RE: [Harp-L] RE Little Walter's harmony/Let's all talk Little Walter!

[Richard Hammersley <rhhammersley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This will teach me not to do harmony on my fingers without a guitar present! 

-----Original Message-----
From: Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 01 July 2009 18:13
To: Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] RE Little Walter's harmony/Let's all talk Little Walter!

I agree that the "rule" of flatting the third against the IV chord is over-rigid. But it is a widely held belief, even in jazz, as Miles Davis mentions in his autobiography.

I don't know why you say the third is an 11th. The 11th is the 4th, an octave higher, While the 3rd an octave higher is a 10th (just add 7). Chords built, and then extended in thrids go up the odd numbers. Here's a chord built on C, with the number in the scale next to the note name:

C1 E3 G5 B7 D9 F11 A13 C again 15

Notes like 9ths and 11th may be raised or lowered to create particular colors of chords, but the quality of the third (i.e., major, minor, tempered in whatever fashion), while equally influential on the color of the chord, is a separate thing.

Harmonica content: Draw 2,3,4,5, and 6 correspond to the 1,3,5,7, and 9 of a dominant 9th chord. (Dominant refers to a chord with a major third and a minor 7th).

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Wed, 7/1/09, Richard Hammersley <rhhammersley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Richard Hammersley <rhhammersley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] RE Little Walter's harmony/Let's all talk Little Walter!
To: "Nicholas Lovett" <lovett.nicholas@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wednesday, July 1, 2009, 2:47 AM

It is a bit over-rigid to believe that not flattening the 'blue' notes breaks any rules of the blues. Many players mess about with flattening/ not flattening, or slide or gliss from one to the other. For instance opening the "Country Blues Songbook" (transcriptions by Stephan Grossman, Steve Calt and Hal Grossman) at random. Bukka White in 'My Mother Died' apparently sings the 7th note sharp, natural and flat in a single triplet. It is much more common to use the flattened note and natural note at different places in the melody, or as variations from verse to verse.

Some of the charm of the blues is lost by over rigid adherence to the "blues scale". 


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