Blues Scale
Blues scales also come in major and minor varieties. The C minor blues scale is C E♭ F F♯ G B♭ C ascending or C B♭ G G♭ F E♭ C descending. The difference in the up and down versions is only in its enharmonic spelling, i.e. G♭ vs F♯.
The C major blues scale is C D D♯ E G A C ascending or C A G E E♭ D C descending.
Guitarists often mix the major and minor pentatonics together along with the blues scale. The dorian and mixolydian modes are similar to this combination and they can also be used in the same context.
Winthrop Sargeant describes the jazz scale as the above scale, defined as, "a definite series of tones within an octave used as the basis of a musical composition," compiled instead from multiple compositions and improvisations (according to Stearns: "a great many jazz records") and is hypothesized as displaying the influence of African music. The E♭ and B♭ are blue notes.
Read more about this topic: Jazz Scale
Famous quotes containing the words blues and/or scale:
“Holly Golightly: You know those days when you’ve got the mean reds?
Paul: The mean reds? You mean like the blues?
Holly Golightly: No, the blues are because you’re getting fat or maybe it’s been raining too long. You’re just sad, that’s all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you’re afraid and you don’t know what you’re afraid of.”
—George Axelrod (b. 1922)
“I by no means rank poetry high in the scale of intelligence—this may look like affectation but it is my real opinion. It is the lava of the imagination whose eruption prevents an earthquake.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)