In jazz and blues , a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone , but this varies depending on the musical context.
23-409: A blue note is a musical note played or sung lower than the corresponding note on a major scale. Blue note may also refer to: Blue note Like the blues in general, the blue notes can mean many things. One quality that they all have in common, however, is that they are lower than one would expect, classically speaking. But this flatness may take several forms. On the one hand, it may be
46-415: A diminished fourth is enharmonically equivalent to a major third (that is, it spans the same number of semitones). For example, B–D is a major third; but if the same pitches are spelled as the notes B and E , then the interval they represent is instead a diminished fourth . The difference in pitch is erased in 12 tone equal temperament , where the distinction is only nominal, but the difference between
69-406: A microtonal affair of a quarter-tone or so. Here one may speak of neutral intervals, neither major nor minor. On the other hand, the lowering may be by a full semitone—as it must be, of course, on keyboard instruments. It may involve a glide , either upward or downward. Again, this may be a microtonal, almost imperceptible affair, or it may be a slur between notes a semitone apart, so that there
92-492: A major third and a diminished fourth is significant in almost all other musical tuning systems. B–E occurs in the C ; harmonic minor scale . The major third is used in guitar tunings . For the standard tuning , only the interval between the 3rd and 2nd strings (G to B, respectively) is a major third; each of the intervals between the other pairs of consecutive strings is a perfect fourth . In an alternative tuning ,
115-413: A pitch ratio of 5:4, or 5 / 4 ( play ) (fifth harmonic in relation to the fourth) or 386.31 cents ; in 12 tone equal temperament , a major third is equal to four semitones , a ratio of 2 :1 (about 1.2599) or 400 cents, 13.69 cents wider than the 5:4 ratio. The older concept of a " ditone " (two 9:8 major seconds) made a dissonant, wide major third with
138-407: A uniquely American music which is still widely practiced in its original form and is at the foundation of another genre, American jazz . Major third In classical music , a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major third ( Play ) is a third spanning four half steps or two whole steps. Along with
161-472: Is actually not one blue note but two. A blue note may even be marked by a microtonal shake of a kind common in Oriental music . The degrees of the mode treated in this way are, in order of frequency, the third, seventh, fifth, and sixth. The blue notes are usually said to be the lowered third , lowered fifth , and lowered seventh scale degrees . The lowered fifth is also known as the raised fourth. Though
184-412: Is classed as an imperfect consonance and is considered one of the most consonant intervals after the unison , octave , perfect fifth , and perfect fourth . In the common practice period , thirds were considered interesting and dynamic consonances along with their inverses the sixths, but in medieval times they were considered dissonances unusable in a stable final sonority. In equal temperament,
207-399: Is commonly heard in the barbershop quartet harmonic seventh chord . The barbershop quartet idiom also appears to have arisen from African American origins. It was a surprising finding that 9 ⁄ 5 was a much more common tonal location although both were used in the blues, sometimes within the same song. It should not be surprising that blue notes are not represented accurately in
230-416: Is commonly slurred with a major third justly tuned at 5 ⁄ 4 (386 cents) in what Temperley et al. refer to as a "neutral third". This bending or glide between the two tones is an essential characteristic of the blues. The blue "lowered fifth" has been found to be quite separate from the perfect fifth and clusters with the perfect fourth with which it is commonly slurred. This "raised fourth"
253-485: Is conveniently expressed using the 12-tone equal temperament cents system. Just intonation is common in music of other cultures such as the 17-tone Arabic scale and the 22-tone Indian classical music scale . In African cultures, just intonation scales are the norm rather than the exception. As the blues appears to have derived from a cappella field hollers of African slaves, it would be expected that its notes would be of just intonation origin closely related to
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#1732883548212276-463: Is most commonly expressed at 7 ⁄ 5 (583 cents). The eleventh harmonic (i.e. 11 ⁄ 8 or 551 cents) as put forward by Kubik and Curry is also possible as it is in the middle of the slur between the perfect fourth at 4 ⁄ 3 and 7 ⁄ 5 . The blue "lowered seventh" appears to have two common locations at 7 ⁄ 4 (969 cents) and 9 ⁄ 5 (1018 cents). Kubik and Curry proposed 7 ⁄ 4 as it
