Early 20th century blues performers with nearly no education are featured often throughout Delta Blues. Gioia writes often of men who came from plantations or prisons and had no exposure to any music theory, or music education. For example, he talks of Son House whose only education came from church, and definitely not an education in the blues. "I was mostly churchified....that's all I could see into" is the way that he described his childhood. Then there's Charlie Patton, who grew up on Dockery's Plantation. He too had very little formal musical education. His family was musical, but he had not been taught extensive theory. "Patton was ostensibly the son of William Patton and Sara Garrett....[both of whom] were well to do by Delta standards, eventually owning land, running a store, and managing his own sharecroppers." (Gioia 49)
From these men, however, some of the most influencial music was born; music that would shape that of future generations. The question arises then, if an education in music is neccessary, or if musical ability is just a natural skill that some people have and some don't, regardless of education. The example of Charlie Patton is used, "'Pony Blues' includes many of the elements that are most endearing - and maddening - about the country blues. The piece sounds deceptively simle, but many highly trained musicians would struggle to imitate Patton's rendition" (Gioia 68) This shows that music education really isn't everything. There is also the example of Louis Armstrong, who grew up in New Orleans and never had an education in music, yet got very far simply by being good. Maybe a music education is a good investment, or maybe not, but the blues greats were able to get by without it, and at the same time be very musically influencial.
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This book proves how music is completely separate from education. It remind me of music class in elementary school, and how pointless it was. How will just memorizing note tables help one create music? It is a talent that comes with just picking up an instrument and playing what you want to play. It is interesting to see how many musicians struggle with playing the blues, as I bet many blues musicians struggle with classical music. This really cements the differences in the blues and other genres of music.
Education doesn't mean much to those who play the blues. Give them a sax and nothing else and the result will be the blues. That's essentially how it all started. Men who couldn't do much but had an instrument immersed themselves and created something great.
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