Mordgeld wrote:Well there is a lot of blues phrasing that has made its way into metal and (mostly) hard rock. The difference is the disambiguation of the scale. There are no "blue" notes in (a lot of) metal because it consists of full classical scales that rule certain notes out of key. Classical blues is essentially a major progression with a minor scale, but the roots of the I IV V live in several different minor pentatonic scales. The different 3 5 and 7 across these gives your selected flavor relative to the current chord. Hopefully I am understanding this correctly.
Some metal players have the same problem with learning stuff by rote and then can't operate when you give them something outside of the scales or songs they know. You know, learn 3 or 4 power chords and you are a metal master, right?
I took some theory lessons for a year or so as a refresher not too long ago. You are correct, it isn't about learning the 7 chords or whatnot, it's about understanding where these notes live in your chords and scales so you can arrange them in various triads, groups, or inversions on the fly. If you learn to build chords and scales, then you already almost know most of them as needed.
We could go a number of places with this. Talking about history, feel, different vibes and grooves, variations on standard progressions, etc. etc. As far as threory I don't entirely disagree, although every metal player I know had a place they started and was usually messing with a rudimentary facsimile of the blues. Many guys are still riffing pretty hard on pentatonic, mixolydian or dorian modes, unless the underlying progression is based out of some other mode. As far as the theory, true that metal guys work off of modes that may be a bit different than a blues guy would use, but not always. This is especially true because blues is actually built off of modal theory. Here's why and how.
Really, when you play many blues songs (the major ones), the standard dominant 7ths (or the 9th, 13th, etc. subsitutions) are APPEAR to be departures from standard harmonic progressions. This is because in most classic major key progressions, the only major b7 chord would be your V chord. Never the I or IV. Now...I always wondered why you could play a minor pentatonic or even a Dorian mode over chords that had major 3rds. That makes no logical sense UNTIL you start thinking like a jazz guy. For jazz guys they are always referencing the key they are in and what modes to use based on what one jazzer buddy referred to your "II, Vs." In other words you look for where your minor II (2 chord in Nashville numbering) and your V7 (5b7 in Nashville numbering) are. This will tell you the key you are in. With that in mind, blues functions in the same way. Really, when you play a standard, major 12 bar blues using major dominant seventh chords you are playing in
3 seperate keys. This is the only logical way to think about it. IF you take the V or mixolydian mode for each of those keys and look at your common passing tones between those modes...you will have a minor pentatonic scale.
Now in reality, no blues players think that way. Depending on the song, the tune, the progression, etc. they will play their own passing tones, but probably won't think about it that way that much. It may shift in and out of major and minor pentatonics, even adding in aspects of dorian or mixolydian modes, hit bends that find that middle space, etc. If you go back though and listen to some of the older players like T Bone Walker and others, you will hear the jazz influence. I doubt though that any of the much older originators had people sitting around figuring out the theory above. But it does work out that way and does fit into how things do work in classical theory and isn't any kind of an anomalously or departure.
Then we can go into the art form itself...