The 'Blues Scale'

Subject: RE: The
From:
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 06:29 PM

Nobber, I purposely brought in the exchanges of the scales we usually use to try to make the point that the "ic" of a scale can't be determined by looking at the score.

For example if I see a piece of music with no key signatures and if when I sing or play the final cadence it lands on C. Then I say the key is in C Major.

I was wondering if there is a similar way to tell a tune is in a pentatonic scale. I think from what you say, it would be hard, because the scale allows so many variations--a bit minor, more minor, very minor, minor-as-hell.

Murray

Subject: RE: The blues scale
From: nobbler
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 02:39 PM

This may start a new thread Murray as my browser wont allow the "quote" marks in "blues scale" on the reply for some reason, -sorry.

You might be confusing the interchange between certain scales that we often use. Think of the blues scale as a pentatonic minor "plus."

It is very similar to the Pentatonic Minor scale except that it has a passing note inbetween the fourth and fifth. The passing note would be an augmented fourth, and it is rarely used as a note to resolve a phrase. Usually, it is used to sort of slur the shift from the fourth to the fifth, and vice versa. Technically this scale could also include passing notes at the major second and major third.

Here's the contruction:

(W+H)-W-H-H-(W+H)-W

W=Whole, H=Half, (W+H)=One and a half or three frets.

No second, flat third, major fourth and sharp fourth, no sixth, and flat seventh.

The pentatonic minor on the other hand would be;

(W+H)-W-W-(W+H)-W

No second, flat third, flat fifth, no sixth, and flat seventh.

And just for fun, the pentatonic Major;

W-W-(W+H)-W-(W+H)

No fourth, and no seventh.

As you can see, the pentatonic minor is near on idetentical with the exception of the one passing note. From experience I can tell you, if you are soloing and are not too sure, use the pentatonic minor, it will work! The use of the passing note may disrupt the feel of sound of the piece if you throw it in where it doesn't really fit. On the other hand, if you can use it, the one note itself can REALLY make a difference if you use it in the right place. :)

You are indeed correct, the blues scale has a six notes in it's construction, therefore making it 'hex-atonic' as opposed to 'pentatonic', unless of course - anybody else knows different :-)

nobbler (Always open to debate)

Subject: The Blues Scale
From:
Date: 13 Mar 98 - 07:45 AM

There has been an interesting thread runing about the notes and chords of a song, but it is getting long, so I won't tack this to the end.

There was a request for sites where pentatonic tunes could be downloaded. This led to a discussion about pentatonic scales and John (of Brisbane) claimed that the blues scale is pentatonic.

I looked at a few and saw that they were made up of more than five notes, so I said the blues scale wasn't.

However, I was recently reading some guitar lessons online from OLGA, and the author claimed the blues scale in C is.

C, Eb, F, G, Bb, C

but that there are other notes added for "spice".

When you think of it, the usual (diatonic) key of C has seven notes, but others are sometimes thrown in for spice too. Like G#, for example. The difference is that this extra note is named by a modification of the name of one of the existing notes.

A person from mars who only had the five blues notes might have used C## for what we call D, and C### for what we call D#, etc. (I hope that when the aliens arrive, we will find that they are well tempered.)

So you can't count notes, just as you can't say a piece is not in C major just because it has an occassional G# in it. How, then, do you tell if a tune is in a pentatonic scale?

Murray