An absolutely fascinating piece. Having played blues guitar for over fifty years, I'm still in awe of the "blues" note and its uses. Very interesting on how to do it on the piano. Thanks again for the explanation!
I think I understand the concept of blue or in between notes. And I understand how one could play these on a guitar, where you can bend the strings to various degrees. What I don't understand is how one would play these notes on a piano, where you can't bend the strings. But there is a large corpus of blues based piano music. How is that possible?
I talk about that in the episode about six minutes in. Pianists simulate blue notes via crushing. So if you want a blue third, you play both the minor and major third at the same time, and then quickly release one of them depending on whether you want it to sound more major-ish or minor-ish.
An absolutely fascinating piece. Having played blues guitar for over fifty years, I'm still in awe of the "blues" note and its uses. Very interesting on how to do it on the piano. Thanks again for the explanation!
I think I understand the concept of blue or in between notes. And I understand how one could play these on a guitar, where you can bend the strings to various degrees. What I don't understand is how one would play these notes on a piano, where you can't bend the strings. But there is a large corpus of blues based piano music. How is that possible?
I talk about that in the episode about six minutes in. Pianists simulate blue notes via crushing. So if you want a blue third, you play both the minor and major third at the same time, and then quickly release one of them depending on whether you want it to sound more major-ish or minor-ish.
At 6:25 he mentions you can approximate it on piano by playing two keys next to each other and then releasing one quickly.