The Blues Scale and Top Harmony

Blues Scale Study: Funky2Five

So, Funky2Five is a kind of study on the blues scale, specifically the G blues scale. The blues scale is based on the minor pentatonic, which you should know consists of the following notes:

• Root
• Flat 3
• 4
• 5
• B7

The Importance of C Sharp

The only thing that really makes it a blues scale is the C sharp, which is an optional extra, known as the flat five. This flat five is often used as a grace note. You can play it leading into the fifth.

Although that's written as a note in front of the chord, you should really play it with the top note. So, you're playing C sharp and G together and just quickly swapping the C sharp for a G.

Note: It's important to know that it's not played with the C sharp by itself, even though it looks like that.

In jazz, grace notes are usually played on the beat. It is possible to slide off as well, and sometimes you slide down. For instance, the C sharp can go down to the F, down to the C. I'm still playing the C with the top G.

Top Harmony Technique

This top note is often added above more than one note, which I call top harmony. The melody might consist of single notes, but you add a G on top of everything, giving you a very bluesy sound.

This technique was used extensively in blues piano but has been borrowed in jazz piano as well. The idea is:

• Instead of adding a harmony note parallel with the melody (which is what harmony notes usually do, and they're usually below the melody),
• Top harmony is above the melody.

The note doesn't change, so it doesn't detract from the melody; it just thickens it.

Experimenting with Different Top Notes

Now let's do it. Instead of the root on top, let's put the fifth on top. In this case, the melody could be those notes there, and we could put a D on top to transform the sound.

Actually, any note of the pentatonic scale can be the top note. The root and fifth are just the most common ones.

Here's an example of using the seventh on top:

• The melody is
• I'm going to put an F on top.

And for the third on top. So the melody is...

• And I'm putting a B flat on top.

Combining Top Notes

You often find that, once you get these things under your fingers, it's really common to combine more than one top note in the same phrase. For example:

• I can put the third on top,
• The root on top,
• And the fifth on top.

You can run them into each other so that you don't notice the join.