Rich DelGrosso

Blue Notes

Music for this workshop

Blues is a century-old art form that has transformed American music for all time. In fact, when you consider the attraction of American popular music around the world, the blues has made a home virtually everywhere. Its longevity and popularity are due to the passion, energy, tension and feelings that it evokes -- and, its themes are common to all folks.

"Blue notes" are the driving melodic force of the blues as they add new texture to what started out as a blend of African and European influences. Those "blue notes" are the flatted third and seventh notes of the scale, but they are not played exclusively. In fact, musicians use them for emphasis and mood, often together with the natural notes, creating a dissonance and tension.

Some say that early players were hearing a note in between and could only approximate it by bending a string or harmonica reed, using a slide to create notes on a string, or slurring two notes together on the keyboard. The resulting sounds were not present in European music before but they are now!

Jugband Strut is a common twelve-bar, I,IV,V blues construction in the key of G. You will find blue notes flavoring the piece both in melody and harmony.

Start with measure two. The opening double-stop couplet combines the D with the F natural, the flatted seventh of the G scale. This chord has a distinct sound and mood, strikingly different when you compare it to a G major chord. It jumps out of the music and grabs you.

On the second beat, a blue note, B flat (the flatted third), puts a kink in the flow of the sixteenth notes. Coupled with the B natural, the music takes a zig when you expect it to zag. You hear this technique when you listen to the arrangements of the old string and jug bands of Memphis and Mississippi from the late Ô20s, early Ô30s. The use of the flatted third establishes a pattern that really struts. It also creates a dissonance because the predominant sound is that of the natural third, and the flatted note pops in to get attention.

The melody rolls along through the first four measures but descends in the fourth to make the transition to the IV7 chord (measure six). Note the flatted third played in two octaves.

The transition to the C7 likewise has some sass as I jump immediately on the B flat, the flatted seventh note of the C scale, with a tremolo. Yes, it is a common blue note to both G and C scales, which is why you may often play the same blues riff or melody line over the I7 and the IV7.

In measure seven, I like to play the F natural strong. It's another note common to both the IV7 and the I7, and it carries a flavor or hint of the I7 into the IV7. It follows with a mostly chromatic descending line that brings it all back to the I7 (measure 8).

The same pattern is brought out again in measures 11 and 12, turning the music around. I believe that repeating this theme just strengthens it, like a good chorus to a song that you find yourself humming all day long.

The piece works best with a bass/strum back-up with real chop that is played in cut time. Then it really struts down Beale Street! x

Next issue: We go to the Southside, when I'll share with you some ideas I've picked up from Chicago's Johnny Young.

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