Blue note

Blue note

In jazz and blues, a blue note (also "worried" note [Benward & Saker (2003). "Music: In Theory and Practice", Vol. I, p.359. Seventh Edition. ISBN 978-0-07-294262-0.] ) is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the diatonic pitches with emotive blue-notes. Blue notes are often seen as akin to relative pitches found in traditional African work songs.

The blue notes are usually said to be flattened third, flattened fifth, and flattened seventh scale degreescite web |title=Blue Notes |publisher=How To Play Blues Guitar |date=2008-07-06 |accessdate=2008-07-06 |url=http://how-to-play-blues-guitar.com/blues-concepts/blue-notes/] . The flatted fifth is also known as the sharpened fourthFerguson, Jim (1999). "All Blues Soloing for Jazz Guitar: Scales, Licks, Concepts & Choruses", p.20. ISBN 0786642858.] . Though the blues scale has "an inherent minor tonality, it is commonly 'forced' over major-key chord changes, resulting in a distinctively dissonant conflict of tonalities" as well as the blue notes. A similar conflict occurs between the notes of the minor scale and the minor blues scale, as heard in songs such as "Why Don't You Do Right?".

Blue notes are used in many twelve-bar and eight-bar blues, and also in blues ballads and in conventional popular songs with a "blue" feeling, such as Harold Arlen's "Stormy Weather". Blue notes are also prevalent in English folk music [Lloyd, A.L. (1967). "Folk Song in England", p.52-4. London: Lawrence & Wishart. Cited in Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). "Studying Popular Music". Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.] .

ee also

*Harmonic seventh

References


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  • blue note — blue′ note n. mad a lowered third, seventh, or fifth degree of a musical major scale • Etymology: 1925–30; from its use in the blues …   From formal English to slang

  • Blue-note — Dieser Artikel beschäftigt sich mit den Blue Notes als Stilmittel in Blues und Jazz; zu der gleichnamigen US amerikanische Schallplattenfirma siehe Blue Note Records. Darüber hinaus gibt es in verschiedenen Orten gleichnamige Jazzclubs, unter… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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  • blue note — noun a flattened third or seventh • Hypernyms: ↑note, ↑musical note, ↑tone • Part Holonyms: ↑blues * * * noun Etymology: blue (I) (of blues singing) …   Useful english dictionary

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