blues scale
cyber text for the theory of American music

The blues scale grouping of pitches could easily replace the major scale in regards to the central color of American music. Why is the blues color so important? All of America's indigenous musical art forms have some toehold in the "blues." Folk, jazz, blues, rock, pop and hip hop all combine elements from both the equal tempered system or "western" harmony, named as such due to it's European development, and America's own blues traditions. The source of this group of blues pitches could be traced through the early settlers of the southern region of America back to their original homelands in the Africans and islands of the West Indies. 

One modern day theoretical understanding of the "blue grouping of pitches" could potentially be viewed as essentially a minor pentatonic scale with an added pitch a tritone above the root, so perhaps elements from both the mainly rural African ( pentatonic ) and urban European societies ( tritone ).  Either way, the "blues" grouping of pitches has been the original heart and soul of America's contribution to the world musical arts.  Here is a look at the intervalic configuration of the minor blues grouping of pitches with C as the root.  Example 1.

Here is the sound of the above pitches.  Example 1a.

If we take out the tritone "Gb", we create a minor pentatonic scale, which is perhaps the oldest group of pitches we have a written record of on the planet.  Let’s compare the sound of the minor pentatonic to the minor blues group. Example 1b.

From the sound of the simple ascending groups, can you feel the strength of the tritone?  Here is a commonly shaped blues line emphasizing the tritone.  Example 1c.

C up to G the Gb and down to b7 to tonic.

A close cousin of the minor blues color is termed the major blues scale, here we simply add a major third to the group.  Example 2.

Sound a bit different?  The addition of the major third adds a unique coloring to the basic minor blues group. Why would we want to add the major third?  Well, in practice, so many blues tunes are written in the major tonality, and although the the harmony is for the most part dominant quality, the third degree of these chords is a major third.  So we simply add the major third to the minor blues scale to more closely resemble the chords.  Artistically, lines created in this color lose a bit of the sorrowful qualities of the minor flavor and create a more joyous nature to the music, while retaining the overall blues feel.  Example 2a.

What so often happens in the lines created in the 12 bar blues form is that we find the major third over tonic chords and the minor third over the Four and Five chords.  Here is a 12 bar blues using the above ideas.  Example 2b.

Check out Thelonius Monk's "Blue Monk" and Sonny Rollins's "Tenor Madness", two among many compositions using the above alternation of the major and minor third.

There is a certain "blues magic" that happens all the time in American blues.  We hear the various "blue notes", especially the minor third and tritone over chords created in the major tonality.  Theoretically a Bozo no-no?  Well, strictly speaking, yes, but artistically, this is the way the blues tradition has been passed along to us.  Here is an idea combining the minor blue pitches with major blues chords.  Example 2c.

Cool with this combination of the major and minor colors together?  Yes, it is very common in American blues, but can you think of another style of American music or even one song for that matter, from which the blues color is removed, that uses this combination of minor melody / major chords?  Please write me if find such a thing.  Does that mean that this combining of the major and minor colors in one composition is unique to the blue styling of American music?  Maybe.   Does this extend to music of the entire planet?

The blues section of the text is rather extensive.  Each of the pitches of the two groups discussed above, blues harmony and common chord substitutions are examined.  The various substitutions are used to create two extended blues songs, one in each of the major and minor tonalities, which incorporate various chord substitutions, the color of which are reflected in the melodic lines.   Go to this expanded section of various blues topics and ideas if you are curious, simply click, "blues."

Here are the pitches of the minor blues scale written out from each of the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale.   Lets use the cycle of fourths to organize this scale study.  Example 3.

Here is the sound of the above groups of pitches.  Example 3a.

Got these under your fingers?  Here are the pitches of the major blues scale written out from each of the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale.   This time we'll use the cycle of fifths to organize this scale study.  Example 4.

Here is the sound of the above groups of pitches. Example 4a.

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