I get this question a lot… what is the blues?
What is it about some music that makes it sound “bluesy” while other music does not?
And why is it that we smear minor 3rds over major chords?
Turns out it was easier to show this in a video than to explain it so here you go:
86 replies to "What Is The Blues?"
Hi Griff, I can see from my previous comments that I have seen this lesson in 2015..hear is the great news, since I have been learning some of the BGU courses I NOW understand what you are talking about and demonstrating here. Good old Box 1 on G/G7 with the flatted B 1/3rd.Makes sense but have to keep practicing it. but great.
Michael-Sydney-Australia March 4th 2018
Griff, very, very helpful video!!! Thank you for posting it!!!
GOT THE MASSAGE (LOUD AND CLEAR)
That is so cool, Griff. The artistry displayed is beyond my level of achievement at this time, but surely something to aim for. Keep the demos coming, they are so inspirational.
It would be interesting to hear that same song without using the flat 3rd.Would that makes 2 different songs? Thanks much for this video.
That was interesting. So far over my head that I didn’t have a clue what you were talking about most of the time. But I’ll keep the link to the video just to be able to play / pause / play my way along with you to get the hang of the sound. So, thanks !
Griff,
Can you provide a brief description / model of the guitar you feature for each session ?
Thanks,
Jim
thats a gibson 335
Great discussion! It made a lot of sense and was encouraging to those of us still working towards “mastery” – it gave one hope!
I enjoy all of the teachings about blues they help me a lot thank you for your videos.
Hey Griff,great lesson and I love that Gibson Hollow, I’m getting the Epiphone pro II I belive the pick-up’s are Gibson (not sure) but I heard it played and it’s has a Great sound,Anyway love your lesson’s I have all your Jam track’s they really sound like I have the band with me,so when I get that guitar I’ve mention, Wel I just can’t wait,to jam, like real loud,my neighbors think I should joint a band or have my owen. Well keep rocking and keep on playing those blue’s.
Fantastic Griff!!! You nailed it.Simple explanation of a complex…ish area of music. Thanks for all you do for us.
Griff, what looper are you using?
hey i have been a hard rocker for 25 years. i just do it for fun. how iam disabled so i cant buy any of your lessons so sorry you have earned it. i have learned bits of what you do and i am greatful also iam glag you still send me stuff. i have never had a teacher iam not asking for anything from you but i would give thanks to any old teachings you have just laying around dusty. and if not i under stand but i think your a great player but alot better singer and i say that with the best of attion cause you can play rings around me hope you rise above the stars.
opps! Right at the end you said “you throw in the flatted third” when you meant flatted 7th.
No, flatted third it is. That is why the blues scale is often called minor pentatonic.
Hey Griff,
It seems almost a year ago I wrote something above. As a great refresher now that I have learnt the Blues & Pentatonic Scales across the 5 Boxes, I kept wondering why playing we are playing different notes other than the Root Note in Licks and Solos… Now I have woken up all because your Courses BGU V2, and all the others that I have purchased have helped me truly to now understand Playing The Blues is so great.
Now fully retired and practicing and playing guitar a few hours daily.
great lesson.
Michael- Sydney-Australia
hey Thanks Griff”
now I understand a little better, when I play those notes.
I know they sound good, but I didn’t know why.
Thanks Griff. The guitar moves in mysterious ways.
Using the Major and Minor Pentatonic scales combined creates a sort of dominant-seventh scale, only with both types of third.
Cool! Thanks Griff.
Thank you Griff,
As per usual you make things simple and easy to understand…….excellent!
Dan Scharf
Hey, Dan, are you from Pismo Beach CA?
No Kim, Charlotte NC!
THANKS GRIFF,THIS IS MJUST WHAT I NEEDED,WOW.lEN.
This be da bluz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u_pi_Cq3Pg
As Elton John used to sing “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues!”
BMC…. you are right as rain!! This is the “essence”…. the “soul” … of blues straight from one of the originals.
No matter if they’re thinking flatted 3rd or flatted 7th… they have the “feel” in their hearts thru the trials and tribulations of their respective lives!!
Carry on sir.. thanks for enlightening my viewpoints.
Puro blues!!!
Excellent nice n simple explained thanks heaps need more scale n chords break down in many ways great work lov it…
Don’t you love how this guy teaches you the rules properly so you can break them!
Made it look so simple too…
Great explanation.
I’m new to blues playing and I’d been worrying, unnecessarily as it now appears, about playing minor thirds over major chords!
Thanks a lot Griffin.
I remember way back a few years ago I decided to have lessons and learn guitar proper after a 40 year hiatus and on my first “SHOP” mentioned I needed a metronome, the guy in shop said get a looper best thing I ever bought for learning timing listening, progresss etc etc
Thanks, another great lesson I am starting to get it
Clear, concise and simple – brilliant..and rare! Thanks Griff, you have a gift.
Here’s a suggestion relating to the 1/4 tones: I play some lap steel,dobro & bottleneck (i.e. no frets to limit the range of tonality)and find alot of expression in the range between the second and major third especially.It’s worth experimenting in this zone if you can use a bottleneck or a lap steel, as it’s the ability to find these intermediate tones that makes slide playing such a special variation on regular guitar – and fun and definitely bluesy too!
