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In jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 and blues
Blues

Blues is a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues musical form s exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered....
, a blue note (also "worried" note) is a note
Note

In music, the term note has two primary meanings: 1) a sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound; and 2) a pitched sound itself....
 sung or played at a slightly lower pitch
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
 than that of the major scale
Major scale

In music theory, the major scale or Ionian mode scale is one of the diatonic scale Musical scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher....
 for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone
Semitone

A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone,Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and others use "half tone".One source says that step is "chiefly US", and that half-tone is "chiefly N....
 or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues
Country blues

Country blues refers to all the acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues. After blues' birth in the southern United States, it quickly spread throughout the country , giving birth to a host of regional styles....
, in particular, features wide variations from the diatonic pitches with emotive blue-notes. Blue notes are often seen as akin to relative pitches found in traditional African work song
Work song

A work song is typically a rhythmic a cappella song sung by people working on a physical and often repetitive task. The work song is probably intended to reduce feelings of boredom....
s.

The blue notes are usually said to be flattened third
Minor third

A minor third is a Interval of three semitones. It is the smaller of two commonly occurring musical intervals compounded of two steps of the diatonic scale....
, flattened fifth, and flattened seventh
Minor seventh

A minor seventh is the smaller of two commonly occurring musical intervals that span seven diatonic scale degrees. The prefix 'minor' identifies it as being the smaller of the two , its larger counterpart being a major seventh....
 scale degrees.






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Encyclopedia


In jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 and blues
Blues

Blues is a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues musical form s exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered....
, a blue note (also "worried" note) is a note
Note

In music, the term note has two primary meanings: 1) a sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound; and 2) a pitched sound itself....
 sung or played at a slightly lower pitch
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
 than that of the major scale
Major scale

In music theory, the major scale or Ionian mode scale is one of the diatonic scale Musical scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher....
 for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone
Semitone

A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone,Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and others use "half tone".One source says that step is "chiefly US", and that half-tone is "chiefly N....
 or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues
Country blues

Country blues refers to all the acoustic, mainly guitar-driven forms of the blues. After blues' birth in the southern United States, it quickly spread throughout the country , giving birth to a host of regional styles....
, in particular, features wide variations from the diatonic pitches with emotive blue-notes. Blue notes are often seen as akin to relative pitches found in traditional African work song
Work song

A work song is typically a rhythmic a cappella song sung by people working on a physical and often repetitive task. The work song is probably intended to reduce feelings of boredom....
s.

The blue notes are usually said to be flattened third
Minor third

A minor third is a Interval of three semitones. It is the smaller of two commonly occurring musical intervals compounded of two steps of the diatonic scale....
, flattened fifth, and flattened seventh
Minor seventh

A minor seventh is the smaller of two commonly occurring musical intervals that span seven diatonic scale degrees. The prefix 'minor' identifies it as being the smaller of the two , its larger counterpart being a major seventh....
 scale degrees. The flatted fifth is also known as the sharpened fourth. Though the blues scale
Blues scale

The term blues scale is used to describe a few scales with differing number of pitches and related characteristics.The hexatonic scale, or six note, blues scale consists of the Pentatonic scale#Minor pentatonic scale plus the 4 or 5 degree....
 has "an inherent minor tonality, it is commonly 'forced' over major-key chord changes, resulting in a distinctively dissonant conflict of tonalities" as well as the blue notes. A similar conflict occurs between the notes of the minor scale
Minor scale

A minor scale in music theory is a diatonic scale with a third scale degree at an Interval of a minor third above the Tonic . While this definition encompasses Musical mode with the minor third, such as Dorian mode, the term may more usually refer only to the natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor scales, descri...
 and the minor blues scale, as heard in songs such as "Why Don't You Do Right?
Why Don't You Do Right?

"Why Don't You Do Right?" is an American blues standard and jazz standard written in 1936 in music by Kansas Joe McCoy. It is a twelve-bar blues written in a minor key and is considered a classic "woman's blues."...
".

Blue notes are used in many twelve-bar
Twelve bar blues

The 12-bar blues is one of the most popular chord progressions in popular music, including the blues. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics and phrase and chord structure and duration....
 and eight-bar blues, and also in blues ballad
Blues ballad

The blues ballad creates the sound of the blues using a blues scale and blues style chord progressions with a bridge using a different bluesy chord progression) in the conventional 32-bar popular song from Tin Pan Alley....
s, many types of modern jazz, and in conventional popular songs with a "blue" feeling, such as Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen

Harold Arlen was an United States Jewish composer of popular music.Having written over 400 songs, a number of which have become known the world over, Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook....
'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 and can be heard on any instrument capable of producing them.

See also

  • Harmonic seventh
    Harmonic seventh

    The harmonic seventh interval , also known as the septimal minor seventh, is one with an exact 7:4 ratio . This is somewhat less than and is "sweeter in quality" than an "ordinary" minor seventh, which has a just-intonation ratio of either 16:9 or 9:5, or an equal-temperament ratio of 1000 cents....