[Harp-L] re: Question re: blue notes and micro-tonality

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

All quotes are from my fellow Jo(h)n Potts:

"i certainly appreciate what you (and others) are saying about  
spontaneity of expression as applied to bending blue notes, but I'm  
sure none of you would suggest that practicing scales is not good  
because it inhibits spontaneity of expression. To the contrary,  
technical proficiency playing scales enhances spontaneity because it  
allows the player to more readily express himself on the spur of the  
moment while improvising during performance.."

For myself, I would agree that in general any theoretical knowledge  
allows for greater ability to use those in performance.  But, the  
lack of such technical knowledge doesn't necessarily limit someone's  
ability to improvise well or creatively--it depends on the talents of  
the individual in question and the musical genre as well.

"W.C. Handy was the first to try to notate this "blues scale" and  
approximated some of the tones because Western notation does not have  
a convention for notating quarter tones. "

Western notation has a lot of limitations for things outside of  
Western theory, which is to be expected.  Neither tonalities nor  
concepts outside of the Western set are not easily notated.


"BUT, Little Walter consistently plays the third a quarter tone flat  
and consistently plays that same note a full half step flat when it  
is played as a 7th. Sugar Blue does the same thing. "

Have you measured this, and if so with what?  Have you checked many  
examples from many periods throughout their carreers?  Assuming so,  
is this particular stylistic trait shared by other blues harmonica  
players?  If so, is it confined to the Delta/Chicago tradition or can  
it also be found in the works of people like Sonny Terry and those  
outside of that tradition?  If not, what do other harmonica players do?

I am not an ethnomusicologist either, but these are the first  
questions which sprung to my mind reading your sentence.

"This is also done by other "authentic" blues players, so it appears  
to me to be a part of the idiom rather than random spontaneity of  
expression."

Define "authentic".  And then the same question about time periods  
and the like comes up.  Actually, the first question I asked was  
probably the most important.  It begs the question of what is a  
"quarter tone"?  Is the same deviation from the expected scale used  
in all these instances, or is it a range of deviation (however small  
that range).  Are they attempting to hit the exact same note each  
time, or to place the note in a larger pitch set (this of course is  
unanswerable, as Walter for one is long dead, but such a theory could  
be derived from listening).

"The manner in which "authentic" blues musicians played the "blue  
third" is interesting (at least to me), and i am curious about  
whether there is any similar idiomatic tradition about the historical  
tonality of the other blue notes, the flat 5th and flat 7th."

It is very interesting, and frankly I'd be surprised if someone  
hadn't studied and published on the subject.  It may not be in a  
mainstream book, but I'd bet you could find something if you searched  
scholarly journals in the fields of ethnomusicology, folk music and  
even jazz.

" The blue third is an enthnomusical historical reality. "

Yes, but that doesn't make it necessarily a single note, or even one  
of a single usage.  I mentioned earlier that Western notation doesn't  
deal well with non-Western concepts, and it may be that things like  
the blue third or fifth is one of those concepts.  It seems that you  
are fixated on the idea of it as a single note, whereas others here  
have suggested that it may not be a note, but rather a pitch range.   
Within that range there may be (and probably are) more commonly  
occurring usages (such as the degree of flatness of the third in  
relation to the chord, or a tendency to resolve upwards rather than  
downwards, etc...), but I would suggest that fixating on the idea of  
a specific pitch for these may blind you towards understanding the  
broader concept of the blue notes both in their usage and how they  
were understood culturally.

To me, understanding music theory is about understanding both the  
practical usage of the specific theory and the concepts behind that  
usage.  Interesting, most of the ethnomusicology works I've read  
tends to stress these things more or less equally: the actual playing  
of music and how it is understood in the given culture.



 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()
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