Chapter on the Blues

Okay, so here's another chapter about the blues. So far, we've looked at the flattened third. In this lesson, we're going to look at two more blue notes:

• Flattened fifth
• Flattened seventh

Understanding the Notes

Here's the root, there's the fifth, and there's the flattened fifth.

So we've got:

• Flattened fifth lick:
  Here's a lick that uses the flattened fifth.

• Stefan Grappelli lick:
  Here's a Stefan Grappelli lick which uses the flattened fifth repeatedly.

• Joe Venuti riff:
  Now, here's a riff from Joe Venuti which uses both the flattened third and the flattened fifth.

The Flattened Seventh

The other blue note that we haven't looked at so far is the flattened seventh.

So we've got:

• Flattened seventh:
  There's your flattened seventh.

• Flattened seventh licks:
  Here's a couple of flattened seventh licks.
  Here's a lick that combines the flattened seventh and the flattened third.

Combining the Blue Notes

Now, what happens when you combine all three blue notes, the flattened third, flattened fifth, and flattened seventh?

What we come up with is this:

• Flat third
• Flat five
• Natural five
• Flat seven

What we've got now is a scale that doesn't have the major third. So it's what I call the minor blues scale.

This doesn't imply that it's played over minor chords, but it's important to realize that it will only work over seventh chords, also called flattened seventh chords.

That's because it's using the flattened seventh, and a normal major chord which would use a raised seventh is not going to work. So it has to have a flattened seventh.

Learning Blues Scales

So does this mean you have to learn two different blues scales, a major blues scale and a minor blues scale?

Well, fortunately not. Just as the major and minor scales and the pentatonic scales have a relative major and minor, so do major and minor blues scales.

The two scales coincide, as you can see.

Example Melodies

Here's a melody which demonstrates the G minor blues scale played over G major chords.

It's not very common, but you sometimes get actual minor chords in blues. In this case, you play the minor blues for the same key.

So for E minor blues, naturally, you play the E minor blues scale.

Here's an E minor blues melody played over minor chords, and we've got a slightly different feel on this one.

Summary

Now, you're probably a bit confused at this point, and your finger might even be hovering over the stop or quit button because of all this talk of different keys and different scales.

So we're going to give you a simple summary:

• If you are playing a simple jazz tune in a major key, such as "Head First," "Come Home," or a standard like "Dinah" or "Lady Be Good," you can use the major blues scale in the same key.

  • For a G major tune, you play the G major blues scale.

• For a proper 12-bar blues in a major key, especially if the first chord is a VII chord, use the minor blues scale of that key.

  • If it's in G major, then the G minor blues scale is the one to use.

• Finally, if the tune is in a minor key, whether it's a blues or not, use the minor blues scale of that key.

Playing Blues Licks Effectively

Finally, a note about how to play blues licks effectively.

If you listen to players like Papa John Creech or Sugarcane Harris, who are specialists in this style, you will hear that the essence of great blues fiddle playing is to play simple and to repeat, repeat, repeat.

Here are some examples:

• Repeated triplets:
  Here are some examples of repeated triplets.

• Triplets in higher position:
  Here are some triplets starting in a higher position.

• Papa John Creech style blues line:
  Here's a Papa John Creech style blues line which goes on and on.

You can keep licks like this going on for as long as you like.

Practice

Finally, here's a slow blues in G major.

You can use this to practice repeating licks using the G minor blues scale.