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The pentatonic blues scale is the back bone of all great blues guitar licks and solos. In this article I want to share with you how the blues scale is built, how it's similar yet different to the regular pentatonic scale and also how to best incorporate this into your playing. Basic Pentatonic The basic pentatonic scale is 5 notes. Some of course are played more then once. Here's an example in tab of the pentatonic scale in A using one of the 5 shapes. e-----------------------5-8-5------------------------------ B-------------------5-8-------8-5-------------------------- G--------------5-7-----------------7-5--------------------- D----------5-7-------------------------7-5----------------- A------5-7---------------------------------7-5------------- E--5-8------------------------------------------8-5-------- This is the scale being played up and down. The Blues Note The difference between the A pentatonic scale and the blues A scale is two notes known as the blue notes. Here's the same scale as above but with the blues note added. e-----------------------5-8-5------------------------------ B-------------------5-8-------8-5-------------------------- G--------------5-7-8---------------8-7-5----------------- D----------5-7--------------------------7-5---------------- A------5-6-7--------------------------------7-6-5--------- E—5-8------------------------------------------8-5-------- The notes added are the 6th fret on the A string and the 8th fret on the G string. These notes are known as the diminished or flat 3rd and diminished or flat 7th. When you play through the scale up and down again you'll hear those notes stick out. They do have a nice bluesy feel to them. This would be known as the A major blues scale or blues pentatonic scale. How to Best Uses These Scales Playing the scales up and down, up and down is good practice for your finger movements and speed but using this knowledge in every day jamming means creating and learning blues guitar licks. Licks are what you play and use to build a solid lead part in a blues song. The fastest method of learning blues this way is by practicing with jam tracks. I find that when I play scales along with backing tracks in a particular key I am much faster to learn new licks, make up my own and experiment. To learn more about blue scales you can consider some advanced blues guitar lessons or a blues guitar lessons dvd.
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blues scale, pentatonic scale, blues guitar,
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