minor blues scale

Depending on artistic directions, this grouping of pitches could easily be or become the central color of one's musical universe. Why is the minor blues color so important in American music? The blue sounds act like a ground for electricity, always able to center and ground the furthest reaches of improvisation. Do all of America's indigenous musical art forms have some toehold in the "blues?" Folk, jazz, blues, rap, rock, pop and hip hop all can combine elements from both the equal tempered system or western harmony, named as such due to it's European development, i.e., western civilization, and America's own blues traditions. The source of this group of pitches could be traced through the African American people who lived in southern America and back to their original homelands in the Africans and islands of the West Indies.

One modern day realization of the blue grouping of pitches could potentially be viewed as essentially a minor pentatonic scale with an added tritone, so perhaps elements from both the mainly rural African ( minor pentatonic ) and urban European ( tritone ) societies combining together to create this important group of pitches.

Here is a look at the intervalic configuration of the minor blues grouping of pitches with C as the root. Our blue notes are the minor 3rd, tritone ( b5 ) and the minor 7th. Example 1.

If we take out the tritone Gb, what's left? Right, we create a minor pentatonic scale, which is among the oldest groups of pitches we have a written record of for this planet. Let’s compare the minor pentatonic to the minor blues group. Example 2.

Let's compare the sound. Example 2a.

From the sound of the simple ascending groups, can you feel the strength of the tritone? Here are a couple of cliche licks created from the minor blues grouping of pitches. Here the minor blues scale is used as a pickup or intro into a tune. Example 3a.

Using the tritone to darken up the lick. Example 3b.

This idea is in the call and response format, favored by the blue testifiers. Example 3c.

Got these under your fingers? All 12 keys? Sorry, just kidding. Lets briefly examine each of the three blue notes the minor 3rd, sharp 4th (b5) and minor 7th.

Blue third. The minor 3rd interval above the fundamental initially defines the overall color of our blues grouping as being in the minor tonal environment. The "sorrowful" quality we create in our art comes in part from the minor 3rd. Example 4a, slowly in "C" minor, like a dirge. 

No other interval we have creates the sadness; suffering and despairing of the human spirit quite like the blue third. It is very powerful, use it carefully and always with love. Of course, there is a joyous, boisterous, raucous side to this minor third color, which when used in up tempo, "jump" "swing" "shuffle" blues recalls that "if the house is a rockin, don't bother knockin." Example 4b, "up."

Try the above 8 bars with a big growly sound and "just come on in." Using the minor third over major chords is just part of the blues magic. 

Blue fourth. The "blue fourth" has acquired lots of alias's over the years. Known also as the "tritone", as the sharp four or flatted fifth, the blue fourth is one serious player. The latter two names ( #4 / b5 ) are based upon it's intervalic relationship within various scales. Personally, I think of the blue fourth as the tritone, to keep things simple, although I am starting to like idea of a blue fourth more and more. This is in part due to how I understand and structure the theoretical principles of American music. 

Although I digress from the topic at hand, check this out. My "version" of the theory is based upon the premise that the tritone pitch was borrowed from the more urban, European tradition and simply added to the more rural, minor pentatonic group of pitches, whose color is so wonderfully represented in the music of rural peoples globally. For the new Americans, the people who created the blues, had a real need for such a pitch. For the tritone is the "darkest", most discordant of the equal tempered intervals, the addition of which really helped to musically portray the sorrow of their stories. The inclusion of this "diabolus in musica", as the tritone was known in 17th century Europe, is literally not out of character in the environment in which it was added to the minor pentatonic scale, thus creating the blues scale, the well from which American music was originally drawn.

Lets reshape a two bar minor pentatonic phrase into a two bar blues lick by simply adding the tritone within the lick. The difference is slight, one pitch, but the color change is distinct. At least, I think it is. I dig the offbeat rhythm of this lick, drives the groove nicely even in this digitized format. Example 5a.

