Music Theory 4
Hi, Dave:
Working my way through the Music Theory videos again.
Referencing Ex 1.15 in Music Theory 4, I see that outside tones are the flat 2, the flat 3, the flat 5, and the flat 6. The blues scale uses the flat 3 and flat 5. Is that because the flat 3 and flat 5 both resolve easily to chord tones?
Do you think that the blues scales omits the flat 2 and the flat 6 because they would resolve to the 2 and the 6, which are scale tones (but not chord tones)? Would it be safe to say, then, that the flat 2 and flat 6 are the absolute bluesiest, most discordant notes to play? (So, if I were going to "zoom in" on your pyramid for greater detail, I might see a division in the top section "outside tones". In the outside tones section, maybe the flat 3 and flat 5 are lower down. The flat 2 and flat 6 would be at the very tippy top of the pyramid.)
Morning Marc. The flat-3 is a half step away from the 3rd and flat-5 is a half step away from the 5th. Since they're a half step away from chord tones, they aggressively want to resolve to them. The flat-5 more than the flat-3, it wants to resolve upwards to the 5th or down to the 4th and ultimately in a run downwards to the root. The flat-3 wants to commonly go down to the 2nd and ultimately the root, but it can also go up to the 3rd.
The flat-2 is very dissonant, due to it being a half step away from the Root... a little bit too discordant for blues, but it has been used (very rare). The flat-6 is from the minor scale, and for some reason not commonplace in the blues.
"Do you think that the blues scales omits the flat 2 and the flat 6 because they would resolve to the 2 and the 6, which are scale tones (but not chord tones)?" flat-2 commonly goes downwards to the root, so no on that one. The flat-6th commonly goes downwards to the 5th, so again no.
"Would it be safe to say, then, that the flat 2 and flat 6 are the absolute bluesiest, most discordant notes to play? (So, if I were going to "zoom in" on your pyramid for greater detail, I might see a division in the top section "outside tones". In the outside tones section, maybe the flat 3 and flat 5 are lower down. The flat 2 and flat 6 would be at the very tippy top of the pyramid.)" knowing that "bluesy" means dissonant, that is very much a way to think about it. But being that they're extremely rare, be cautious, you're treading in possible weird-sounding territory. There's a fine line between innovative and weird :-)