re:Reading Music (much too long)

["conrad (c.) grant" <conradg@xxxxxx>]

In message "Reading Music (much too long)", you write:
[snippage]
> Pentatonic blues
> scales changed things. I find it's very hard to sound bad with
> a simple jam off of the pentatonic blues scale. Being taught
> the scale showed me what notes to avoid and which to follow
> and improved my playing in one of those quantum leaps. I
> know there are conventions for using certain scales for coloring
> the music and but I am ignorant as to these modes. 

This reminds me of a question I have:
I know there are blues riffs and blues scales, and I know blues music
when I hear it, but how would a music student/theorist DEFINE 'blues'.
When reading sheet music to a blues piece, can you/how do you recognize
it as 'bluesy'?

conrad                        conradg@xxxxxx