source file: m1535.txt
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 08:18:48 -0700

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

From: "Bob Lee" <quasar@sonic.net>

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