It amazed me when I realized the fact that most musician in the US learn blue scale first before major scale. I learn classical piano for 10 years and I never touched or played blue scale ever in my classical lesson. Most guitarist also learn blue scale as the basic.
According to www.learnjazzpiano.com,
The roots of jazz and most other popular music grow deep within the blues tradition. When Africans were kidnapped and brought here to be sold as slaves, they were accompanied by a deep heritige where music and rhythm were fundamental to life in their society. A small, simplistic five note scale that didn’t even fit into western tonality found itself as the seed of almost everything we hear.
the most significant of blue scale is the diminished 5th. As in C blue scale, the note is F#. But actually, it is the note between F and F# that make the blue sound. Guitarist can bend the note on the string. But for pianist, try playing both F and F# together to imitate the blue note.
Michael Furstner teaches blues at his website too.
Leave A Response