Re: [Harp-L] Should the blues scale be revised?

[Frank Evers <frank@xxxxxxxxx>]

Am Donnerstag, 6. März 2008 schrieb Zvi Aranoff:
> What about the natural 3rd? Why isn't it part of the scale? It
> seems   that there are good reasons to include it in the scale.

There are also good reasons against that.

1. There are a lot of harp players who effectivly never hit the 3 draw 
unbent, and while thats probably not best style and gives some 
limitations to their playing it works for Blues. Vive versa omitting 
the blue 3rd would leave the Blues without one of it's essential 
elements. So the blue 3rd is essential to the blues, the major 3rd is 
not. It's just one of the additional notes that work fine with the 
Blues but not among the few that actually make a song bluesy.

2. Listing the flat 3rd as a part of the blues scale is just an 
attempt to describe that scale with terms of the european notation 
system. In fact it's not the flat 3rd (or minor 3rd) thats part of 
the blues scale though, but it's the blue 3rd. The blue 3rd doesn't 
have a specific pitch, but can vary in pitch and alter the character 
of the tune. Since it's somewhere between minor and major 3rd the 
blue 3rd to some point covers both notes and works with both played 
in accompaniment.
While we lack a possibility to notate a blue 3rd using the european 
notation system we notate it as flat 3rd, but the the major 3rd is 
actually part of it, too.

-- 
Gruß,Frank