This blues scale is used in both major and minor blues tunes, despite the clashes with the underlying harmony. The C blues scale creates stylistic clashes with the I and V chords of C major. The blues scale is essentially a minor pentatonic scale with an added chromatic passing tone leading up to sol (\hat5).Įxample 4. The blues scale, notated in the upper staff of Example 4, attempts to generalize blues melodic practice into a scale on which beginning improvisers can base their melodies. Much as the harmonies of the blues tend not to stick to one diatonic key, flouting the norms of tonal music, the melodies are similarly chromatic to match. Call-and-response in the melody of “Gulf Coast Blues.” The Blues Scale Example 3 annotates a transcription of “Gulf Coast Blues” to show this call-and-response relationship.Įxample 3. The vocal, lyricized melody takes on the role of the “call” while an instrumental filler takes on the role of the “response.” Notice that in “Gulf Coast Blues,” each lyric labeled with an a is sung entirely and exclusively in the first two measures of the phrase. Lyrics of “Gulf Coast Blues” by Clarence Williams.Īnother essential part of blues phrase structure is the notion of call-and-response, a feature likely inherited from the work songs of enslaved Africans and African Americans. The man I love, he has done left this townĪnd if it keeps on raining, I will be Gulf Coast bound.Įxample 2. The repeated lyric will often be set to a repeated melody, mimicking the aab structure of the lyrics, though this does not happen in “Gulf Coast Blues.” “Gulf Coast Blues” by Clarence Williams (1923) is one example of this ( Example 2). The four-bar phrases that make up the 12-bar blues are commonly matched with lyrics that have an aab structure: the first line is stated and then repeated (sometimes with some alteration), and the third line contrasts. Much blues music is sung, and so lyrics play an important role in this genre. “Gulf Coast Blues” (1923), recording by Bessie Smith and Clarence Williams. As an example, this text will focus on one of the earliest recorded blues songs, “Gulf Coast Blues” by Clarence Williams, as recorded by the enormously commercially successful blues singer Bessie Smith in 1923.Įxample 1. This chapter discusses some of the trends in blues melodies that shaped the blues as we know it today. The blues scale can be rotated to begin on its second note, creating a major blues scale: do–re–ri–mi–sol–la (\hat1-\hat2-\uparrow\hat2-\hat3-\hat5-\hat6).The blues scale is like a minor pentatonic scale with an additional chromatic passing tone: do–me–fa–fi–sol–te (\hat1-\downarrow\hat3-\hat4-\uparrow\hat4-\hat5-\downarrow\hat7).
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