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The Blue Note
What is it?

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The Blue Note

Yobuba
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Posted 09/29/09 - 08:17 AM:	#51
Argh. This whole 'Blue note' discussion is driving me mad. Let me tell you 'Mookie Blaylock', that I DO have a thorough training in both classical and jazz theory, and plan to take a music degree next year at Bristol University. I hope that's enough for you to accept or at least consider what I have to say. It seems like the concept of the blue note, in your take on it mookie, is that it conveys a deep, spiritual feeling. The name 'Blue note' is confusing, what you probably mean to say is that Thelonious Monk is connecting with his audience, piano or band in a way that feels almost religious. As jazz musicians often say, he is 'playing in the pocket'. This blown up assumption that the 'Blue Note' is a secret, unobtainable state of mind or clarity of thought is annoying and pretentious as hell. In fact... Mighty Boosh reference anyone? In my mind he is playing in the pocket, not communicating with unseen powers or anything of the sort.

mookie blaylock
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Posted 09/29/09 - 02:41 PM:	#52
Read the discussion and then fight with me about something else.
The Internet: The only place to be racist without pants. - Mookie Zoloft: Heaven is just a warm loaf of morning diarrhea away. - Mookie

Z. Thustra
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Posted 10/04/09 - 08:44 PM:	#53
i havent read all of this thread but the blue note is the flatted 5th scale degree. not sure what was going on in the op.
http://www.zazzle.com/philosophergifts http://modernartisterrible.blogspot.com

throng
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Posted 10/05/09 - 01:23 AM:	#54
No it's not a myth or spiritual connection. It's just if one learns so much technicality about music the concept of inspiration can become blurred among all the factual structure. The blue note implies something like inspiration implies something.
I know that I don't know, so I don't know if I do.

ragus
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Posted 10/06/09 - 12:13 AM:	#55
throng wrote No it's not a myth or spiritual connection. It's just if one learns so much technicality about music the concept of inspiration can become blurred among all the factual structure. Not to mention the inherent fractal structure where the dimensions of group interplay are constantly reassessed, reinterpreted and reorganised in the moment.
"A word in your ear is like an untethered goat in a field" Wittigenstein

coolazice
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Posted 10/06/09 - 08:19 PM:	#56
mookie blaylock wrote: Propositions: - Music is abstract. It cannot be interpreted in any intelligible way because it's possible interpretations are limitless and thus render any interpretation incorrect. - If music cannot be interpreted in an intelligible way, barring the structure and theory behind the song, then it is expressed to the body. My proposition is that (jazz) music makes people respond in dance because it is unintelligible. It is an array of varying degrees and scales of conflict and resolution, tension and release, texture, shape, harmony and disharmony that is unintelligible. It is conducive to abstract interpretation because of this. There seems to be some confusion here. The sound that music makes is not abstract but concrete, it is actual vibrations produced by moving air particles/waves. The 'music' involves the psychological response of the subject to these vibrations, which is also, al least to some degree, concrete. Interpreting music requires translating the concrete sound and response into abstract theory - translating it into either words, or musical notation, usually both. I don't see why music is unintelligible. To claim this would be to imply that it's not possible to talk meaningfully about music - a proposition rejected by hundreds of years of discussion in music theory and aesthetics. I'm afraid I don't understand your post. If jazz music is unintelligible, how can you say that it is 'an array of varying degrees and scales of conflict and resolution' etc... you're contradicting yourself. If it is true that music cannot be talked about meaningfully, then musicologists are all talking nonsense, and so are you in your analysis of music. I think it is more likely that music can be talked about meaningfully, musicology is useful, and rather you are talking nonsense. Can you defend your ideas more coherently, or have I misinterpreted them?
One of the greatest weaknesses in human nature is to be dogmatic about issues of which we are ignorant. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

throng
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Posted 10/07/09 - 02:53 AM:	#57
ragus wrote: throng wrote Not to mention the inherent fractal structure where the dimensions of group interplay are constantly reassessed, reinterpreted and reorganised in the moment. The moment - that's it! That is where the blue note is.
I know that I don't know, so I don't know if I do.

ragus
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Posted 10/07/09 - 10:31 AM:	#58
throng wrote The moment - that's it! That is where the blue note is. Well, maybe. But I meant to write movement not moment so . . . . shit man.
"A word in your ear is like an untethered goat in a field" Wittigenstein

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