Blue note? (was Re: 9/5 on pedal steel)

Paul Hahn wrote:
>On Thu, 24 Sep 1998, Bob Lee wrote:
>> I've realized
>> that I use the 7/4 a lot as a melody note in blues solos, but I
>> really don't have the pedals set right to give it to me in chords.
>
>Interesting. What's your opinion on the question posed a few days ago
>about blue thirds as 7/6s (extra-flat) vs. 11/9s (semi-flat)?

There's a strong tradition for the 11/9 in country music. Listen to Luther
Perkins' guitar parts with Johnny Cash, for example, or some of Ernest
Tubbs' vocals. I use it a lot in that context, and I even wrote a song once
that built a major triad on top of it. Of course, there's no 11/9 pedal on
the guitar, but it's an easy note to line up by sight because it's so close
to the quarter tone.

I don't recall ever using the 7/6 deliberately. I'm sure I've hit in from
time to time in the heat of blues improvisation, but it seems to me that it
would have to resolve fairly quickly. It's not a note that I'd let stand
for very long.

-b0b- http://www.b0b.com/infoedu/just_e9.html