa Nova, punk, metal, grunge, you name it... mother of them all). The only type of rock music that does not use blues scales/patterns/etc. is Nu Metal.

call-response, is one of the things I learned about while practicing blues music. Also, the British Invasion happened because the English were HUGE fans of Black American blues artists. These artists were more accepted and popular in the UK than in the US. Because in the US they were much more racist towards black artists (no way to sugar coat that). The UK artists on the other hand, were inspired, and would invite these Black Americans to tour in the UK. Eventually, UK folks created their version of rock, then they started imported that into the US. They had an easier time popularizing it in the US because the Brits were white.

So basically Black Americans influenced American music by first exporting their art form to the UK, then those UK artists imported back into the US. Had those Brits been black, the British invasion wouldn't have happened.

When you study and learn all of this, you realize how black history is really American history, and we should really teach black history as part of the regular curriculum rather than segregate it to just February.

Yeah, that's pretty amazing! It just goes to show how America has TOTALLY ignored the MASSIVE achievements of African American artists and African American contributions to American society and history. I never knew the cadence songs I sang in the Army was actually started by an African American and whose ultimate origins were slave work songs sung by African Americans during the period of slavery in American history.

That just totally blows my mind. It goes to show how racist American society is and just how privileged white Americans really are in American society. Totally opened my eyes. Think about how it was an African American woman mathematician whose math skills helped to put the first man on the moon. Her name was Katherine Johnson. Most Americans don't know about her or even have heard of her name: https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstuden ... johnson-k4

Here is a New York Times article on her as well: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/scie ... -dead.html

[Julian658]

Yea, very true. Now that I have a better understanding of blues. I hear it in so many songs now.

Here's one of my fav bands of all time. Very bluesy punk:

It is a great soloing tool. Just learn the different patterns all over the guitar neck. Adjacent non-blue notes can be tasty if used sparingly. I am old so I never enjoyed punk rock/ However, The Dead Kennedies" was a very cool name for a band.

[Local Localist]

Your video reminds me of pirate shanties sung by pirates.

That's basically what it is, yes. I like traditional shanties.

Not exactly, but maybe?

The key feature of a cadence type of song is the call-response-form. This is a key feature of work songs, which is where these military cadences find their roots.

More like this then?

Or does this count as a cadence song?

[Rancid]

That's basically what it is, yes. I like traditional shanties.



More like this then?

Or does this count as a cadence song?

Yes.

[Politics_Observer]

Another great classic cadence:

[Politics_Observer]

@Local Localist

Here is a great pirate shanty that I really like:

[Local Localist]

@Local Localist

Here is a great pirate shanty that I really like:

Indeed. I quite like this band's version:

They also do a good rendition of this one: