The blue jays are back in town, at least here in my feathery nape of this hairy neck of the snowy woods. These birds are triple forte all the way, and down-right rocking too. Their eponymous call is a screamo-inflected “jaay-jaay” in Concert A.
They often bend down a whole tone to a G, as if being swept up in the Doppler winds. The scale of A Mixolydian (A B C# D E F# G), with its Dominant 7th (G), will work nicely with the blue jays calls. Follow this link, to hear how this bird might be played on guitar.
With his harsh hawk cries, guitar-licking wheedlelee’s, and tintinnabulating toolool toolool’s, the blue jay is a perfect candidate for a rocking tribute. To hear such a cover, head over to the Boird Band bandcamp site
Blue jays live by blue jay ways. They are often featured on Animal Television’s “Most Bad-Ass Bird” or what have you. They are known to chase cars like dogs, and steal kibble from dogs. While other birds are content to sing and whistle, blue jays shoot their beaks off all day.
They also appear in the first sentence of Vineland by Tommy Pynch in this particularly relevant passage, as some kind of metaphor or something.
Rock on bird-brains.