Thanks Griff. It makes sense and now I see and hear the difference.
BTW, the BGU is excellent!
I’m only 5 months into learning how to make the guitar work for me (I’m making progress by the way), and that lesson is helpful. It enabled me to better think with the Blues sound concept, apart from simply thinking about it. You’re an awesome musician and an effective teacher. Thank you. (I’m trying to arrange a way to buy something from you in exchange for all I’m getting from you by being on your email comm line…I think I’m making progress with that too…).
great teacher
Incredible, a great explanation!!
Hi griff . Thanks for all your help..
Don’t want to get bogged down with to much theory.
But it does help to understand the maths.
Great teacher , very patient .
Brought my playing forward in leaps b.
Enjoying the guitar a lot more ..
I’d hit the wall, and didn’t know how to go forward .
Thanks again .
JB,(England).
Hi Griff an excellent explanation and very helpful to me. I need to understand something before I can learn it and you are an excellent teacher. Thanks heaps!
What about the blue note? In the pentatonic scale it is a sharp 4th or flat 5th. I think of it as a leading tone to the 4th or the 5th depending on which direction your going in the scale. Can you comment on that Griff? Great stuff.
Should resolve up a 1/2 step leading to a chord tone in the next chord.
Griff,
Simple and clear….thank you.
For the intermediate version, I found an image online of how the major scale changes a single note to become mixlydian and then change another to become Dorian and then another to become aeolian…..etc.. it really opened my eyes to understanding how major and minor are related
Hey Griff,
Great lesson like it. Just moved into a new bigger house with a new Music room Den larger. However not up with the internet yet just using a Hotspot but your lesson still came though with shining colours.
Keep them coming as I am semi retired now and getting into some serious practice as well as practicing during the ads on TV.
Michael – St Andrews NSW Australia
Once again, great lesson, just one question( it might sound strange) but what is the machine that you use for your accompaniment, is it a tape recorder?
All the best from down under
It seems to be a looper/loop station pedal, like the Boss Rc series.
Or a Ditto Looper
thanks great lesson Griff.
Thanks Teach, makes simple sense, the clash of the flatted 3rd gives a whole new color to the sound. Blues Baby !!! 🙂
Thank you for the video, you make it look easy. I do have a question concerning blues music. It is my understanding that blues music originated in the delta and the beat was to mimic the beat of a human heart. This was meant to mean the blues came from the heart and told of life in a bad situation, which was life in the delta. Am I wrong?
I done heerd ya did it. Sounds like me after spending a week in the WV mountains! Good job, Griff.
As usual great stuff!
As always Griff you make the hard stuff easy to understand. Great job
Thanks you for the great theory lesson Griff I really like to hear the how and why things work when it comes to theory just natural music curiosity for me !!!
? HUH ?
For those of you who are thinkin’ the same ‘huh’?
There is only one answer :
Griff’s course : ‘Guitar Theory Made Useful … and easy.’
Better get it now.
A.B.
Hey Griff I don’t understand a word your saying b it it’s great anyways I have gotten more out of your videos than I would ever get out of a lesson from some meathead that’s a legend in his own mind thanks for all your patient after picking up the guitar after a 30yr break u have help make a huge difference in the way I play
After watching youre lessons i realize how much theory i still need.Even though john lee hooker style shuffles are what i play often.It is great seeing some of youre more complex arrangements.I hope to see YOU live next time i am in California.
Thank you Griff. I always appreciate your music theory lessons. Would you discuss in another lesson
use of the major pentatonic vs minor pentatonic vs major scales. Examples such as in this clip were very usefu. Perhaps you could do the same in discussing and contrasting these 3 scales. I have your music theory course and don’t recall this discussion. Thanks.
I always feel an urge to respond following one of your video lesson such as this one. Your records will show the fact I have purchasd several of your courses before and can say they are very good for anybody out there who have not jumped right in before now. The sound of the blues is what draws us in; your explanations keeps us hooked. I have studied the plight of the slaves, the traders, and of course the role following the Civil War in eventually their freedom hard won. I do not think I ever actually thought of the singing as call and response in the way a fellow commentor mentioned. Perhaps I should be more lateral in my approach than literal. I find the technicalities to playing I can understand; yet the practicalities not so great at times. I concur with all your followers that suggest you are the best and long may that continue.
What was that flying right over my head!? Oh yeah, all of the music theory stuff.
My ears appreciated the lesson anyway.
Very nice… Simply explained and so simple to do. Well done Griff, you’re the best 😉
Thanks, Griff! Great presentation of theory, for the guitar geek in all of us! Of course, now explain why the “blue note” is the flatted 5th!
You mentioned the 3rd and the 7th, but NOT the flatted 5th! How can the “BLUE note” not be the defining note of the blues?!! The way to create the “Blues scale” is to add the “FLATTED 5TH” to the minor pentatonic scale! Please tell me that the flatted 5th is the defining blues note that makes the blues the blues. Or not.
