On Jun 21, 12:34 pm, "BestStudentViolins.com"
<SunMusicStri...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Aren't the "blue notes" really the cracks between the piano keys,
> engendered by an attempt to mimic vocal music?
Yes, they are. I have a posted this already, but sometimes there is a
lag in when they show up in the group as well as in certain news
readers. That is exactly true. All folk music and early choir music
sang a capella will naturally ease into the untempered P5ths and the
expanded thirds that were used before equal temperament. Similar in a
way to the music of North Africa and the Middle East with their
"quarter tone" scales, the Sub Saharan music often uses these "in the
crack" tones as well. When you play the C7 chord in the harmony and
the Eb in the melody as in the blues scale, this clash allows our ear
to imagine the tone that is actually sung by the blues singer. If you
listen to Bessie Smith, you will hear very clear examples of this as
well as with Billie Holiday. In a more complex setting, (in my opinion
more complex) Sarah Vaughn does this not only with the blues scales,
but with many different scales from all cultures of the world.
This is a fact that seems to evade many musicians. When you hear
performances by the above and thousands of other singers, if you
listen carefully, you will see that the singers with "feeling" or
"soul" (or interpretative blues style) will sing in the cracks for
expression of the style. Sometimes the pianist plays just what is
written and some times they will play fewer of these 'blue' notes so
as to stay out of conflict with the singer. Sometimes they don't. Then
when you hear the instrumental solos that come into play, many of the
horns will "bend" their notes to be more stylistic and expressive of
the emotion created by the singers. Some musicians and the nature of
some instruments make this difficult for some musicians (I have
noticed that classically trained musicians in general, and there are
exceptions, have a difficult time playing these notes the correct
amount "out of tune" and some just refuse to even listen to it because
of this!) to play so they may use the other ways of simulating the
true blue notes like the grace note of the Eb to Enat in C and other
techniques.
This is often misinterpreted by some as a NEW blues scale, where in
fact, it is more likely to be the "simulation" of the Blue Note rather
than using a different scale.
LJS
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