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Blues Guitar Scales

The scales we're about to learn are often called "blues guitar scales" because they are a staple part of the "blues sound". Blues scales are great for developing your improvisation skills as a lead guitarist, as you can be a bit looser with your expression than with many other scales. I'll provide some backing tracks in this lesson for you to try out your own ideas. Have fun with your discoveries.

Blues scales can be seen as extensions of the standard minor pentatonic scale, which is a foundation scale of blues music. We'll essentially be adding notes to that core scale throughout this lesson, to give it more of a blues flavour.

The below video lesson from JamPlay's excellent blues series will introduce you to the core blues scale.

Six and seven note blues guitar scales

Adding the flat 5th

As mentioned above, blues scales are based on the minor pentatonic scale, which is a 5-note scale. The most common way to "blues up" this core scale is to add in a flat 5th (b5) degree. We'll start by looking at the boxed patterns which span 4 frets...

Standard minor pentatonic scale

Flat 5th blues scale

In the following audio clip, I'm playing the above scale in the A position (fret 5, low E string) - Click to hear

Try and learn where this flat 5th tone lies in relation to other tones of minor pentatonic. For example, it lies one semitone above the 4th and one semitone down from the 5th (hence - flat 5th!).

Adding the flat 5th tone to minor pentatonic immediately gives us that bluesy touch we need. Use it sparingly and wisely! It's often used as a passing tone, like a bridge between two or more stable tones of minor pentatonic...

Click to hear

A simple lick there with the flat 5th embedded into the phrase.

Obviously, you can use hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends and other non-pick techniques to interact with this flat 5th, but those lead techniques are covered in their own sections of this site! Get to know the scale like the back of your hand first, then work in the physical techniques you learn over time.

Adding the Major 7th

We can also add another note to the standard six note blues scale from above, the new note lying one semitone down from the root (1) of the scale. This is known as the major 7th (the 7th in its natural, major scale position). Take a look...

Click to hear

It's up to you whether you use the 7th on the B string or the high E string - both are the same note, but to give yourself fingering options, it's good to know both positions.

So, with the flat 5th still there, we're now getting a more chromatic (a sequence of consecutive semitones) movement that can be applied to our blues guitar scales.

Now, there is more emphasis this time on the Major 7th being used as a passing/leading tone because it naturally has an unresolved feel that won't sound too nice if you hold onto it over the first two chords of a typical blues progression.

As a result, it is most commonly used as a passing tone between the notes that sandwich it - the flat 7th (b7) and root (1). Take a listen...

Click to hear

Also using it in a hammer-pull or bend situation, similar to the the flat 5th, is effective, so as to glance over the note rather than emphasise it as a resolved/landing note.

Minor blues backing track

Let's start with a simple, 12 bar minor blues track. Start with the basic minor pentatonic scale and work in the new tones we've added gradually. Experiment with their interaction with the tones of minor pentatonic.

This track is in the key of A minor, so that means our low E string root note is at fret 5, and an octave higher at fret 17.

Download the A minor blues track here
(right click and "save as")

Obviously playing the blues goes beyond scales, so make sure you learn how to put your knowledge of blues guitar scales into action.

The major/minor blues guitar scale

The theory behind this particular technique is covered in the final lesson of the pentatonic series (here). However, it's worth revisiting as it's a technique used liberally in blues. Remember, it's just another addition to the blues guitar scales we've already learned.

The Major 3rd

As minor pentatonic is the foundation scale of blues, it has an inherently minor flavour (because of the minor/flat 3rd tone). However a typical blues progression would be in a major key (e.g. E major, A major, B major).

Now, even in major key blues, the minor 3rd of pentatonic has been used for decades because although it does "clash" harmonically, it has a certain quality that just fits the whole blues sound. It is, of course, subjective and not easy to explain!

Anyway, by slipping a major 3rd in occasionally, we get a very cool minor-major alter-ego effect. Take a look below at how we add in the major 3rd to a standard minor pentatonic scale...

