What is meant by the term "blue note"?

....and you just can't get a better answer than that.

 

Learn something new every day, cool thread!

I'm curious about something though. Is a blue note considered the same thing as a passing tone? Or is a passing tone a note "inside" a given tonality? I'm not clear on this.

I really haven't studied anything to do with passing tones yet but it's the first thing that popped into my head after hearing your definition of a blue note. Somehow I immediately related the two terms.

 

Also, would a b9 be an example of a blue note?

 

I think your definition in your first post is common usage. My old ('72) Harper's calls it a "half-flatted note (somewhere between natural and flat) on the third, fifth and seventh degree of the scale........the use of these notes give an effect of wavering between the major and minor modes."

If anybody has access to http://www.grovemusic.com/, I'd be interested in what it says.

BTW, I call a b2 the "Jaws" note.

 

So, did this 'vocal practice' begin with the North American slaves doing their interpretation of European harmony while singing their work songs?
(i.e. the "wavering" effect, the illusion your ear is 'thinking' "something ain't quite right...yet it's sounds so cool).

It's important to note(if you're a student of music, I guess)that these "American" slaves were not permitted to keep their sacred drum/percussion instruments...therefore, the vocals.
On the other hand, slaves in the Carribean were allowed to keep their percussion instruments...therefore, all that Afro-Cuban stuff emerged.

Historians?

 

Originally posted by Chris Fitzgerald
I'm not sure if there's an "official" definition of the term BLUE NOTE that is widely accepted as concrete fact.


Well..my Oxford Dictionary of Music, has the following under "Blues" :

"Tonality predominantly major, but with the flattened 3rd and 7th of the key (the "blue notes"). Harmony tended towards the plagal or subdominant."

But if I look at an online Dictionary, I get the following :

"Main Entry: blue note
Function: noun
Etymology: from its frequent use in blues music
Date: 1919
: a variable microtonal lowering of the third, seventh, and occasionally fifth degrees of the major scale "

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

 

ok im a bit stupid when it comes to theory, whats a b3 and b9 etc.. is that the 3rd and 9th notes of a B scale?

flame away

 

i thought i knew my theory sh*t pretty well,
now i feel so stupid....Thankz!

 

so that means that the 3 and 9 scale tones are going to be flat correct? I think Im right about that, I just wanna make sure, because theory confuses the heck outta me.

 

yeah, that is a somewhat of an anal difference, but at least i know the correct term or whatever ya call it for it now. Thanks!!!

can ya tell im the product of too many years of tab

 

Not to just go around plugging myself, but at www.activebass.com I made a lesson in the basics section (# 904) dealing with blue notes, if you would like to get more of a grasp on how to use them.

 

Forgot to add, when I made this lesson I didn't know as much theory then as I do now, so the terminlogy I'm using doesn't sound the most professional.

 

I think more songs should be written in obscure keys, just to mess with the horn players.

"Hey guys, CHEROKEE in G#!"

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, we're going to start our second set tonight with OLEO in Fbb. We hope you dig it!"