What is the Blue Note?
A blue note is largely used in most American music, from
jazz, blues, rock and folk to county or gospel. However, there is a surprisingly
big number of people who have no clue about what it is exactly.
A blue note is played just above or below the standard note,
for expressive purposes. In other words, it is a microtonal pitch played in
between a note from the blues scale and a close note from the major scale.
Classically speaking, blue notes are lower than we would
expect, in the form of a microtonal affair of a quarter-tone or the lowering
may be by a full semitone, on keyboard instruments. Blue notes may involve an
upward or downward glide.
How can you play blue
notes on different instruments?
·
On a guitar, you have to move above or below a
fret
·
In the case of wind instruments (sax, trumpet
and even harmonica), you must overblow and this will bend the notes
·
A synth has a pitch bend control
·
The piano does not allow you to play blue notes,
but you can create a similar effect by playing adjacent keys simultaneously
Blue notes enrich not only the western music; other cultures
use much finer subdivisions, for example quarter tones in Indian and Arabic
scales.