Just like with the dual positions of the major 7th from earlier, we have a choice, in the boxed pattern, to use the major 3rd on the low E or A string.

So, we can see that the major 3rd lies one semitone up from the minor 3rd. This is always the case, no matter where you are on the fretboard.

The major 3rd sounds most effective being played immediately following the minor 3rd, usually in a hammer-on or bend situation...

Click to hear

So all we're doing is resolving the minor 3rd into the major 3rd. Use it sparingly, as the minor 3rd doesn't always have to be resolved like this and it doesn't always sound that great, depending on where you are in the blues progression.

IMPORTANT: You need to use your ears when judging when to use these extra notes, such as the major 3rd. In a regular blues progression, the major 3rd sounds most compatible and effective over the root chord of the progression. E.g. if the progression was - E major, A major, B major - E would be the key in which you apply the blues scales, and the major 3rd would be best applied to this root E scale. When the progression moves away from E, it's back to the standard minor 3rd.

Major blues backing track

Let's try and apply what we've learned over another backing track. This one is in the key of E major, which means our low E string root note will be at fret 12. Of course, fret 12 is an octave higher than the open strings of your guitar, so you can also play the scale down there for some deeper licks.

Tip: Start with minor pentatonic then slowly add in the additional tones from the blues guitar scales we've learned so far. Experiment with how they interact with that minor pentatonic base - especially that major 3rd tone we've added (as it's a major blues progression!). Enjoy it.

Download the E major blues track here
(right click and "save as")

The Dorian blues

Dorian is just another minor scale, which includes all the tones of minor pentatonic and a couple more neutral tones. There's an entire lesson on Dorian, but let's take a look at it in the context of the blues...

So we've added two new tones there to minor pentatonic - the 2nd and 6th. Combining these two tones with the blues guitar scales from above will give you even more options when it comes to lead harmony.

The 6th alone adds a nice bluesy touch to a standard pentatonic phrase...

Click to hear

Again, just use your ears when trying out different notes over blues progressions. Try phrasing your licks in a "call and response" manner. This means you play one phrase from a given scale and then "answer" it by playing a resolving phrase (remember how we talked about the major 3rd being a resolving note in certain instances?).

Backing track

Try experimenting with Dorian over the blues backing track below. Don't forget to work in the other blues tones we've looked at in this lesson. Again, you have to use your ears and experiment with using different tones over different chords in the blues progression - they won't always sound good right throughout the progression.

This track is in the key of G which means our low E string root note will be at fret 3 and an octave higher at fret 15.

Combining the blues guitar scales we've learned

So, ultimately, this is the scale we've built throughout the course of this lesson...

That's quite a "scale"! What you'll notice is, when you combine all the bluesy notes like this, you get chromatic sequences - consecutive semitones - such as with the 2, b3, 3, 4, b5, 5 and 6, b7, 7, 1.

In blues, and especially jazz blues, these chromatic sequences are often played in a straight run, up or down, so they can be injected occasionally into your licks.

Otherwise, it's up to you to group these notes into phrases. Don't just play the scale's tones in a line, move across strings, skip over strings, stagger your runs etc. We go more indepth with scale technique in other lessons, but you essentially now have a "pot" of tones to draw from and experiment with in different combinations.

Minor pentatonic is your base. The other notes we've added throughout the course of this blues guitar scales lesson can be seen as ways to "colour" that elementary scale, or add flesh to the pentatonic skeleton - there are more analogies, but I think you get the picture!!

Now, some "homework" ;)

In the minor pentatonic lesson, we extended that 4 fret-wide boxed pattern either side, to cover more fretboard area. Using that same diagram below, try and insert these new tones we've discovered today, based on your knowledge of where they lie in relation to the tones of minor pentatonic.

Minor pentatonic unboxed

Remember, this pattern, just like the boxed patterns, is movable. When the root note changes, the scale pattern moves with it in formation and the scale adopts a new key center.

There'll be more lessons covering the theory and application of blues guitar scales uploaded to this site, so look out for those. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the lesson and learned something new.

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