Instead, you’ll play simplified versions of each on two strings. The blues scale formula is 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7. This version is also known as an E-shaped blues scale. Blues progressions are almost exclusively played in 4/4 time and dominated by the root (I Chord), with the IV and V chords providing that extra bit of flavor to keep things interesting. However, you’ll need to shift up one fret again when you reach the low E string. The Blues scale is versatile and is compatible with tons of chords because it consists of the first, fourth, and fifth tones, and then blue notes. The Blues scale consists of 6 different notes. Then, with a looping accompaniment of the 12-bar blues in A, practice playing the A minor blues scale in each position, but with a syncopated rhythm. This scale is known as the A-shaped blues scale because it starts on the A string of your guitar. Study the blues greats for inspiration and guidance, then work at mixing up your own playing so that it doesn't sound stale. Scale #2 — “The Mixolydian Scale” The Mixolydian scale is one of the modal scale that are commonly used in Jazz. Learning and memorizing the notes on the E, A, and D strings of your guitar will come in handy as you practice moving each of these scales up and down the fretboard of your guitar. A sixth chord is formed by adding the sixth tone of the scale to a major or minor triad. First, practice playing the scales on your own until you are comfortable playing the A minor blues scale in each position. This means that you can play these patterns anywhere on the neck of your guitar. This scale is also known as the D-shaped blues scale. A Blues Scale Notes: A C D Eb E G Blues Scale Formula: 1 b3 4 b5 5 b7 Note: The black dots are the root notes. Blue notes (or "worried notes"), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch are also an essential part of the sound. 3= Ring finger 1. Once this feels easy to you, experiment by breaking up the scale into three- or four-note sections across strings. G 7 (chord V 7 F 7 (chord IV 7) G 7 (chord V 7) In blues music you will hear a lot of syncopation (off beat) and swing rhythms. -- A You can try out straight 8ths, shuffles, and even 16th note patterns to vary your rhythms and make your blues progression sound more interesting. Once you've practiced 12-bar blues progression and feel comfortable playing those seventh chords, you can get to work deepening your blues abilities by trying out different ways to play your chords. Here’s the chord box for this scale. Be the first to know about new products, featured content, exclusive offers and giveaways. Essential Blues Guitar For Beginners – The Minor Pentatonic Scale. Blues Scale Exercises So E7 would be and E major blues, A7 would be A major blues etc. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone.” Guitar Collection in Fender Play! As you’re reading these guitar scale diagrams, remember the following rules. Backing Track Listen & Play Along How do you use the blues scale in your jazz solos?Let us know in the comments below… The blues scale is a six-note progression that sounds right at home in blues, rock, and country music. That subtle change (adding a Bb to your C chord) makes the difference between a standard major-sounding chord and a bluesier alternative. Just like pentatonic scales, the blues scale can be either major or minor. Guitar Collection. These intervals are: A whole step and a half step, a whole step, a half step, a half step, a whole step and a half step, and a whole step. To play the A minor blues scale in 5th position, use your index finger for notes on the 5th fret, your middle finger for the 6th, your ring finger for the 7th, and your pinkie for notes on the 8th fret. Let's move on to the V Chord in this progression, the open G Major chord: Now, for comparison, try a G7 chord instead: And with that, you've learned the chords for a 12-bar blues in the key of C Major! I'll present a framework that you can use to analyze any chord progression and select which scales (or better, notes) to play in order to flow with the chords and not against them. Now let’s go over a few basic tools you can use to improvise over this chord progression. This means that a blues scale on guitar is built with the same notes as the blues scale on bass or piano. 2= Middle finger You might also find this 12-bar blues described as a blues shuffle thanks to this shuffling rhythm. Each of these scale shapes are moveable. Over the I CHORD play the Major or Minor SCALE of the I chord; e.g., if you’re I CHORD is A7 you play the A Minor SCALE … Listen to the accompaniment and play the scale in sections, treating the notes on each string as one phrase. This uses the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords from the relevant key. You can use either of these positions for the 1, 4 or 5 chords in a blues progression, but it's most common to use the E form for the 1 chord and the A form for the 4 and 5 chords. The blues scale sounds great paired with a variety of chords, but it’s especially at home being played over 12-bar blues. Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Op-CsOcpg?rel=0. The genre is deeply tied to the instrument, and nearly every guitarist worth their salt has at least fantasized about jamming out à la B.B. Easy Blues on Acoustic Guitar for Beginners Combine Chords and Melody. For example : adding to the C minor pent. You can play the blues with major and minor chords, but one thing that helps add the distinctive sound associated with the genre is making liberal use of seventh chords in your playing. To flatten a note, just replace it with the piano key lower in pitch ie. Each chord within the progression will use a blues scale starting on its root. Here is the interval pattern for the melodic minor scale. The first mode that you will explore in this lesson outside of the minor blues scale is the melodic minor scale. In this guitar lesson, we are going to combine chords and melody. Once you've tried the blues scale, download Fender Play to learn essential blues riffs, techniques, and classic songs by legends like Robert Because this scale shape starts on the low E string of your guitar, it’s known as the E-shaped blues scale. So to create our I, IV, V progression in the key of A … Blues Guitar Chords Keep looking for inspiration wherever you may find it, and remember, happy practicing! The blues scale is made from the 1st, flattened 3rd, 4th, flattened 5th, 5th and flattened 7th notes from the major scale above. The 2nd and 6th notes of the major scale are not used. Here's your IV Chord, a standard F Major bar chord: Now, try your F7 bar chord and note the difference: