Editing Blue note (section)

==Origins and meaning==
{{blockquote|Like the blues in general, the blue notes can mean many things. One quality that they all have in common, however, is that they are [[flat (music)|lower]] than one would expect, classically speaking. But this flatness may take several forms. On the one hand, it may be a [[microtonal music|microtonal]] affair of a [[quarter tone|quarter-tone]] or so. Here one may speak of ''neutral'' intervals, neither major nor minor. On the other hand, the lowering may be by a full semitone—as it must be, of course, on keyboard instruments. It may involve a [[glissando|glide]], either upward or downward. Again, this may be a microtonal, almost imperceptible affair, or it may be a slur between notes a semitone apart, so that there is actually not one blue note but two. A blue note may even be marked by a microtonal [[shake (music)|shake]] of a kind common in [[Music of Asia|Oriental music]]. The degrees of the mode treated in this way are, in order of frequency, the third, seventh, fifth, and sixth.|[[Peter van der Merwe (musicologist)|Peter van der Merwe]] (1989)|''Origins of the Popular Style''|source=p. 119}}[[File:Blue notes in major scale.png|thumb|400px|Blue notes (in blue): {{music|b}}3, ({{music|#}}4)/{{music|b}}5, {{music|b}}7]]

The blue notes are usually said to be the [[minor third|lowered third]], [[diminished fifth|lowered fifth]], and [[minor seventh|lowered seventh]] [[scale degree]]s.<ref name="Blue Notes">{{cite web |title=Blue Notes |publisher=How To Play Blues Guitar |date=2008-07-06 |access-date=2008-07-06 |url=http://how-to-play-blues-guitar.com/blues-concepts/blue-notes/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202121511/http://how-to-play-blues-guitar.com/blues-concepts/blue-notes/ |archive-date=2008-12-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Evans|first=David, 1944-|title=Big road blues : tradition and creativity in the folk blues|date=1982|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=0-520-03484-8|location=Berkeley|oclc=6197930}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Titon|first=Jeff Todd, 1943-|title=Early downhome blues : a musical and cultural analysis|date=1994|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|isbn=0-8078-2170-5|edition=2nd|location=Chapel Hill|oclc=29909597}}</ref> The lowered fifth is also known as the raised fourth.<ref name="Ferguson">Ferguson, Jim (1999). ''All Blues Soloing for Jazz Guitar: Scales, Licks, Concepts & Choruses'', p. 20. {{ISBN|0786642858}}.</ref> Though the [[blues scale]] has "an inherent minor tonality, it is commonly 'forced' over major-key chord changes, resulting in a distinctively dissonant conflict of tonalities".<ref name="Ferguson" /> A similar conflict occurs between the notes of the [[minor scale]] and the minor blues scale, as heard in songs such as "[[Why Don't You Do Right?]]", "[[Happy (Pharrell Williams song)|Happy]]" and "[[Sweet About Me]]".

In the case of the lowered third over the root (or the lowered seventh over the dominant), the resulting chord is a neutral [[added tone chord|mixed third chord]].

Blue notes are used in many [[blues]] songs, in jazz, and in conventional [[popular song]]s with a "blue" feeling, such as  [[Harold Arlen]]'s "[[Stormy Weather (1933 song)|Stormy Weather]]". Blue notes are also prevalent in [[English folk music]].<ref>Lloyd, A. L. (1967). ''Folk Song in England'', pp. 52–54. London: Lawrence & Wishart. Cited in Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music''. Philadelphia: Open University Press. {{ISBN|0-335-15275-9}}.</ref> Bent or "blue notes", called in Ireland "long notes", play a vital part in Irish music.<ref>{{cite web
  | last = Epping
  | first = Rick
  | title = Irish Harmonica
  | publisher = www.celticguitarmusic.com
  | url = http://www.celticguitarmusic.com/irishharm.htm
  | access-date = 2008-11-04 }}</ref>