Blues Harmony vs Western Harmony

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This Jazz Piano Tutorial is about Blues Harmony.
What's the difference between Blues and Western Classical music? Blues seems so break all the rules of Western harmony and yet still sounds good. How can this be the case? In this video I discuss Blues Harmony, or Blues Tonality, and come to the conclusion that the Blues follows its own set of harmonic rules separate and parallel to Western harmonic rules.
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[@lawrencetaylor4101]

Great lecture. Whenever it gets boring, I go to the end and play that riff. Fantastic.

[@ylonmc2]

Awesome class as always!! Fantastic ride on history lane, no channel comes close to this one. I am yet to find out what have we done to deserve you!! Thanks so much for the videos man, I do learn a lot from them. Just an aside, Paganini used minor thirds against major chords too.

[@malaquiasalfaro81]

I’m a guitar player but seeing music theory through piano is a huge help. This was a wonderful video, and I appreciate you looking into the historical aspect of the blues rather than just “syncopation, 12-bar, blues notes”

[@michaelray9047]

Killer stuff man! I've been a full time blues musician for 4 years now and learned a ton from this video! Thank you!

[@Cloudkusanagui]

Always loved your rationalization of music but not quite your examples. This last blues one trying to exaggerate dissonance was by far my favorite piece of improv by you in this channel, really liked it! Thank you for all the great content!

[@pavlobutorin]

Very informative, clear explanation as always! Thanks and God bless!

[@banchyy09]

You’re the MVP

[@jamesmcmahan1236]

Great music history lesson. Very intriguing. Going to share this!

[@Nuclearsoandso]

It was nice to learn something about history and music. Good job.

[@davidbingley6734]

This is sophisticated, yet down to earth. Very well done. Love your playing at the emd.

[@fannyaranda597]

One of my fav videos....clarifies alot for me!

[@NachshoN55555]

This is PURE GOLD. Thank u

[@dharryg]

Succinct and helpful summary of comparative theory! Thanks!

[@alexfont]

Simply... AMAZINGLY EXPLAINED 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@seiph80]

Love the history part. Thanks for the explanation.

[@TobiPK]

Your channel is pure gold! thank you!

[@NomeDeArte]

Amazing serie abour Jazz, thank you so much! Best regards from Argentina

[@harczymarczy]

About the "flat 3rd": it's an augmented 9th, yes. If you use it over a IV chord, the whole chord becomes a II56# which is a German 6th borrowed from the parallel minor key aka A minor in the case of C major. Therefore, it's a II chord instead of a IV when using Western analysis. This is because it may resolve to a major 3rd = the 3rd of I, too.

[@b00i00d]

I've seen a few of your videos and I think here you've gone the deepest. That was a very rewarding watch where I frequently paused to try things out. By the way, microtones are one of the reasons why authentic blues (trying for example to simulate the original experience as far as that's possible) is more suited for guitar, with it's beautiful bends and such (and other instruments of similar capability - the harmonica being one)

[@vadimzitsermusicianvlogcha3870]

Thanks,incredible simple explanation

[@nomoobsd]

Brilliant!

[@GATTAPADRE]

This is good, a very detailed history and technical explanation. I grew up listening to much blues in the 60's, (but my piano lessons were just diatonic Western music, so my ear became accustomed to the blues note and guitar bends. As an adult I have spent so much time in Turkey and Egypt that my ear gradually became accustomed to their music, (same way as as most of you are familiar with the Blues), and their music has some scales with quarter notes, so much more microtones are used than the odd guitar bends in blues. 12 bar blues is so predictable that it is easy to join in and improvise, without knowing more than the blues scale, but that can become too repetitive and learning some of the theory mentioned here will help to make it more interesting, especially the modes.

[@Wonderland_Jutomi]

Gotta say, you're an amazing piano player.

[@be3ho7nm]

It sounds awesome! )

[@hany-tawfik]

Great video!

[@yuothineyesasian]

Definitely subbed.