Can you hear the color change in the above example? If not, try again, it's there, but subtle, yes? Is subtlety important? Well maybe, depends on one's artistic direction. The cool thing here is the idea that the presence of the tritone in the line shades things in a more bluesy way, from which the idea emerges of the potential for the tritone color to almost "instantaneously invoke a blues potential." The music does not have to totally go there, but the improvising artist can hint at their blues roots by deftly inserting a bit of the blue fourth color in their musical musings. Splitting hairs man? Yeah, probably, but this kind of thing happens a lot and is perhaps a part of how one thinks as they create their lines, portraying their storyline, allowing "proppa blues testimony to occur." Thinking along these lines, inserting any of the blue notes or a blues lick can oftentimes achieve similar results. Cruise to the tritone page for a more in depth look at this wonderful character.

There are lots of cool cliché blues ideas that rely on the tritone for it's added spice and character and "darker" color. Here is a common blues vamp emphasizing the tritone. Example 5b.

Personally, this above lick is totally "jungle." So many images come to mind. We can perhaps begin to see the power of the tritone in shaping and effecting the elements that surround it. Here is a cliche "flip side" to the above "lick." Example 5c.

Oftentimes this kind of dissonant line is balanced with a blues lick into a four bar phrase. When combined together they create what is commonly referred to as a vamp, which is simply a cool idea repeated many times, oftentimes used as a background figure behind a soloist. Example 5d.

Using the blue fourth in the minor tonality. By my ears, this blue fourth recreates a very sad and plaintive voice. Example 5e in C minor.

Here is the blue forth in an old, comical cliche idea. This lick has been used everywhere; by kids on the playground, television commercials, college marching bands sounding out the impending doom of their teams opponents. Using the tonic / minor third to set up the tritone splash! Example 5f. 

Blue seventh. The blue seventh is also commonly known as the minor seventh or flat seventh. We find this type of seventh diatonically appearing in quite a few other groups of pitches besides the blues. These additional colors that include the blue seventh in the minor tonality are; the all important natural and pentatonic minor scales, the Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian modes. It's quality and character in a big way defines the dominant seventh chord, simply created from a major triad with a blue or minor seventh added. This dominant coloring of the harmony is the principle chordal color used in blues performance in a major key and is the same dominant chord built from the fifth degree of the major scale grouping of pitches. Good chance that this blue seventh color will become an important color on your artistic palette ( if it already isn't ). The following musical ideas try to place the blue seventh into very cliche blues ideas, in both the major and minor tonalities. This first idea is more of a blues / rock lick than anything else, here we simply set up motion to the tonic from a whole step below, cruising along on a C 7 chord. Example 6.

The above dominant color is a basic tonic chord of the blues world in a major key. So much different from the major scale tonic chord in that this dominant chord contains the tritone interval between it's third degree and seventh, the pitches E and Bb in the chord used in example 6 above. So a bit unstable if you're not a blues player or the perfect degree of subtle tension if you are! The tritone contained within the chord is what makes it wanna rock! Here is a simple blues lick driving the blue seventh to tonic. Example 6a.

This next idea is created by simply arpeggiating the C 7 chord. A mainstay nowadays for the rockabilly guys globally, it was an integral part of the first rock and roll tunes and can even today generally get the house a rockin in a heartbeat. This lick reminds me of an old American folk tune titled "Old Joe Clark", an Appalachian folk tune that is for the most part based on the Mixolydian mode. This Mixolydian mode is an ancient scale / modal color included in the more modern European equal temperament system, brought over to the new world by the early European settlers of this Appalachian region, many of whom came from the British Isles. We hear the Mixolydian flavor quite a bit in the traditional Irish and Scottish folk music. Example 6b.

Moving into the minor tonality, this next idea simply arpeggiates the C minor seven chord. The blue seventh an integral chord tone in the line. Example 6c.

More minor pentatonic perhaps than blues, the above line is simply a descending minor seventh arpeggio.

Here is a chart creating the minor blues scale from each of the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale, organized by the cycle of fourths. Example 7.

Here are the above groups of pitches written out in standard notation. Example 8.

Here is a simple exercise which takes one blues lick and permutates it through the cycle of fourths. Example 9.

Cool huh? So how essential is it to have all of the 12 groups committed to memory ...? Well depends of course ..., but being there are only 12 ... it's probably just easier to learn and forget about it eh ...? Look to the blues section for more ideas on this important minor blues color.

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"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." Abraham Lincoln