The Guitar Players Club

Perhaps you've heard of the blues scale, perhaps not. Regardless, the blues scale is a soloing tool you should have in your repertoire. Below is a diagram for the blues scale. If you start with your index finger (left hand) on the 'A' of the sixth string, which is at fret 5, you would be playing an 'A' blues scale. Obviously, if you moved your index finger up two frets to the 'B', you would have the 'B' blues scale.

If you had to guess what kind of music you might use the blues scale in, I'd bet you'd probably say the blues. Bingo...but, the cool thing about the blues scale is it's versatile. Of course it is used extensively in blues music, but it can also be used in other styles of music. The best thing to do, is to memorize the scale formula, and try it out when you're soloing. The added blue note creates tension, and can be very useful when soloing.

The blues scale, in case you haven't noticed, is a minor pentatonic scale with the addition of a single note...the 'blue note', as it's often called. The added note is a flatted 5th. So if you're playing the the key of 'C', you count up five (counting the C) to the 'G'. In the minor pentatonic, you already have the 'G', but to the scale, you now add the Gb (flat). The G flat being the blue note.

In the diagram above, the blue note is depicted in, yep, blue.

It's advisable to remember the blues scale, as well as the other scales, in all the positions.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 9:16 pm and is filed under General.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.