https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 05:27:03 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/3/#post-89264 Sat, 12 Feb 2005 01:08:45 +0000 Opinions and Polls Steve-0 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/3/#post-89264 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/3/#post-89212 Fri, 11 Feb 2005 15:25:37 +0000 Opinions and Polls Taso https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/3/#post-89212 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-89174 Fri, 11 Feb 2005 05:35:35 +0000
It's one heck of a good read. The discussion is passionate, informed, entertaining and educational. It's also totally devoid of the flames and negativity you'd find on 99% of the forums out there.

That being said, my sig sums up my take on the blues ;)]]> Opinions and Polls Moonrider https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-89174 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-89080 Thu, 10 Feb 2005 11:18:15 +0000 Opinions and Polls Nick Torres https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-89080 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-89076 Thu, 10 Feb 2005 08:14:59 +0000 contemporary visual artists. It is obvious to any honest
person, that the former is worthy of admiration because
of the amount of precision and skill required, and that
the latter is valuable for its simple emotion and directness.
Between the two extremes there lies every possible mixture
of discipline and wild abandon.

Is Van Gogh a better artist than Rembrandt?
Should Jackson Pollack decide for us?
All silly questions. But still fun to explore.

Another observation on the whole crossroads deal.....
Ralph had to resort to a Mozart Mojo Blues to
kick Steve's a**.]]> Opinions and Polls MJBird https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-89076 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-88519 Sun, 06 Feb 2005 00:34:41 +0000


The concept of a blue note is pretty nebulous. I remember hanging out at Chicago's Checkerboard Lounge, jamming blues with some of the great 'old time' blues players. I'd ask one guy why he added a sixth to a chord - he'd tell me it was a blue note. I'd ask another guy why he'd add a fourth to a chord (playing 1-3-4-5) and he told me it was a blue note. Yet another guy would alternate between adding the b3 to a chord that had a natural 3rd, and adding b7. Blue notes, he'd tell me.

I asked how you could tell which ones were blue notes, since they had so many.... they laughed, and told me I hadn't paid my dues yet - and when I had, I'd know.
I really didn't mean to write an article, but in order to be taken seriously I had to go much more in depth than I had intended, espicially after mentioning Eshu :twisted: in other posts. :roll: I suspected that everyone just thought I was off my rocker. All that to explain 1 note :?

And as far as blue notes go, well they ain't got nuthin' to do with "paying your dues". Those guys were just messing with you or didn't want you takin' their gigs, or doin' their thang.

You just have to look at it from a bluesmans perspective. There is nothing nebulous about blue notes, they are really very simple. If you can understand a simple Chuck Berry rhythm you can understand blue notes.

Blue notes are just any note that is used to pull the music from a tonic center or break harmony. Say in your example of the 1-3-4-5 the 4th is used to pull up the 3rd . Many times I will use that in combination with the 6th to also pull up from the 5th. (like a Chuck Berry R5-R6 riff) As an example Van Halen's "black and blue" uses this combo IIRC. The 2nd or 9th can also be used in combination with the 4th or 6th very effectively. The 2nd pulls on the bass root and the 9th pulls on the octave.

However generally you do not use the 2,4,6 blue notes in combination with the b3 or b7 blue notes because they pull down instead of up.(that's the best way I can describe it) You can use a b3 with a b7 but you can't use it with a 4th or 6th. And if you're hitting b3rds and b7ths while the bluesmen are hitting 4ths and 6ths you screw up the groove and the blues guys will get mad at you screwing everything up and tell you that you haven't paid your dues. It's "Open your ears or get off the stage tonedeaf greenhorn (noob) everyone knows you can't do that". "That's rollin' when yer s'posed to be rockin''. There is a method to the madness, and there are blues rules just as classical music has it's rules.

The b5 and the natural 7 aren't really used as blue notes as much as passing notes. They can be used as blue notes but it is uncommon. They tend to get pushed along to the 5th or root instead of pulling at them.

However, old school metal bands like Metallica use the b5 and b2nd as blue notes alot. I know, metalheads think it's sacreligious to mention Metallica and and blues in the same sentence, but really, before Randy Rhoads almost all heavy metal was blues based just like rock and much of it still is. And most of Kirk Hammet's solos are straight E blues scale or Eb if he's tuned down. The b5 pulls really hard on the 5th and the b2 pulls really hard on the root. That is a staple in the Death metal genre nowadays.

Now of course one could look at a 1-4-6 in E as being an inversion of an A triad chord but that's not really the way a bluesman looks at it. Its just an E with 2 blue notes. So really there are more "blue notes" than "regular notes"

You can't understand blues if you look at everything from a classical mode standpoint. You have to look at things from a different perspective. Blues rhythm is not about keeping everything in harmony, it's about pulling away from harmony and letting it spring back.]]> Opinions and Polls hairballxavier https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-88519 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-87811 Tue, 01 Feb 2005 21:58:28 +0000
Sorry to get a little political there. Boy, this thread took us all over. I realize this is an international forum with members from all over the world. I love that really. It is great to have friends all over with guitar and music as a common love.

And I don't disagree with hairballxavier at all. I think he is correct about many things he said. And it is very imformative to learn about where the "blue note" came from. So that was good.

But I did get a little upset by the attitude of his friend. Right now, my step-daughter who just turned 19 years old this last Sunday, is stationed at Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq about 40 miles north of Baghdad. It is also called "Mortaritaville" by the soldiers there because of the almost daily mortar attacks. So I am not really into hearing some America-bashing at the moment.]]> Opinions and Polls Wes Inman https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-87811 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-87771 Tue, 01 Feb 2005 18:31:57 +0000
Only one quibble: This was quickly dubbed "diabolous en musica" or the devil in music, and was banned. A crime punishable by burning at the stake. This is an urban myth and never happened. I spent a lot of time once tracking down a lot of knowledgable sources and I'm pretty sure of this. Yes, it was often avoided, mainly because it was difficult (near impossible) to sing, but not banned or anything. "Diabolus in musica" was more of a jesting nickname than any real accusation of Satanic influence.
So the Locrian mode was banned before it really had a chance to exist.
A group of knowledgable musicians and theorists once tried to find a single piece of music that was actually in Locrian mode and were unable to. It will not work because the dim chord just does not sound resolved. The closest they could find was my fellow Icelander Bjork's "Army of Me" and that's only in the bassline.]]> Opinions and Polls hbriem https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-87771 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-87766 Tue, 01 Feb 2005 18:14:49 +0000
I have a heck of a lot of respect for you - I've heard you're a great player, and your posts are informative - especially the gear-oriented ones on PAs and other equipment. Some of the most useful advice I've seen!]]> Opinions and Polls NoteBoat https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-87766 https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-87758 Tue, 01 Feb 2005 17:45:32 +0000
You cracked me up..I can't stop laughing]]> Opinions and Polls cnev https://guitarnoise.forum/opinions-and-polls/eshu-eshu-we-all-fall-down/paged/2/#post-87758