[@heiah]

I have been trying to wrap my head around the differences between blues, minor and major chord progressions as well as how it affects harmony and melody, rhythm is another topic. I only played black keys lately, and started building chords around those black Keyes. This led me to discover that you end up with distinct minor and major as well as suspended chords. But within the black Keyes I came to realize that there are two pentatonic scales hidden in them. Starting from f#, it’s a major pentatonic. Starting from d#, it’s the minor pentatonic. If i was to add the 4th and 7th to the major pentatonic, it helped me to distinguish between the more important 5 black Keyes and those more likely to be dissonant added diatonic white Keyes in major. Same principle can be applied to minor, which lead to the realization that in minor pentatonic you can leave out the 2nd and 6th, but you can also add them, which makes it natural minor/aeolian. This structure also helped me to visualize avoid notes easier, understand suspended chords and where they like to resolve to in terms of cadences. It feels like these pentatonic scales are the root, unbiased by modern terminology. Out of it grew major and minor harmony with its chords and the option to change them.

[@Shuzies]

Nicely done.....rc

[@gabrielrangel956]

I suppose that explains why I feel the standard understanding of blues rarely describes "real" blues musicians' playstyle. The 12-bar blues has that manufactured sound to it.

[@DoctorNoah123]

My theory for the "blue notes" - particularly the blue 7th - is they come from natural frequencies in the harmonic series. The seventh note of this series is analogous to a seventh in the equal tempered scale, but it is noticeably flatter. When it is played in addition to a just major chord, the result is a consonant, at rest chord that doesn't feel like it's pushing to the IV chord. This is used extensively in barbershop harmony and my personal belief is this blue or "barbershop" 7th is where some of the blues harmonic concepts come from. Here's a blog post that explains it in some detail; the KZbin clip at the end of the post is very demonstrative: www.garygarrett.me/?p=1575

[@kukumuniu5658]

Hi :) I was interested in a fragment about modulation it turned out that there is a lot of modulation: 1. Diatonic Common Chord Modulation 2. Chromatic Pivot Chord Modulation 3. Enharmonic Dominant Modulation 4. Deceptive Cadence 5. Enharmonic Diminished 7th Modulation 6. Diminished 7th to Dominant 7th Modulation 7. Chromatic Mediant Modulation 8. Common Tone or Pivot Note Modulation 9. Direct or Linear Modulation 10. Chain Modulation 11. Parallel Modulation 12. Modal Modulation do you have something interesting about them?

[@Iville18]

Country blues and delta blues are different things, they come from the area around texas and the mississipi delta respectively

[@OdinComposer]

Tonal harmony wasn't created as much as it evolved as a consequence ofcontrapuntal conventions and figured bass playing. I don't know that much about the creation of blues, but I definitely agree that it's has own harmonic language, albeit one not completely removed from western tradition, as like you said, it was adopted and formalized by trained musicians.

[@jwal1992]

12:10 The b3 is actually a #9. Technically a 2 (or a 9) is a leading tone. Unlike other notes in a scale, the 2 and the 5 have 3 possibilities: Flat, natural and sharp. Although it's hard to turn around with a b5, (because the 1 is the major 3rd of the b5), the #9 is a manipulation of the natural 2 that blues singer is singing. "Then why doesn't it work with the b5?" you ask? Because the 3rd is not a turn around not, unless it's a sub for a 1 (which bebop players find a couple of decades later). The bebop cats also find out that 1 is the b6 of the #9/b3. Traditional turn arounds are 1-6-2-5 or 3-6-2-5. Hope that helps!

[@Mridzkyps]

How is 1 the major 3rd of the b5? I don't quite get what u meant. If we're in C, then b5 would be a Gb and major 3rd of Gb would be a Bb which is a b7, right?

[@batner]

I am not sure were you get the story about "wrong notes". You need a fretless instrument to get microtones. That is why arabs like "western" violins so much. Bending notes on the guitar is not new as well. The great creators of the western musical system did a good job at trying to make a universal one. Popular black music was quickly formalized. Just like Mozart formalized street music and used it as part of his works. Here is a quick example from Tchaikovsky on voice leading, from a harmony book published in 1900. "Theory can supply but a very general insight into the voices." and mentions that some finer points can not be laid out as formula. Many such statements were made at various times and you must know that "western" music was always an evolving thing. books.google.co.il/books?id=XDO1L2XKVFYC&pg=PA39&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

[@georgechristiansen6785]

Unfortunately?

