Blue Note

I have been meaning to write a post about the "Blue Note" in music for some time but I could not clear it in my mind how to structure it without going too much into theoretical details. I am aware that it is such a concept not too easy to explain without referring to a certain degree of music theory but here I am giving it a shot, so please bear with me.

Blue Note:

I think one should approach the "Blue Note" in two different angles. The first angle could be defined as a more musical or theoretical angle which is maybe easier to grasp even though the explanation would be more technical. However the second angle is more focused on cultural, anthropological and sociological elements and in my opinion this second angle is the true idiosyncrasy of the "Blue Note".
It is mostly a feeling, rather than a tone shift in the scale.
Please watch the below video and do not concentrate on the musical theory part, just listen the difference of the sound of the added blue note.

Let me try to explain the first angle of the "Blue Note" as simple as possible, without too much musical theory. If you are more interested on this aspect of the "Blue Note" there is a vast amount of information on the internet that you can check out.
A basic definition could be that a "Blue Note" is a pitch that is played slightly out of the usual scale that is being played. The origin goes back to African music and its reflection in the birth of the blues and jazz. As I had mentioned in the previous posts, the Western music is built on the concept of equal temperament that divides a scale into 12 equally distant pitches. However the African music (i.e. especially the African vocal music) did not work like that. Just like the Eastern music, it had microtonal elements (not in a chromatic sense but harmonic sense) embedded in the musical forms. Therefore with the arrival of the African people to the New World, a different structure was also introduced which evolved to blues and jazz in the later periods.

Here’s a guide to the blues notes in the scale of C

• C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B 
• C blues scale: C, E-flat, F, F-sharp, G, B-flat 
• C major plus C blues: C, D, E-flat, E, F, F-sharp, G, A, B-flat, B

The notes that are highlighted as bold are the blues notes.

The blues notes are usually said to be the lowered third, lowered fifth, and lowered seventh scale degrees.The lowered fifth is also known as the raised fourth.

Pay close attention, I am not referring these notes as "Blue Notes". They are only blues notes and they are created so that the piano players can also approximate to the sound of the blue notes (one technique or cheat is sliding between the keys). Since real "Blue Notes" fall between the keys of the piano, they can not be played 100% true to the proper sound. If you remember the post on "Sound", you will recall the pitches and their frequencies. On the piano you can not generate a sound let's say between the note E and the note F simply because there is no key to hit in-between. But this does not mean that there is not a sound between these two notes.

However with guitar (via bending), or horns (overblowing), or fretless instruments and vocal, it is much easier to create the real sound of a "Blue Note". You can also do it on a keyboard/synth that allows pitch bending. 

"Boom boom boom" by John Lee Hooker (listen how he bends the notes to create blue notes)

"Chameleon Pt.1" by Herbie Hancock (listen the solo between 5:10-5.45 for blue notes)

On the other hand we should understand that, during a performance, the "Blue Notes" are passing notes. They are played or sung to express a momentary feeling. One should be careful not to rest on these notes as the sound generated could be dissonant with the on-going scale. You can try it if you have a keyboard or basically any instrument. First try to play the C major plus C blues scale and listen to how pleasant it sounds. Now this time play a music that you know is C major and while the music is playing, you play one of the blue notes and listen how out of tune you sound altogether.

So what purpose do these notes serve? Historically, if you listen to a bluesy song or even the sound of the blue note in the above first video, you immediately start to feel like you are listening to a minor scale. If you hit the keys of E flat and B flat during playing a C major scale, you convert the sound of the C major scale into a minor scale sound. And what is the feeling of a minor scale? Sadness, blues and despair right... 

Obviously with the evolving of jazz and other musical genres, the use of the blue notes became wider as you can hear from the Herbie Hancock video above.

I hope the notion of "Blue Note" is clear on your minds, at least on a technical level. If so, we can now start to speak about the feelings that are created with these notes.

The "Blue Notes" are notes that can impose a certain degree of grief, melancholy and sadness on a piece of music.

Imagine African people brought to America as slaves. They are being forced to work under inhumane conditions and at the same time being forced to an assimilation. They are being converted to Christianity, making them sing mostly major scale gospels and spirituals in the churches. Naturally, they were willing to express their own feelings in some way. Under these unfavorable circumstances they developed a new form of singing by using microtones. These tiny details transformed the sound of the music massively without changing its original tonality. In my opinion it is an incredible innovation that highlights the feelings of its originators.

I remember reading an article about the blue notes that included an amazing example that illustrates the feeling of a blue note. It was something like this; imagine calling your mom from a distance to give her a very good news and on the contrary again calling your mom for a bad news. Try to imagine how the two different sounding "mom"s will come out of your mouth. I always thought that this was a simple and good explanation of the "Blue Note"...

"I believe I will Dust my Broom" by Robert Johnson

We mustn't always think that the "Blue Notes" totally convert a song to a tart and sour sound. The authenticity lies in the fact that they can add a certain degree of tartness to the overall tone of the song without touching its sweet parts. If it were only tart or only sweet, the song would be boring right?

"How Blue Can You Get" by B.B. King

Overall we can say that the "Blue Notes" are the notes that give the blues its bluesy sound. However keep in mind that such notes are not limited to blues but also widely used in jazz, rock, funk, folk and country musical genres as well.

One homework for you, try to catch the "Blue Notes" when you are listening to music next time, believe me it is a fun exercise...