Monday Music Quote: Frank Macchia

English: Frank Macchia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Monday Music Quote: Frank Macchia

 "I recently read Here, There and Everywhere by the Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick and it got me to pull out Sgt. Pepper and I realized once again why they were the huge phenomena of their time. There was nothing like this when it came out and it still holds up today, in my opinion." -- Frank Macchia

Composer/arranger/saxophonist frank Macchia has collaborated with such legends as Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson,  and Ella Fitzgerald. Frank has written and orchestrated music for a number of television shows and films. If you remember the movie, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Macchia helped with some of the orchestration.

Macchia's song, "Black Is The Color of My True Love's Hair," off of his 2007 album, Emotions, is a great song. For more information, visit www.frankmacchia.net

 What Are Blue Notes?

Blue notes are specific flattened tones used in jazz and rock melodies. They create a specific quality of sound known as "blue."

When I play a simple melody line from a nursery song, like London Bridges, it is easy to pull out the melody to a familiar tune. If I wanted to color in more sound, like adding color to a painting with crayons and paints, then I would throw in an Eb note that moves to the E note.

Blue notes like to return to their neighbor tone one half step higher. Blue notes and their half step higher tones add a special feeling that first sounds a bit dark, then it has a lighter sound to the song.

Neighboring tones lead to chord tones. Let's talk a little more about these neighboring tones when the melody goes back and forth with a non-harmonic tone that is a half or whole step placed in the melody.

An upper neighboring tone is a note that is chromatically and/or diatonically above another note. When we talk about a lower neighboring tone, we say that is a note diatonically or chromatically below another note.

Why do we use these specific tones? Well, they serve as a way for the piano player to improvise. When we flat a tone that will provide the melody line with that tension and release sound. Remember that neighboring tones are non-harmonic. Usually you will play them on a weak beat.

Here are a few written examples of music notes to play in a measure. Start with single notes in your right hand.

Example One:

B, B, Bb, B, D.

Example Two:
D, Eb (blue note), E, C, D, C.

Blue notes are flattened tones on the 3rd and 5th steps of the major scale that always return to the neighboring tone one half step higher. They make a huge difference in sound. Begin by playing these notes in a row to hear what I am saying: C, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G.

Just within one measure, you will find places to add blue notes for improvising. The choice is yours. Here is what I mean. Play these single notes for one measure that receives four beats to the measure. So that means you will be playing some eighth notes along with quarter notes; Eb to E, Eb to E then play Gb to G.

Have fun creating new melodies with Blue Notes.

Listen to Frank Macchia, http://www.frankmacchia.net/jazz-music-landscapes.php

Black Is The Color of My True Love's Hair
http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/c/corrs/black_is_the_colour_crd.htm

Intro : 
C D Em

  C      D                   Em
Black is the colour of my true loves hair
  C         D              Em
His lipes are like some roses fair
  C       D                 Em
He has the sweetest smile and the gentlest hands
  Am        Bm           Em
And I love the ground whereon he stands
  C       D               Em
I love my love and well he knows
  C        D         Em
I love the ground whereon he goes
  C         D          Em
I wish that day would soon come
  Am        Bm          Em
When he and I can be as one

Solo : C D Em

  C         D              Em
I go to the Clyde and I mourn and weep
  C         D        Em
For satisfied I never sleep
  C              D        Em
I write him letters just a few short lines
  C      D                Em
And suffer death ten thousand times

  C           D          Em
Black is the colour of my true loves hair
  C            D          Em
His lips are like some roses fair
  C             D          Em
He has the sweetest smile and the gentlest hands
  Am          Bm           Em
And I love the ground whereon he stands
  Am           Bm             Em
I love the ground whereon he stands
  Am          Bm              Em
I love I love I love the ground whereon he stands

C D Em

Black Is The Color
http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/c/christy_moore/black_is_the_colour_crd.htm

     Am           F           G          Am
 verse1:black is the colour of my true loves hair
                     F           C      E7
        her lips are like some roses fair
                             F    C                E7
        she had the sweetest smile and the gentelest hands
                       F      G         Am
        and i love the ground whereon she stands 

Interested in being trained by Jason White? Visit, Jason White Teaches Gospel 

"Jazz washes away the dust of every day life." -- Art Blakey