Blues scale
The term " to an existing scale, notably the flat fifth addition to the minor pentatonic scale. However, the heptatonic blues scale can be considered a major scale with altered intervals.
Types
Hexatonic
The hexatonic, or six-note, blues scale consists of the minor pentatonic scale plus the ♭5th degree of the original heptatonic scale.[1][2][3] This added note can be spelled as either a ♭5 or a ♯4.
The first known published instance of this scale is Jamey Aebersold's How to Play Jazz and Improvise Volume 1 (1970 revision, p. 26), and Jerry Coker claims that David Baker may have been the first educator to organise this particular collection of notes pedagogically as a scale to be taught in helping beginners evoke the sound of the blues.[4]
A major feature of the blues scale is the use of
Greenblatt defines two blues scales, the major and the minor. The major blues scale is 1, 2,♭3, 3, 5, 6 and the minor is 1, ♭3, 4, ♭5, 5, ♭7.[8] The latter is the same as the hexatonic scale described above.
In the Movable do solfège, the hexatonic major blues scale is solmized as "do-re-me-mi-sol-la"; In the La-based minor movable do solfège, the hexatonic minor blues scale is solmized as "la-do-re-me-mi-sol".
Heptatonic
One
Steven Smith argues that, "to assign blue notes to a 'blues scale' is a momentous mistake, then, after all, unless we alter the meaning of 'scale'".[further explanation needed][11]
Nonatonic
An essentially nine-note blues scale is defined by Benward and Saker as a chromatic variation of the major scale featuring a flat third and seventh degrees (in effect substitutions from Dorian mode) which, "alternating with the normal third and seventh scale degrees are used to create the blues inflection. These 'blue notes' represent the influence of African scales on this music."[12]
A different and non-formal way of playing the scale is by the use of
Usage
Hit songs in a blues key include, "Rock Me"..., "Jumpin' Jack Flash"..., "Higher Ground"..., "Purple Haze"..., "I Can See for Miles"..., "After Midnight"..., "She's a Woman"..., "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress"..., "Pink Cadillac"..., "Give Me One Reason"..., and many others.[13]
In jazz, the blues scale is used by improvising musicians in a variety of harmonic contexts. It can be played for the entire duration of a twelve bar blues progression constructed off the root of the first dominant seventh chord. For example, a C hexatonic blues scale could be used to improvise a solo over a C blues chord progression. The blues scale can also be used to improvise over a minor chord. Jazz educator Jamey Aebersold describes the sound and feel of the blues scale as "funky," "down-home," "earthy," or "bluesy."[14][page needed]
See also
References
- ISBN 0-7866-5213-6.
- ^ ISBN 1-890944-94-7.
- ISBN 0-634-06169-0.
- ^ "The Pentatonic and Blues Scale". How To Play Blues Guitar. 2008-07-09. Archived from the original on 2008-07-14. Retrieved 2008-07-11.
- ^ J. Bradford Robinson/Barry Kernfeld. "Blue Note", The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, Second Edition, London (2002)
- ^ Bryan Helmig (2008-02-25). "Blues Licks From Blues Scales". Between the Licks. Archived from the original on 2008-04-28. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
- ISBN 9781457101472.
- ^ Smallwood, Richard (1980). "Gospel and Blues Improvisation" p. 102, Music Educators Journal, Vol. 66, No. 5. (Jan., 1980), pp. 100-104.
- ^ Oliver, Paul. "That Certain Feeling: Blues and Jazz... in 1890?" p. 13, Popular Music, Vol. 10, No. 1, The 1890s. (Jan., 1991), pp. 11–19. Cites Rudi Blesh.
- ^ Smith, Steven G. (1992). "Blues and Our Mind-Body Problem", Popular Music, Vol. 11, No. 1. (Jan., 1992), pp. 41–52.
- ISBN 978-0-07-294262-0.
- ISBN 9781476867373
- ISBN 9781562241223.
Further reading
- Hewitt, Michael. 2013. Musical Scales of the World, [ISBN 978-0957547001.
- Chodos, A. T. (2018). "The Blues Scale: Historical and Epistemological Considerations." Jazz Perspectives, 11(2), 139–171.
External links
- Blues Scale diagrams for guitar mapped out in all positions
- The Blues Scale and Its Applications for Guitar
- The Jazz Resource How to play on the blues scale
- Slowhand Blues guitar Detailed information on Blues scales