Blues Scale

Lesson Goals:

♦ Learn new notes that make up a blues scale
♦ Visualize the blues scale "pattern"
♦ Play the scale and listen for the "blues" sound

 

The "Blues Scale", also known as the minor pentatonic blues scale, will be one that you use for more than just the blues. You will find a lot of applications when playing rock and country as well.

This scale pattern is just an extension of the minor pentatonic scale that we have been working with up to this point.

To make it a "blues" scale we only added a few notes. Take a look at the diagram below.

 

 

In reality there has only been one note added to make this a "blues" scale - the three you see here are all just "octaves" of each other. The new notes are in "blue"!

 

Now look at the TAB below.

This is just a quick run up the lower part of the blues scale to give you an idea of the difference the addition of this one note makes to give the scale a "bluesy" sound. Play it for yourself and listen for the blues "sound".

Experiment with playing some licks and incorporating the new notes that make up the blues scale.