The major blues scale is one of the most important blues scales to know. It is built with tonic(1), second (2), minor third (
3 - passing tone), major third (3), fifth (5) and sixth(6). The major blues scale is a useful device when you want to improviseover major anddominant chords, indeedit will gives some bluesy vibes to your guitar solos.
This is a hexatonic scale, it means that it contains six notes per octaves just as the minor blues scale. In comparison with the major pentatonic scale, there is an additionalnote between the second (2) and the major third (3).
Pentatonic & Blues Scale Positions In Emi
3), this a blue note. Flat tenth is more appropriate in this harmonic context because a scale can't have twothirds in its composition.
The two diagrams below show the differences between the minor blues scale and the major blues scale. The minor blues scale interval pattern is 1 -
Here is a comparative chartbetweenthe major scale, the major pentatonic scale, the major blues scale, theminor pentatonic scale and the minor blues scale :
The Major Blues Scale
Here are some guitar shapes to play the major blues scale.The first thing to do is tolocate the tonicnote (1), this is the orange notein the diagrams. It gives the keyand will serve asbasisfor the transposition oftheseshapes. Notice that the passing tone
3) is represented in blue. The first four charts show how to play the major blues scale in positions within the space of one octave.
The major blues scale can be used over majorchords as maj6, maj7, maj9 and maj13. It can also beemployed over dominant chords as dom7, dom9, and dom13. Playing a major blues scale overdominant and majorchordhighlights the 9 and 13.
Guitar Scales Chart For Major/minor, Pentatonic And Blues Scales
Here are six easy guitar patterns using the A major blues scale (A - B - C - C# - E - F#). Each lick starts on a specific intervalof the scale : Root (A), second (B), minor third (C), major third (C#), fifth (E) and sixth (F#).
Thefollowing exercise is a classic blues in A7. There are only three chords A7, D7 and E7 corresponding to I7, IV7 and V7 degrees. As you can hear, three major blues scale are employed, A major blues over A7, D major blues over D7 and E major blues over E7.As the name suggests, this is a scale that creates a distinctly ‘bluesy’ sound. And as such – it has been used to great effect by countless blues and blues rock guitarists. In fact, for many guitarists, the blues scale is the first scale that they learn after getting to grips with the minor pentatonic scale.
If you are fairly new to the world of blues lead guitar and you haven’t yet encountered the minor pentatonic scale, I would recommend starting with my article: ‘A Beginner’s Guide To The Minor Pentatonic Scale‘.
Major Blues Scales On Guitar
That will set you up with a lot of the information you need to start soloing and improvising in a blues context.
If however you feel comfortable playing the minor pentatonic scale, and you are now looking to add some variety to your lead playing, then getting to grips with the blues scale is one of the best places to start.
Before we dive in and start looking at how to play the blues scale, it is first worth covering the basics of how the scale is constructed. Don’t worry – I won’t get too deep into music theory here; I will just cover the essentials. This will help to give you a greater understanding of what you are actually playing. And this is important.
Major And Minor Blues Scales
To understand how the blues scale is created, we need to first look at the major scale. This provides us with the basis of Western music. All other scales are spoken about in relation to this scale.
The major scale is a ‘heptatonic scale’. This is because it is comprised of 7 notes per octave (hepta meaning 7). The scale ‘formula’ of the major scale is as follows:
Each of the numbers above describes a note from within the major scale. 1 is the first note of the scale, 2 is the second note, and so on. In the key of A, the notes of the major scale are as follows:
Pentatonic And Blues Scales For Eight String Guitar (basic Scale Guides For Eight String Guitar, Band 5)
So each of the numbers 1-7 corresponds to one of the notes above. A is 1, B is 2 and so on. This scale formula is always used as the reference point when talking about other scales.
In the key of A, this changes the notes of the scale. The 3rd, 5th and 6th notes have all been flattened. And this reduces their pitch by a semi-tone. So the notes of the minor scale in the key of A are as follows:
The 3 notes mentioned above have all been flattened by a semi-tone. So the sharps that were present in the A major scale do not appear here.
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Although the major scale provides the foundation of most Western music, it is very rarely used in the form noted above. This is because put simply, the major scale lacks some of the edge and tension that we like to hear when we listen to popular forms of music.
Instead, scales that are derived from the major scale – as well as the minor scale – appear with greater frequency. Both the major and minor pentatonic scales are examples of this.
There are two types of pentatonic scale; the major and the minor pentatonic scale. Both of these are important, and both are widely used in blues and rock guitar playing. This is especially true of the minor pentatonic scale, which has come to define the sound of blues and rock music.
The Minor Blues Scale
In short, this is because the easiest way to understand the blues scale is to view it as a pentatonic scale, with the addition of 1 extra note. This makes the blues scale a ‘hexatonic’ scale, as it contains 6 notes per octave, with ‘hexa’ originally meaning 6.
There is a minor version of the blues scale, which is almost identical to the minor pentatonic scale. It just has the addition of one extra note.
There is also a major version of the blues scale. Similarly, this is almost identical to the major pentatonic scale, but with the addition of one extra note.
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The additional note that appears in the scale is often referred to as the ‘blue note’. This is a chromatic note, which changes the sound of both of the standard pentatonic scales and makes them both harmonically richer.
It also allows you to create sounds and a feel in your playing that is difficult to do when you just stick to the notes in the pentatonic scales.
So, if you are looking to add some further depth and variety to your lead guitar playing, learning the minor and major blues scales is a brilliant place to start.
First Position Blues Scale (e)
And the great news here is that the shapes of the blues scale are almost identical to those of the pentatonic scales. Let’s look at this in more detail, in both a minor and major context:
For reasons that I will cover in more detail below, the minor version of the blues scale is likely to be the one that you use more frequently.
As mentioned earlier, the only difference between the minor pentatonic scale and the blues scale is that the latter features one extra note. In the minor blues scale, this note is the b5 (flat fifth) – also commonly referred to as the blue note. All of the other notes of the scale remain the same.
Blues Scale Guitar: Step By Step Lesson
Looking at the scale formulae in this way, it is somewhat challenging to understand how to apply the blues scale to your playing. But this all changes when you see the shapes of the minor blues scale. Here they are in the key of A minor:
The diagram here shows the shapes of the minor blues scale. The notes in green are the root and octave notes (in this example they are the notes of A), and the notes in blue are the new notes from the blues scale.
As you can hopefully see, the shapes of this scale are almost identical to those of the minor pentatonic scale. The only difference is the addition of the ‘blue note’.
The Blues Guitar Scale Shape
As noted above, the easiest way to understand and view the blues scale, is as a pentatonic scale with the addition of one extra note. So, if you want to use the scale in your soloing, all you need to do is play it in those situations where you currently use the minor pentatonic scale.
If you are new to this material, or if you need a little refresher on what those situations are, they are as follows:
The first playing situation in which you can use the minor pentatonic or minor blues scale is nice and straight forward. If you are playing a song in a minor key, you can solo using the corresponding minor pentatonic or minor blues scale.
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As an example, if you are playing a song in B minor, you can solo and improvise using the B minor pentatonic or B minor blues scale. If you are playing in the key
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