Mixo Blues has b3 ,b5 and b7. Very common to play over 7th chords, as is done in the example. (Or so I understand. ;) )
"Everybody got to elevate from the norm."
Mixolydian has a flat 7th.
Uhmm, yes, that's why I wrote b7.
And the Mixolydian Blues scale has a flat 3rd, flat 5th and flat 7th.
Sorry if my shorthand was confusing. :)
Anyway, you asked if it was common: yes, especially when the underlying chord is a 7th (dominant not major.)
The theorists here can add more info - I just try to use the chord tones as a base. In this case, the riff is over an A7 chord as per the PDF. Thus you get the flat 7th.
"Everybody got to elevate from the norm."
Yup, it does indeed. It's fairly typical A pentatonic minor to start with (which includes an F, but not an F#), then the F (6th fret on the B string) is from A mixolydian, then it's back to using the minor with the F# again.
A minor:
A Mixolydian:
It's fairly typical A pentatonic minor to start with (which includes an F, but not an F#)
You mean A minor. A pentatonic minor don't have a F or a F#.There's neither to -quote- start with -unquote-. I find it easier to relate things to the pentatonics most of the time, I ain't that great a guitarist. :)
The only mixolydian I know of is...
A B C# D E F# G
Is there another one?
LOL, I thought you were asking about the Mixolydian Blues scale, which is built from the major and minor blues scales.
So yes, there are other Mixos. :wink:
And "A Mixo Blues" would have both a b3 and a 3 - in this case, a C and C# ... And no G# ... so that all works in the riff.
(This is why I hate scales and modes ... chord tones are so much more intuitive!)
Which brings up your question about the C note over an A7 chord.
You're right, it seems odd to use it. But Amin - especially Amin pentatonic - over A7 seems common enough. Why? I don't know. Again, we need Noteboat or Kingpatzer or some other theory guru to respond. The way I would think about it is the flat 3 (C) adds tension over the 3 (C#) in the A7 chord, increasing the bluesy nature of the piece. (Similarly, and perhaps more obviously, adding a C# to the Amin pentatonic riff would definitely change things up a bit.)
Relating it to chord tones, I'd view the C as a passing tone leading to the C#, but that doesn't seem to be how it's being used in the riff.
Hopefully that makes sense, though we don't yet have an answer. :lol:
"Everybody got to elevate from the norm."
I think it is important to understand that the 7th chords on I and IV in a blues do not function as traditional dominants (thus resolving to a tonic) but are static chords which do not need resolution. A common extension on static dominant chords is #9 (the C on A7). Notice that that is not the same as b10! Although they both calculate to be a C, b10 implies the dominant function (with some other 9 possible, flat or natural) and #9 implies a static 7th chord (which excludes all other 9's when #9 is used). Of course the #9 comes from the Blues Scale (A C D D# E G) which also adds a #11 to the chord although it is commonly used as a passing note from D to E or from E to D or it is skipped which leaves you with the A minor pentatonic scale. I think switching between the Blues Scale/ pentatonic scale and mixolydian is very common among blues gitarists (BB King anyone?)
