23
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Making Sense of Blues Soloing; differentiating major/minor pentatonics
How do I understand the mixture of the major and minor blues scales in an applicable way?
The short answer is that the mixing of major and minor tonalities is the essence of blues.
Many people draw ...
- 1,802
14
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How bluesy is Ravel's Blues actually?
How bluesy is Ravel's Blues actually?
I would say enough to justify putting "blues" in the title of a violin sonata.
A little history background.
WC Handy published the "first blues&...
- 55k
13
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I don't recognize the symbol on top of this note. What is it, and how does it affect the note?
That is a bend or a dip. You make a clear attack on the note and then do a very slight glissando around a quarter or half step down and then return to the original pitch.
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How can you recognize whether a song is blues or jazz?
Blues and Jazz are overlapping genres, so it won't always be possible to characterise a song as 'jazz, but not blues' or 'blues, but not jazz'.
It would be possible to write a very big book about ...
- 45.9k
12
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Diatonic chords of a pentatonic vs blues scale?
You could make chords out of blue notes, but why would you?
In general the blues scale(s) is only applied in certain circumstances: unsurprisingly, in blues music. The best answer to this kind of ...
- 12.6k
11
votes
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What exactly does it mean to "play over the changes"
Some players will tend to use, for example, the A pent min. scale notes all through a 12 bar in A. It sort of works, if they're careful (or lucky!) but when playing the changes, they will tend to use ...
- 190k
11
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Confusion about blues scale and chords
As for your initial assumption, that "when playing a song in a certain scale, usually all chords will only contain notes in that scale": that's actually untrue! See Does playing in scale mean only ...
- 84k
10
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What exactly does it mean to "play over the changes"
I'm not sure of any stylistic implications, but my understanding has always been that "the changes" simply refer to the chords themselves---in other words, the chord "changes" that make up the ...
- 84k
10
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Making Sense of Blues Soloing; differentiating major/minor pentatonics
I think the source of your confusion is the notion of "switching" between major and minor, and the resulting question of when to switch. I would suggest to view things differently, i.e., not to think ...
- 20.1k
10
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What should I practise to reach my guitar goals and stay motivated?
Join a band.
If you can manage it, one where the other musicians are slightly better than you. There's no better motivation than having to 'get it right on the night' in front of other people.
They ...
- 27.6k
9
votes
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Soloing on Scales
Minor pent works well over major chords, but not vice versa.
Add the 'blue' note to both maj. and min. pents for a little spice.
Try the full major scale notes on major songs.
Try the full minor ...
- 190k
9
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What scales to play over A minor blues?
In short: you can play an A min blues scale over the entire song if you want, but it certainly isn't wrong to stray from A min when playing over the minor blues.
On the iv chord, some of the most ...
- 11.2k
9
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What scales to play over A minor blues?
jdjazz has got it covered. BUT - do not be under the misapprehension, as so many visitors to this site appear to be - that a set of notes is written in stone. As in 'I'm playing blues, so must only ...
- 190k
9
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Can i solo with C blue minor scale in a C major Chord progression backing track?
In a word yes!
The whole point of the minor blues scale notes is that they produce a 'sweet and sour' effect against the major scale notes. So out of tune that they sound (sort of) right!
What ...
- 190k
9
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I don't recognize the symbol on top of this note. What is it, and how does it affect the note?
It's a bend: an articulation mark representing a brief flattening of the note.The note is attacked in tune but is immediately flattened - by up to a semitone - before coming up to pitch again.
- 5,515
9
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12 bar blues notation
After hearing the audio and seeing your examples, the written example 2 is rhythmically accurate BUT I would suggest this rhythm be written in quarters and eighths, not eighths and sixteenths. My ...
- 25k
8
votes
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Making 12 bar blues more interesting
There are lots of ways to modify a 12-bar blues progression. I will narrow it down quite a bit because from your references to Led Zeppelin and Muddy Waters I gather that you're not so much interested ...
- 20.1k
8
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How can you recognize whether a song is blues or jazz?
As topo morto said, it won't always be possible to decide whether a given song is Jazz or Blues. However, there is one thing that's striking about blues and sets it apart from most genres, including ...
- 35.3k
8
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How bluesy is Ravel's Blues actually?
TL;DR [Long rambling thing about blues, Paris and Ravel's Violin Sonata.]
Bessie Smith's first record was released in 1923, the year Ravel started work on the violin sonata. That's 20 years after W.C. ...
- 5,515
7
votes
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How mix scales (locrian, dorian, etc...) with blues scales/pentatonic?
As beginners, guitarists are often taught "modes" because these correspond to patterns up and down the neck, which are movable. Using these patterns is often (and erroneously) conflated with playing ...
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7
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How is rock founded from blues if they have different scales?
'Rock' is an umbrella term referring to an area of music containing many sub-genres that has been evolving for nearly 70 years now. Even at its birth, it evolved from multiple genres such as Country, ...
- 45.9k
7
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Is there such a thing as a minor blues scale?
Officially, yes. It gets credence as it features in some music exams. Cm blues scale contains the notes C E♭ F G♭ G and B♭
That ♭5 is better known in jazz circles as ♯4, but ...
- 190k
7
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Making Sense of Blues Soloing; differentiating major/minor pentatonics
The (sort of) generally known major blues scale in key C consists of C, D, E♭,E, G, A, and minor blues scale in key Cm consists of C, E♭, F, G&flat, G, B♭. So, put another way, the ...
- 190k
7
votes
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12 bar blues notation
Not knowing your intended rhythm, I'd bet your dotted sixteenth notes are incorrect; these demand thirty-second notes, which result in a "more correct" notation of the following, which I can't imagine ...
- 84k
7
votes
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Playing Am pentatonic scale over A blues chord progression
There are a variety of scales that can be used in blues improvisation, depending somewhat on the specific style involved. However, using a A minor pentatonic over an A blues is the most basic. It's a ...
- 82.4k
6
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What is it about the blues chord progression that makes the blues feel?
In our conversation in comments, we were talking about a couple of songs that sounds bluesy, but aren't actually 12-bar blues at all...
But then what is it about this songs that makes them sound ...
- 45.9k
6
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How do accidental notes work in a blues song?
They call it a "courtesy accidental". In your particular case, the C♯ is written in because of the C♮ that occured recently before it.
Sometimes written in parentheses, they exist to remind ...
- 12.6k
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