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In Jazz and Blues , blue notes are Note s sung or played at a lower Pitch than those of the Major Scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a Semitone or less, but this varies among performers. Country Blues , in particular, features wide variations from the tonic but still with the blue-note feeling.

The blue notes correspond approximately to the Flattened Third , Flattened Fifth , and Flattened Seventh Scale Degree s, although they approximate just intonation pitches found in African Work Song s; specifically, the flatted seventh may often be a Justly Tuned minor seventh. These blue notes are what turns a major scale into the Blues Scale . The same transformation of notes transforms the Minor Scale into the minor blues scale, as heard in songs such as " Why Don't You Do Right? ".

The blues scale is used in almost all Twelve-bar and Eight-bar Blues , but it is also used in Blues Ballad s and in conventional Popular Song s with a "blue" feeling, such as Harold Arlen 's " Stormy Weather ".

In its earliest manifestations, the flattened third, or Mediant , and flattened seventh, or Subtonic , were the main blue notes. Emphasis on the flattened fifth, or Dominant , was an innovation in Bebop in the 1940s .

Blue notes are also heard in English Folk Music (Lloyd 1967, p.52-4), but are not usually in the usual blues progression.


SEE ALSO



SOURCE

  • Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music''. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.

  • ---Lloyd (1967).