Unit 5-3: Blues Melody & Scale

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

Spell major and minor blues scales starting on different pitches.
Describe how pentatonic collections relate to the blues scale.
Define "blue notes" and explain the melodic-harmonic relationship between the blues scales and blues progressions.
Cite examples from the repertoire that use melodies based on blues scales.
Compose a call-and-response melody over a 12-bar blues progression in a standard blues style.

Preparation for Class

Read:

Pentatonic Harmony (Gotham & Hughes, OMT)
- - Just read the first section "Basic Scale Materials" for a review of major and minor pentatonic collections.
Blues Melody & The Blues Scale (Lavengood, OMT)
Blues Scale (Trevor de Clercq, The Practice of Popular Music, pp. 301–304) - Available online through the library
Optional Additional Reads:
- - The Blues Progression and Mediant Mixture and "Blue Notes" (Temperley, The Musical Language of Rock) - Read Sections 5.4 and 8.2
  - The Blues Scale (The Ethan Hein Blog)

Explore

Notio Keyboard: Click the "Scale" button to change the scale to a blues or pentatonic scale. The "Keyboard" button will expand your keyboard. Change the scale's starting note, by clicking on the "Root" button.

Jam on the Pentatonic Collection: Your computer keyboard transforms into a rock organ preset with the minor pentatonic collection. Jam on the James Brown "Think" track on aQwertyon.

Visualize the Blues Scale: Check out the scale wheels on NYU's MuseEd Lab. Change the scale selected and use your keyboard to play melodies and chords.

Reference Aids:

Building the Major or Minor Pentatonic Scale (from KaitlinBove.com)

Build the major or minor scale, then subtract the 4th and 7th scale degrees:

Three scales are shown in standard musical notation, with corresponding whole (W) and half (H) step patterns indicated below each. The first scale is a C Major scale, labeled "C Major Scale." It includes the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. The pattern below is W W H W W W H. The second scale is a C Major scale with the 4th and 7th degrees omitted, labeled "C Major Scale -(4/7)." It includes the notes C, D, E, G, A, C. This demonstrates that omitting the 4th and 7th degrees of the major scale results in the third scale shown, which is the C Major pentatonic scale, labeled "C Major Pentatonic Scale." It includes the notes C, D, E, G, A, C. The pattern below is W W m3 W m3; m3 represents a minor third.

Compare the Pentatonic Scales to the Blues Scales
Image Credit: Sarah Louden (Minor: Image file, Major: Image file)

Two scales are shown in standard musical notation, with corresponding scale degree numbers indicated below each. The first scale is a Minor Pentatonic scale, labeled "Minor Pentatonic Scale." It includes the notes C, Eb, F, G, Bb. The pattern below is 1, b3, 4, 5, b7. The second scale is a Blues scale, labeled "The Blues Scale (or minor blues)." It includes the notes C, Eb, F, F#, G, Bb, C, and the descending scale is C, Bb, G, Gb, F, Eb, C. The pattern below is 1, b3, 4, #4, 5, b7, 1, and 1, b7, 5, b5, 4, b3, 1. An arrow indicates that the #4 (F-sharp) is used when ascending, and the b5 (G-flat) is used when descending.

Two scales are shown in standard musical notation, with corresponding scale degree numbers indicated below each. The first scale is a Major Pentatonic scale. It includes the notes C, D, E, G, A. The pattern below is 1, 2, 3, 5, 6. The second scale is a "Major" Blues scale. It includes the notes C, D, D#, E, G, A, C, and the descending scale is C, A, G, E, Eb, D, C. The pattern below is 1, 2, #2, 3, 5, 6, 1, and 1, 6, 5, 3, b3, 2, 1. An arrow indicates that the #2 (D-sharp) is used when ascending, and the b3 (E-flat) is used when descending.

The Standard 12-Bar Blues Progression
From Berklee, "From Minor Pentatonic Scale to the Blues Scale"

This image shows lead-sheet notation for a 12-bar blues progression in C. The progression is as follows: * Bars 1-4: I7 - C7 * Bars 5-6: IV7 - F7 * Bars 7-8: I7 - C7 * Bar 9: V7 - G7 * Bar 10: IV7 - F7 * Bars 11-12: I7 - C7

In-Class Activities

Discussion

Pentatonic & Blues Scales: How does the 12-bar blues scale relate to the pentatonic collection?
Bluesy: What makes something sound “bluesy”? Listen to some blues songs and discuss which musical features sound especially “bluesy” to you. Consider melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, ornamentation, performance, phrase structures, and lyrics.
Scale Degrees 3 vs.♭3, and “Blue Notes” in Rock: Rock melodies frequently mix scales degrees 3 and♭3. Listen to the examples provided in the slides. In melodies that feature a mix of 3 and♭3, what factors seem to influence where and why an artists choses one over the other? Consider some of the arguments suggested by Temperley, Ren, and Duan in the slides. Then, listen to examples of "blue notes" in the final slide. What is a "blue note" and how would you describe the effect?

Activities

Blues Scales Worksheet: (Open Music Theory): Practice building blues scales given a starting pitch. (See p. 1 only). (PDF, MuseScore)
Melodic Analysis: Work through the melodic analysis worksheet here. (Includes additional practice spelling blues scales)
Model Composition: Based on the melodies that you analyzed in the activity above, work individually or in groups to compose a blues melody over a 12-bar blues progression. Your composition should:
- - Use an aab (or aa'b) phrase structure and take advantage of melodic and/or rhythmic motivic repetition.
  - Leave some gaps in your melody to allow space for "call-and-response" (see the T-Bone Walker and B.B. King examples in the anthology for examples)
  - Use only the blues scale and/or chord tones.
  - Notate the lead sheet notation above your melody.
  - Use the accompaniment provided here (PDF, MuseScore, Music XML) or notate your own accompaniment.

Repertoire for Practice

Melodies for Analysis: The melodies in this section of the anthology make use of the blues scale. Some melodies are over a 12-bar blues progression; some aren't.

Anthology: Blues Scale & Melody

Assignment

Assignment 5-3

NEXT STEP

Next Lesson: Harmonizing Melodies

Want to learn more?

Van der Bliek, Rob. "The Hendrix Chord: Blues, Flexible Pitch Relationships, and Self-Standing Harmony." Popular Music 26, no. 2 (2007): 343–364.

Temperley, David, Iris Ren, and Zhiyao Duan. "Mediant Mixture and “Blue Notes” in Rock: An Exploratory Study." Music Theory Online 23, no. 1 (2017).

Practice

Musition:
- Scales: Levels 2, 10

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