blues scale
- noun
- /bluːz skeɪl/
- Specialized
:
escala de blues
- I would play a twelve-bar blues progression and invite students to improvise using any note of the blues scale.
- notes of the blues scale
- flat blues scale
- using the blues scale
OK, he starts out in AC sharp minor blue scale.
- OK, he starts out in AC sharp minor blue scale.
- But the blue scale descending sounds like the beginning to a song called Messing with the Kid Dee Dee Dee Dee Dee Dee Dee Dee Dee.
Examples
-
To introduce my students to improvisation, I taught them to play the concert B-flat blues scale.
Academic text (2008) -
To broaden tonal concepts and avoid dissonance, use pentatonic and blues scales for improvisation warm-ups, particularly as students encounter these scales in the repertoire.
Academic text (1995) -
Students must first learn one blues scale.
Academic text (2003) -
Now you are ready to enter your blues scale in standard notation.
Academic text (2011) -
Patterns based on the blues scale are easily heard and recognized.
Academic text (1995) -
Have the student end phrases on different notes in the blues scale.
Academic text (2003) -
Figure 5 contains an example of notes from a blues scale in the key of B-flat.
Academic text (1997) -
Don't let the student play outside the blues scale yet.
Academic text (2003) -
Blues scales should also be introduced in various keys while working on the major scales.
Academic text (1994) -
In jazz music, the musician used the blues scale to create a soulful melody.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly composed from 'blues' (a musical style) + 'scale' (a series of notes), so a learner who knows both words can infer this refers to a scale used in blues/jazz music. This noun-noun composition follows a regular, cross-linguistic pattern of naming instruments/styles and is therefore immediately comprehensible to B1 learners.
Etymology
Blues scale comes from old African American singing, where singers used special blue notes, notes played slightly lower to sound more 'sad' or 'expressive'. These lowered notes form a small scale musicians use in jazz and blues, so the blues scale gives music its distinctive, emotional sound.
