Blues scale really adds feeling to your solos. A really cool bluesy sound that adds color to your own playing in any style of music you are into. That is why until now it is one of the most favorite scales of many guitarists.
This scale is come from the basic minor pentatonic scale with added sharp 4th note. The added sharp 4th note is what we called the “blue note”. This added note creates a certain tension that produces a blues sound.
The scale consists of only six different notes. But when playing a this scale on the guitar you are going to play more than just six notes. You are going to play all of the possible places for those 6 notes within one position.
Below is a basic A minor pentatonic scale form in which the A blues scale was taken from.
|–A–|—–|—–|–C–| -1st string
|–E–|—–|—–|–G–|
|–C–|—–|–D–|—–|
|–G–|—–|–A–|—–|
|–D–|—–|–E–|—–|
|–A–|—–|—–|–C–| -6th string
|
5th fret
And then that same form with the addition of the “blue note” which is the sharp 4th we can now form the blues scale. A blues scale consists of the following notes A C D D# E G. See figure below all the names of the notes in a basic A blues scale form.
|–A–|—–|—–|–C–| -1st string
|–E–|—–|—–|–G–|
|–C–|—–|–D–|-D#-|
|–G–|—–|–A–|—–|
|–D–|-D#–|–E–|—-|
|–A–|—–|—–|–C–| -6th string
|
5th fret
Therefore, you see now all the six different notes in A Blues scale. And when you reach the sixth note, you will start all over again in the first note in this case is the A note.
After you nailed this thing don’t just stop here. Try to find all that six notes all over the fretboard in every position you desired. After that shift to another key let say in the key of B and following the same formula in this lessons you can now form the B blues scale. Then, also try it in C and in any other key position.