299-403: 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". 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? ", " Happy " and " Sweet About Me ". In the case of the lowered third over the root (or
322-552: The harmonic series . Humans naturally learn the harmonic series as infants. This is essential for many auditory activities such as understanding speech (see formant ) and perceiving tonal music. In the harmonic series, overtones of a fundamental tonic tone occur as integer multiples of the tonic frequency. It is therefore convenient to express musical intervals in this system as integer ratios (e.g. 2 ⁄ 1 = octave, 3 ⁄ 2 = perfect fifth, etc.). The relationship between just and equal temperament tuning
345-404: The minor third , the major third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. It is described as major because it is the larger interval of the two: The major third spans four semitones, whereas the minor third only spans three. For example, the interval from C to E is a major third, as the note E lies four semitones above C, and there are three staff positions from C to E. The intervals from
368-408: The tonic (keynote) in an upward direction to the second, to the third, to the sixth, and to the seventh scale degrees of a major scale are called "major". Diminished and augmented thirds are shown on the musical staff the same number of lines and spaces apart, but contain of a different number of semitones in pitch (two and five). The major third may be derived from the harmonic series as
391-511: The 12-tone equal temperament system, which is made up of a cycle of very slightly flattened perfect fifths (i.e. 3 ⁄ 2 ). The just intonation blue note intervals identified above all involve prime numbers not equally divisible by 2 or 3. Prime-number harmonics greater than 3 are all perceptually different from 12-tone equal temperament notes. The blues has likely evolved as a fusion of an African just intonation scale with European 12-tone musical instruments and harmony. The result has been
414-672: The differently written notes G and A both represent the same pitch, but not in most other tuning systems ). This is sometimes called the " circle of thirds ". In just intonation, however, three 5:4 major third, the 125th subharmonic , is less than an octave. For example, three 5:4 major thirds from C is B (C to E, to G , to B ) ( B / C = 5 3 2 6 = 125 64 {\displaystyle ={\tfrac {\;5^{3}\ }{\;2^{6}\ }}={\tfrac {\ 125\ }{64}}\ } ). The difference between this just-tuned B and C, like
437-450: The interval between G and A , is called the "enharmonic diesis ", about 41 cents, or about two commas (the inversion of the interval 125 / 64 : 128 125 = 2 7 5 3 {\displaystyle \ {\frac {\ 128\ }{125}}={\frac {\;2^{7}\ }{\;5^{3}}}\ } play )). The major third
460-481: The interval between the fourth and fifth harmonics. The major scale is so named because of the presence of this interval between its tonic and mediant (1st and 3rd) scale degrees . The major chord also takes its name from the presence of this interval built on the chord's root (provided that the interval of a perfect fifth from the root is also present). A major third is slightly different in different musical tunings : In just intonation it corresponds to
483-762: The lowered seventh over the dominant), the resulting chord is a neutral mixed third chord . Blue notes are used in many blues songs, in jazz, 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 . Bent or "blue notes", called in Ireland "long notes", play a vital part in Irish music. Music theorists have long speculated that blue notes are intervals of just intonation not derived from European 12-tone equal temperament tuning . Just intonation musical intervals derive directly from
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#1732883548212506-448: The musical scales of western Africa. The blue "lowered third" has been speculated to be from 7 ⁄ 6 (267 cents ) to 350 cents above the tonic tone. It has recently been found empirically to center at 6 ⁄ 5 (316 cents, a minor third in just intonation, or a slightly sharp minor third in equal temperament) based on cluster analysis of a large number of blue notes from early blues recordings. This note
529-499: The ratio 81:64 (about 1.2656) or 408 cents ( play ), about 22 cents sharp from the harmonic ratio of 5:4 . The septimal major third is 9:7 (435 cents), the undecimal major third is 14:11 (418 cents), and the tridecimal major third is 13:10 (452 cents). In 12 tone equal temperament ( 12 TET ) three major thirds in a row are equal to an octave. For example, A to C, C to E, and E to G (in 12 TET ,
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