blue note

music

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June 22, 2026

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A "blue note" in music is a microtonal lowering of the third, seventh, and sometimes fifth degrees of the major scale. This technique is frequently used in blues music, hence its name.1

While the term "blue note" refers to a specific musical element, "Blue Note Records" is a renowned American jazz record label founded in 1939. The label has been instrumental in recording and promoting many influential jazz musicians, including Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, and members of the Jazz Messengers.2

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jazz
West Africa in the American South: Gathering the musical elements of jazz
…blues scale, with its “blue notes”—the flatted third and seventh degrees. This scale is neither particularly African nor particularly European but acquired its peculiar modality from pitch inflections common to any number of West African languages and musical forms. In effect these highly expressive—and in African terms very meaningful—pitch…
Read More
…blues scale, with its “blue notes”—the flatted third and seventh degrees. This scale is neither particularly African nor particularly European but acquired its peculiar modality from pitch inflections common to any number of West African languages and musical forms. In effect these highly expressive—and in African terms very meaningful—pitch…
Read More