Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2020 January 12

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January 12

Note of the word "brains" in "She's in love with the boy"

Leaving out of this discussion what key the song is actually in, I would like to know exactly what interval above the tonic the word "brains" is in the song "She's in Love with the Boy". Specifically in the line "When it comes to brains he's got the short end of the stick". Whenever I hear the song on YouTube this note is a flattened third above the tonic. But the sheet music at musicnotes.com says it's a major 3rd. Which is correct?? Georgia guy (talk) 01:58, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

It's a good example of a blue note -- a flattened third often played against an otherwise major chord. I've seen some hellish transcriptions involving #9 chords. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 23:14, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

It actually isn't a "flattened" third. This is misleading. This is a major chord (albeit a 7th-style change in transition to the subdominant) with a diminished 10th. In this case, if the key were E-major, the diminished note would be a G-natural (otherwise a G-sharp). It is not written, but certainly sung (implied) but Yearwood. The actual third within the chord remains: G-sharp - against the diminished 10th; giving it that blue note sound that jpgordon was referring to. Maineartists (talk) 02:35, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

That's a minor 10th, not a diminished 10th (which would be a G-flat). And it's absolutely flattened by common musical parlance, which has no problem talking about something like "Dorian flat 2" even if this is B Dorian and the "flat 2" is really a C natural. Double sharp (talk) 05:02, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

It's a blue note. It's not any kind of tenth. Perhaps I should have said "lowered" rather than "flattened". --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 05:48, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

You are speaking as if the note itself defines the chord. You're thinking "scale" not chord. You don't "minor" a note; you minor a chord by diminishing the third in a triad. However, in this specific incident, the singer is indeed singing a G-natural against an E major chord (not the second in the chord, but second to her root). It's not the second in the chord when played out on the piano or accompanying instrument - that would imply the chord should be E-minor. You have to have a G-natural in the underlying chord (G#) for the diminished 10th (the singer's 3rd) to be "blue". It's a turnaround change into A. Academia jargon doesn't apply in this very natural understanding. Double sharp diminishing the 10th in E-major doesn't make it a G-flat. When you diminish a note, it goes by half-steps: G# to G-natural. Maineartists (talk) 14:42, 16 January 2020 (UTC)

@Maineartists: Nope. One semitone less than a major third is a minor third. One semitone less again is a diminished third. And the same for tenths. A diminished interval is one semitone smaller than a minor or perfect interval. We started with a major tenth (E to G-sharp); so E to G-natural is a minor tenth, and it is E to G-flat that would be a diminished tenth. What is sung here is a minor tenth above the tonic, not a diminished tenth. (Or we can just speak of thirds, modulo octaves.) The note is flattened one semitone with respect to the diatonic note of the key it is in; in this case it means G-natural instead of G-sharp. So we have a major chord harmonising the "blue note", creating a clash between the major and minor thirds that are played simultaneously. It's not a second, unless you want to insist on a tertian analysis and call it F-double-sharp instead of G-natural, which would make it an augmented ninth above the tonic E. But considering that the next note is an F-sharp, that would be silly. Double sharp (talk) 16:09, 16 January 2020 (UTC)