blues scale

On that guitar, I seem to be drawn to the following inversionally
symmetrical scale for blues:

22TET cents

0 0
6 327
9 491
10 545
13 709
19 1036

Harmonically, it looks like this:


9---------0---------13
\ / \
\ / \
\ / \
\ / \
6---------19--------10

In just intonation, it would be

Ratio cents

1/1 0
6/5 316
4/3 498
27/20 520
3/2 702
9/5 1018

but that syntonic comma between 4/3 and 27/20 is too small to function
as a real melodic interval in a blues context. The 22TET degree is big
enough to evoke a distinct pitch, but small enough to sound
interestingly unusual. The 6/5 and 9/5 are not really that "bluesy"
sounding; their sharpened versions in 22TET do better, especially with
vibrato added.

"Blue notes" on the guitar are almost always between major and minor
thirds and between major and minor sevenths. I don't agree with those
who make them out to be some sort of septimal ratios, though the 7/4 is
common in harmonica blues, and I myself love to use the 7/6 over the IV
chord (on the 12-tone guitar by bending the major 2nd up a third-tone).

I think the blues scale has more to do with 7TET than with any just
ratios.


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Subject: How to order the Bosanquet book from Diapason Press
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