I have a question for you jazz musicians: What is a "blues note?"

[CTyankee]

if you could link to a singer on youtube that employs it in one of his/her songs I would be so appreciative!

Thank you!

[cemaphonic]

1. Short answer is that it's the flatted 5th of a scale.

The flatted 3rd and flatted 7th are often called blue notes as well, although that's one of those things that music theorists like to argue about.

[CTyankee]

2. Um, the definition of a flatted 5th? I don't know that either...

[CBGLuthier]

3. Lets start with the C Scale

All white notes. C is 1 D is 2 E is 3 F is 4 G is 5 A is 6 and B is 7


If you instead of playing the G for the fifth note of the scale you lower it one half tone, a G flat is the flatted fifth of the scale.

If you play a B flat it is the flatted seventh and if you play an E flat it is the flatted third.

Playing those notes, particularly against major chords will produce the blues sounds.

[cemaphonic]

4. If you've ever had music instruction, do you remember the major scale?

The simplest example on a keyboard being C Major -


When discussing theory, it is often useful to talk about the relationship of one note to another (called an interval), and one way to think about scales is the intervals between the first note of the scale, and each other note in the scale. The intervals of the C Major Scale are:

C-D Major 2nd
C-E Major 3rd
C-F Perfect 4th
C-G Perfect 5th
C-A Major 6th
C-B Major 7th
C-C Octave

Now, the blues (and blues-related genres like rock and jazz) often use a scale called the blues scale:


Notice how the E, G, and B of the major scale are replaced by the black keys? Those are the blue notes. A theory textbook would define those relationships as:

C-Eb minor 3rd
C-Gb Diminished 5h
C-Bb minor 7th

but musicians would often just say "flat 5" as an informal shorthand.

[malthaussen]

5. Here ya go.

Example, as requested.

-- Mal

[CTyankee]

6. thanks! Altho he lost me with some other terms like "pentitonic" (sp?)

once he played a blue note in relation to the scale I got it, but only as a non-musician, by experiencing listening to it.

[CBGLuthier]

7. pentatonic refers to a scale that only has five notes.

The typical blues scale is a pentatonic minor scale with one extra note, the flatted fifth.

[malthaussen]

9. Exactly

His explanation in words is garbled and rambling, but once he plays what he means, you can hear the difference immediately. And now you know what a pentatonic scale with a flattened fifth is, so you can impress your friends at cocktail parties.

-- Mal

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Gahh! He needs to tune his guitar.

[Tsiyu]

10. Great question

This video at the 2:00 point discusses and shows where the blue note falls in a scale. It's a half step that makes the song almost sound like it's "hanging" to lead you back into the major notes of the pentatonic or other scale:

You can hear blue notes well in this Tracy Chapman song:

One of the first lead notes Clapton plays is a blue note.


Get out and see live music peeps! We saw Rodney Crowell, Richard Thompson and John Hiatt last night at the Mother Church doing a benefit for a rehab center and it was AMAZING.

Support musicians and blue notes DUers.

[CTyankee]

11. I'm a believer, halleluya!