{"id":25867,"date":"2022-06-21T16:41:43","date_gmt":"2022-06-21T20:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/?p=25867"},"modified":"2022-06-22T22:49:38","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T02:49:38","slug":"betty-davis-and-the-blues-sus4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/2022\/betty-davis-and-the-blues-sus4\/","title":{"rendered":"Betty Davis and the blues sus4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I heard this <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Betty_Davis\">Betty Davis<\/a> song while I was doing a shift at the Park Slope Food Coop and the guitar riff grabbed my ears. In this post, I explain why, and what the riff can tell us about blues harmony.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EKWPynScqgw?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>First of all: is this music blues? You might argue that it&#8217;s a funk song. It is a funk song, but Tony Bolden&#8217;s book <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.upress.state.ms.us\/Books\/G\/Groove-Theory2\">Groove Theory: The Blues Foundation of Funk<\/a><\/em> makes the case that, well, it&#8217;s right there in the title. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/2021\/swing-primer\/\">sixteenth-note swing<\/a> of funk is different from the eighth-note shuffle of the blues, but they share <a href=\"https:\/\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/2014\/blues-tonality\/\">the same harmonic structure<\/a>, and the same general cultural context. Betty Davis makes the connection explicit in this song, which is all about her and her family&#8217;s love of the blues.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They Say I&#8217;m Different&#8221; opens with a guitar riff consisting of three notes: F-sharp, A, and B.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F-A-B.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"25984\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/2022\/betty-davis-and-the-blues-sus4\/f-a-b\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F-A-B.png?fit=1261%2C1261&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1261,1261\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"F# A B\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F-A-B.png?fit=640%2C640&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-25984 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F-A-B-1024x1024.png?resize=640%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F-A-B.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F-A-B.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F-A-B.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F-A-B.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F-A-B.png?w=1261&amp;ssl=1 1261w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>(About the colors in the pitch wheels: purple notes are octaves\/unisons, fourths and fifths above the root. Blue notes are minor or flatted intervals. Green notes are major or natural intervals.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With only this information to go on, you&#8217;d assume that the groove is moving between I and IV, F#7 and B7 (or maybe F#m7 and B7, or F#m7 and Bm7.) After two bars, the bass enters playing F-sharp and E under the implied F#7, and nothing under the implied B7. So far, so normal. But when the vocal melody and the other guitar part come in, something strange happens: there is no IV chord. The entire tune stays on F#7.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"25985\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/2022\/betty-davis-and-the-blues-sus4\/f7-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7.png?fit=1261%2C1261&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1261,1261\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"F#7\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7.png?fit=640%2C640&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-25985\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7-1024x1024.png?resize=640%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7.png?w=1261&amp;ssl=1 1261w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once you know this, the guitar riff is more surprising. The F-sharp is the tonic, no big mystery there. The A is the flat third, which is not unusual on a tonic seventh chord in the blues. But the B is the suspended fourth, and it is an ironclad law of Western tonal theory that this is a tension that needs resolving down to the third.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7-with-B.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"25986\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/2022\/betty-davis-and-the-blues-sus4\/f7-with-b\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7-with-B.png?fit=1261%2C1261&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1261,1261\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"F#7 with B\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7-with-B.png?fit=640%2C640&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-25986\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7-with-B-1024x1024.png?resize=640%2C640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7-with-B.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7-with-B.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7-with-B.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7-with-B.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/F7-with-B.png?w=1261&amp;ssl=1 1261w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, in &#8220;They Say I&#8217;m Different&#8221;, the fourth doesn&#8217;t resolve at all. The guitar riff keeps playing that B as if it&#8217;s a stable pitch.<\/p>\n<p>I transcribed the beginning of the tune. Notation is completely inadequate to the pitch nuances of this music, but I did my best. Most of the A naturals are bent up a bit toward A-sharp. Because they are blue notes, I colored them blue in the chart.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.noteflight.com\/embed\/afcc5712dfa53bb3002a6808f5b8e98d8ab0a77f?scale=1&amp;displayMode=strip\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So what are we hearing? Are we supposed to hear the B in the riff as changing the chord to F#7sus4? Is that a stable sound? Or does the clash between the B and the underlying A-sharp not matter? Is it even a clash at all in this context? Betty Davis and her band don&#8217;t seem to think so. Later in the song, the backing vocals superimpose both A natural and A-sharp with the B in the riff (&#8220;Talk about it, talk about it&#8221;). The guitars play lots of F#7 chords, while the piano that enters later plays both F#m7 and F#7 on top.<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t think of any other songs that use an unresolved sus4 on top of a I7 chord. However, it&#8217;s a very common thing to hear unresolved 4ths on V7 chords in blues and related musics. For example, listen to this Albert Collins tune.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HbMQQM2125E?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>The tune is in F, and Collins\u2019 guitar riff simply repeats the note F through the entire first chorus. When he gets to the C7 chord at 0:11, Collins continues to play F, the suspended fourth of C7, without resolving to E.<\/p>\n<p>Adam Maness points out that Oscar Peterson plays tonic harmony on his V7 chords quite often at the end of sections.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-vrEncBKm_0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>Prince does the same thing on the V chords in &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/ethanhein.com\/wp\/2021\/starfish-and-coffee\/\">Starfish and Coffee<\/a>&#8220;, and\u00a0Aretha Franklin does it repeatedly on her amazing 1972 live recording of &#8220;Amazing Grace.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CBKwV6oNYvw?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s also pretty common to suspend the 4th on the IV chord without resolving it. Listen to Muddy Waters&#8217; song &#8220;Honey Bee.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uEL183Hddkw?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>The tune is in F. Muddy sings the words &#8220;sail on&#8221; on the notes E-flat and C, the flat seventh and fifth respectively. But then he sings those two words on the same pitches over Bb7, where they are the fourth and second. The E-flat doesn&#8217;t ever resolve to D, the third of Bb7.<\/p>\n<p>So what does it mean? Let&#8217;s go back to the Betty Davis song that started this off. Which of the notes are consonant, and which are dissonant? I don&#8217;t hear all those B&#8217;s as being especially tense or in need of resolution. I don&#8217;t really hear any of the notes functioning that way, to be honest. I hear a lot of tension and resolution in the song, but it&#8217;s all rhythmic and timbral. Betty Davis&#8217; rasps and screams have the effect on me that dissonance is supposed to. I hear tension and resolution when she rushes or drags before lining herself back up with the expected rhythms. I hear the pitches as having color, and their relationships as having meaning, but it is not the meaning they would have in &#8220;functional&#8221; harmony. I don&#8217;t think we have the vocabulary for the way blues harmony works. At least, I don&#8217;t. I know how to play this music, but not how to verbalize that knowledge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I heard this Betty Davis song while I was doing a shift at the Park Slope Food Coop and the guitar riff grabbed my ears. In this post, I explain why, and what the riff can tell us about blues harmony. First of all: is this music blues? You might argue that it&#8217;s a funk &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/2022\/betty-davis-and-the-blues-sus4\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Betty Davis and the blues sus4&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[924,9,498],"tags":[2590,2418,49,2589,101,1883,275,377,812,1095,574,2386],"class_list":["post-25867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-key-musicians","category-music","category-music-theory","tag-adam-maness","tag-albert-collins","tag-aretha-franklin","tag-betty-davis","tag-blues","tag-blues-tonality","tag-funk","tag-jazz","tag-muddy-waters","tag-oscar-peterson","tag-prince","tag-tony-bolden","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pAPdE-6Jd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25867"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25996,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25867\/revisions\/25996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ethanhein.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}