While I love the sound of the flat 5, you can get the blues sound without it depending on the chord you’re playing over. It’s a funny thing but the b5 sounds great and does sound bluesy, but if you were to play the natural 3rd and the b5 it wouldn’t sound as bluesy as the b3 does even without the b5. I guess you could say the b3 carries a bit more weight, with the b7 and the b5 a close 2nd and 3rd. Also, remember that the b5 turns into a b3 when you treat that pattern as a major blues scale so I believe that historically the b3 came first. But admittedly I don’t know this as fact… it’s just what I’ve perceived from playing a lot and transcribing so much.
Hi Griff, nice little groove and solid presentation as usual. You are very generous, in you approach, your consistency, and proliferation. You have some energy. So lets have fans hurrah. Dont let you playing get stiff tune in daily for some Griff. A Griff a day keeps the doctor away. When your down n troubled and need a helping hand. Play some Griff. Levity apart your a top geezer. thanks H
Thank you Griff… you are “the best”
I’ve spent my whole life figuring out how to play but, you came along and let me understand why. Thank you Griff.
simplicity itself. thanks Griff
Great lesson. If you could have only one guitar and amp. What would it be?
after seeing this i think i should invest in a looper . trying to get someone to play a g cord for a spell seems like i would be asking to much . i think a lot of guitarists do not know this theroy displayed here . also it answers some question that has me thinking . i like multipul guitar sound so this is a good example of what sounds good . throw a slide in there too!!! SLIDE GUITAR THAT IS !!!
many thanks for your explanation . I am really getting it !
Excellent explanation Griff. Anybody can hit the ground running after watching. Simple but huge.
Great stuff Griff and some insightful contributions from the blog members. Thanks! Oh and I agree on the i device auto correct……LOL
I play classical guitar, but I love these videos. It is not just the musicianship and the intelligence and the pedagogical capability; it is also the Griff’s generosity!
Very helpful, to say nothing of enjoyable.
Great Griff… Had an odd thought as you said “You heard me DID IT”..
My head likened it to using the Bb instead of a B.. So… I get it.. instead of using the a B you used a Bb to get that sweet Blues sound.. and… I did hear you (Done Did It).. instead of (Do it)… LOL
…caught the exact same thought. Griff’s a very clever teacher. He does all kind of tricks to make you really learn stuff. It’s all throughout his teachings.
love the explanation using the guitar…great just to listen to it and not watch it…later.
cowboy
Dear Griff, thank you for your cristal clear explanation. Personally, I would add a theory of why that “clash of 3ds” accounts for the blues y sound. Long ago I read somewhere, i don’t recall where, that the blues originated when the African musical culture blended (and also clashed) with the chords of American church music, which was obviously of European origin. African melodies usted sácales that included 1/4 tones, i.e. a note half way between the major and the minor third. But since that sound could not be played on an instrument tuned to play the tempered scale, making the major and the minor 3ds sound together kind of produced an impression that felt a bit like that note halfway between the two. The same thing when you play the minor third as a quick appogiatura before the major third, or even play both sounds clashing together with your right hand on the piano. I’m by no means a blues player, I’m a musician and music teacher from Argentina, so I wanted to ask you if that explanation makes se se to you, who aré a blues expert. Thanks for everything you share. As a teacher, I constanly find you explaining the exact same things I explain to my students about the best ways to study. All the best to you. José Luis Tubert
Sorry for the tipos in my post. It’ my iPad’s spelling correction function that things I’m waiting in Spanish! José Luis Tubert
Dear Griff. No doubt about it. You are the best teacher of guitar there is. Not just because you are a very good guitarist, but you are a very good teacher because you enjoy imparting something that will give joy to who receives it, more than you like money. I’m not saying you don’t like money. I’m saying you don’t like it more than you like people. It’s self evident.
I was also told of the African 1/4 tones by an instructor and that these tones were used in the Field Hollers.
To hear it play an A minor pentatonic. Bend the C slightly, at most halfway to the C sharp. It’s a nice bluesy sound.
Bend it then resolve to A or bend it, hold the bend, and hammer on to the bent C sharp then to the A.
I’ve heard a similar story but it’s been so long that I don’t remember the source. However, it makes a lot of sense when you look at how so many blues players through history tend to “add a little sugar” to the flatted 3rd and raise it to some point between the flatted and natural third. I have little doubt that is a big part of the history behind it.
I think what makes something bluesy and what you’re referring to with the flated thirds and sevenths over a major chord is all about resolution; the question and the answer. Those blue notes are asking and we feel the urge to answer. Each time we resolve that dissonant note it feels like a small completion. Our ear tells us that we can’t stay on that flated third or seventh. It’s all about equilibrium, we’re thirsty we drink something, we’re hungry we eat something, we find ourselves confused and we look for answers. There’s a ‘righting’ that needs to take place and when it does it feels good.
Patrick
Once again you make it easy to understand. Very good and easy to follow explanation. Thanks Griff
Awesome video that explains the blues sound. The follow up question i would have is how to make that major/minor blues sound work if you play solo guitar?
Great!! Really a good “suggestion”. Thanks Griff.