[@tumortheofficial]

You guys should start a Patreon

[@bumpty9830]

Thanks, this was helpful! Wouldn't expect you to know this, especially not being American, but it's a myth that slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865 as you described. You can read the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution yourself online. Slavery wasn't abolished, it was moved into the prison system. There are more US slaves today than in 1864. And the "school to prison pipeline" has largely maintained the skin color of the enslaved population for all these decades. Civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Fred Hampton have been murdered to maintain this reality. I realize this is a four year old video and an off-topic point, but it concerns the systemic racist abuse of a people still suffering, and whose suffering inspired the music you describe here, so I think it's worth pointing out anyway. I would include links to back up my facts, but KZbin discourages links in comments, so I haven't. I will find a way to provide them if you doubt my claims. And I'm happy to discuss or to share more resources if you're interested. Thanks again!

[@clownpocket]

Thrash metal has it’s own tonality. Bands like Slayer have their own rules of tonality. I’ve never seen anyone attempt to explain it.

[@gibsonflyingv2820]

Its much more akin to classical music. Minor key progressions based on power chords and single note riffs. The melodic sections use western classical minor scales and modes like natural minor, phyrigian dominant and of course the harmonic minor scale. That and the rhythms are deeply akin to classical music.

[@znmaf]

‘Wrong Notes’ -Indeed the Western chromatic scale was deficient in these notes that expressed deep emotion so of course they were ‘wrong’ -the usual Eurocentric approach to everything on the planet !

[@Statist0815]

You are right. Music science has to give more credit to african (and non european) music cultures. On the other hand this was mentioned in the video. He said that in his view blues is not wrong, it's different. 13:56.

[@orangeguy5374]

Kari Bannerman Did you watch the whole video?

[@tize8310]

@Riastrad And that is what eurocentrism does to your brain ladies and gentlemen. Makes you think you invented playing more than one note at one time and claiming credit for completely non-european black american music. It's crazy white music is so bland & boring they have to try to steal black american music. lol Truth is Arabs had a lot more influence on european music than europeans had on black american music(which in the case of blues is next to nothing).

[@violetluxton4394]

@Riastrad omg im gonna throw up...

[@violetluxton4394]

@@tize8310 louder for the people in the back!

[@avvvqvvv99]

do more "wrong" improvs

[@SonDialer]

Africans "who were enslaved". And be careful throwing around primitive so freely. I say this respectfully. You channel is great.

[@nosson77]

Western music is about expressing order and beauty as they were empire builders. Blues harmony is about expressing a broken heart as they were slaves. Different tools for a different job.

[@tize8310]

Jeez, the mental defense mechanism you whites comes up with the soothe your fragile egos, knows no bounds. The unwarranted self aggrandization is so transparent it makes you wonders who's really the one with the "broken heart" here. Blues musical forms are rooted in the musical traditions of the west african sahel and savanna belt. Ya know, where the ancestors of the people who invented it come from. It's not that hard to understand. But may be a hard pill to swallow for an anglo white western chauvinist ideologue.

[@cinematiccrisis]

@@tize8310 First section of your post: spot on. Second section: No. Sadly, the enslaved did not take their music (or languages) with them, that was repressed. Those are newly invented musical forms. There are no traces of the blues in western african music. That has been repeated over and over, but I do not know of any empirical evidence.

[@AgustinCaniglia1992]

The Piano is out of tune.

[@violetluxton4394]

Im sure you mean well but please NEVER refer to Blues, and African American music as "rough" and "primitive" these are racially charged words and highly subjective you have no idea how complex this music and the struggle vibration inside it is. Cannot believe you said that. I would do some deep digging and make an apology video.

[@violetluxton4394]

Omg seriously singing "out of tune" is not because of a lack of formal education, how is enjoying microtones and creating complexity a lack of something. Microtones and "out of tune" to Western ears is not because people are uneducated. Please take a ethnomusicology class and learn from musicians of color and a cultural sensitivity class. Again i hope this wasn't you intention but you are perpetuating harmful stereotypes and discriminatory beliefs that have real life consequences outside of your theory "lesson."

[@Ibnfunk]

Lack of formal education in the normal meaning of the term armongst early blues musicians was a matter of fact... they were musically educated via informal structures

[@shoot4thesingle]

African practices are not the only plausible roots of blues harmony. Various European folk musics, particularly those of the United Kingdom, also use thirds lying between the equal-tempered minor and major thirds. The “ladder of thirds” is also common to British folk music. It is possible that the myriad African musical practices imported to the United States by the slave trade became established due to the “catalytic influence” of British folk styles over the course of the 19th century (van der Merwe, 1992, p. 145).