7 limit and blues

I'm glad to see Michael Dixon bring the blues up...it is truly a
microtonal music. I have played blues guitar for 30 years, and at this
stage, I do not believe that it is possible to pin down the "blue" notes
to a specific pitch. Just check out Albert King playing "Look Out" (Live
at the Fillmore), and listen how many different ways he bends the same
few notes...it is an awesome performance. It is quite correct to say that
there is a big range of possibilities as to where to bend a note; I teach
my students to do it by feel, because it is impossible to notate on
paper. To make things even more nebulous, there are no groundrules as to
when to bend a note, as well as how much to bend it...sometimes, a sax or
guitar will deliberately miss a note by a slight amount (usually flat),
for the "cry" it attains. Every blues/jazz musician is automatically an
arranger/composer, as well as a player...and improvisation is the name of
the game...it's a fascinating subject...Hstick

> Topic No. 2
>
> Date: Sun, 06 Sep 1998 08:46:23 -0500
> From: Gary Morrison
> To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
> Subject: Re: Experimental 19-tone keyboard
> Message-ID: <35F2922A.6548B175@texas.net>
>
> > I have nearly completed my custom MIDI keyboard ( final year electronic project
> > at university ).
>
> Neat! Out of curiosity, which university?
>
> > I want to know if there is any preference as to what MIDI note number
> > coresponds to each key.
>
> I'm not personally aware of any such standard. Although if you want to
> maintain A=440Hz as an absolute-pitch standard, then perhaps it might make sense
> to make that be the common note.
>

It is my understanding that General MIDI starts at C-1 being labeled MIDI Note number 0, extending to G9
being labeled MIDI Note number 127 (Note: the 88-key range of a piano keyboard, by these criteria,
extends from A0{an octave and a sixth above C-1} to C8, with C4 corresponding to Middle C). MIDI Note
numbers may be extended higher than 127, but I have not encountered examples of them being extended on
the low end. Any observations from more experienced readers?

Michael Dixon wrote:

''I've been doing a study of blues music recently and am having trouble
understanding why some members of the Just Intonation community consider
the
7-limit representative of 'blue' notes.''

''My listening, reading, and talking to artists in the field indicates th=
at
a
'blue' 3rd, for instance, can sound anywhere in-between a minor and majo=
r
3rd, with or without sliding. Artists such as Muddy Waters, 'Big Boy'
Crudup, some of the so-called Guitar Evangelists, some early Gospel
singers,
and so on, sing many neutral intervals. A low minor 7th occurs very
rarely,
and a low minor 3rd even less.''

''If ratios can describe intonation of 'blue' notes then the 11-limit wou=
ld
describe such notes better.''

I have very little experience in this area, but would venture that their =
is
some confusion in the use of the term 'blue note'. Most just
intonationalists are probably talking about the use of 7/4 sevenths
harmonically, creating a stable harmonic background. What happens
melodically over this background, however, varies tremendously among
singers or players, often reflecting instrumental restrictions. While som=
e
singers or players may well come close to intervals like the 11/9 neutral=

third, I would hesitate to definitively characterize it this way. Althoug=
h
it may work ouut in practice, traditional players most likely do not thin=
k
of it in this way, nor does such a characterization lead to a particularl=
y
useful functional description.

This reminds me a bit of the Schoenberg-Schenker controversy, which has
been well summarized by the late musicologist Carl Dahlhaus. The Schoenbe=
rg
of the _Harmonielehre_ insisted that all vertical structures were parseab=
le
harmonically, across a spectrum of greater or lesser consonance. Schenker=
,
on the other hand, insisted that certain combinations were non-harmonic a=
nd
would be 'parsed out' by the listener as passing tones over the underlyin=
g
structure. =


With the caveat that the choice of melodic blues notes may reflect some
qualitative assesment of the dissonance to the underlying harmony (e.g. i=
n
terms of beating) I imagine that blues players and their just-intoned
followers are working within the Schenkerian framework. =

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End of TUNING Digest 1525
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