Just one note makes quite the difference, no? Static Pentatonic or Blues Scale. All the notes in a dominant 7 chord can be … Here's an example of how a common blues progression goes: At this point the 12-bar pattern would repeat, continuing the song. Bar 1-8: the G minor blues scale all the way. Swingin' the Blues Chords and Rhythm covers the basic rhythm form for jazzy blues / swing guitar using Duke's song Swingin' with Lucy may as the example. In the minor variation of the 12-bar blues, minor 7th chords are substituted for the I7 and IV7 chords. E7 Chord. The minor pentatonic scale is a fantastic scale to jam over a 12-bar blues with, but by adding a few more notes you can infuse your blues with the slick sounds of virtuoso blues-meisters such as Joe Bonamassa, Robben Ford and more. Learn to play the guitar fast with an expert guitar instructor. As with other scales, there are many positions on the neck of your guitar where you can play an A minor blues scale. To play the A minor blues scale in 1st position, use your index finger for notes on the 1st fret, your middle finger for notes on the 2nd, your ring finger for notes on the third, and your pinky for notes on the 4th fret. scale: C - Eb - F - G - Bb - … The first and simplest, is going to be just to play the same minor pentatonic scale over all the chords. They are the 5 notes of the minor pentatonic scale, plus one additional note. Popular Chords. Playing the scales over a 12-fret span on your guitar will allow you to hear the scale in every key, helping you to train your ear. The Blues is interesting in that there is no one scale for the whole progression. 12 Bar Blues Blues Chord Progressions. For example if we wanted to create a I – IV – V blues chord progression in the key of A Major, we would first need to look at the notes of the A Major scale, which are A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#. The Solution below shows the G blues scale, on the piano, treble clef and bass clef.. -- E The above isn't the only way the 12-bar blues can work, but it is fairly representative of what you can expect from a blues progression and a good way to get started. O stands for open string, and the numbers on the diagrams correspond to your fretting fingers in the following order: 1= Index finger In this tutorial, I'll give some suggestions that will help you improve your lead guitar skills and create great solos.. Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZzQs8AI8n0?rel=0. Like all chords and scales, blues scales are fixed patterns of notes. Practicing the blues scale in A minor is a great way to train your fingers and your ears while you learn this versatile scale. All the scales featured on this page work over the standard 1 4 5 blues progressions, but I've made it clear when a scale can be used in a minor key, major key, or both. Blue dots are the b5 "blues note" A Blues Scale Diagrams A Blues Scale Fretboard Diagram Mastering the blues scale will give you the tools you need to improvise over a range of chord progressions, from a classic 12-bar blues to a driving rock and roll song. As for the blues scale and chords, they're just two different animals. With swing rhythms you will have even This scale is also known as the A-shaped blues scale. Duke then iterates on this form adding more interesting and melodic guitar chords with each example resulting in a great swinging jazzy blues guitar groove at the end. THAT is what we have been taught. Want to see the instructors near you? Its just like with chords. Practicing your scales in this way will help you learn to improvise, and may even lead you to discover some interesting licks or riffs of your own. You can take lessons locally or online. The two main barre chord forms used in blues are the E and A form (or shape). The ‘minor pentatonic scale’ is by far the most used scale on guitar and is used in many musical styles. Finally, you’ll learn to play a 12-bar blues in A, and work on some blues scale exercises. The note added is the diminished 5th (o5) measured from the scale tonic. In the case of C Pentatonic, the three chords are C7 – F7 – G7. The Pentatonic Blues Scale is built upon three dominant chords. The Blues scale fits well with all of these chords because it contains the defining root note and flat seventh note of each one of … Though you might have employed a simple quarter note strumming pattern in learning the above blues progression, that's not the only way to go about it. For this lesson, we’ll look at four different positions. There are six notes in the A minor blues scale: 3. The Blues Scale is an extension of The Pentatonic Scale with the addition of one extra note, the Blues note A flat 5th in this key it's the G flat The Blues Scale can be thought of as whole step and a half step, whole step, half step, half step, whole step and a half step, whole step. There are several standard chord progressions in blues music, and they all use dominant seventh chords based on the 1st, 4th and 5th notes of the Major scale. Play the scale in this way up to the thirteenth fret, then begin moving down one fret for each cycle until you arrive back at the first fret. Here are some typical Joe Pass phrases over a blues in G in which he combines minor and major blues scales. This means that it can be used to improvise over minor chord sequences. How To Solo Over a 12-Bar Blues Some Options You Can Use To Improve Your Melodic Lines. In this Technique of the Week, Kirk Fletcher (Fabulous Thunder Birds and Mannish Boys) teaches the pentatonic blues guitar scale which is essential for beginner blues guitarists. To play the A minor blues scale in 12th position, start with your index finger on the 12th fret of the A string. Another great way to practice the blues scales on guitar is to spend time playing each shape up and down the neck of your guitar. Let's go over 3 of the most popular chords: Continue learning chord shapes and working on strumming patterns to build your ability to play blues rhythms. Begin with your index finger on the 7th fret and be ready to shift your hand up one fret when you reach the B string as you ascend the scale. The 1st construction, using the major scale, starts at Lesson 3.. The First Scale That’ll Get You Into Blues Soloing. Fletcher breaks down this versatile scale and plays his favorite phrases rooted in pentatonic blues. Recall that you would play your open C Major chord (the I Chord, in this case) like so: Now, if you wanted to "blues it up," you'd instead start our blues progression with a C7 Chord, like this: Hear the difference between those two chords? A Blues scale built on C has the following notes: C, Eb, F, F#, G and Bb. Mute strings 5 and 6 A7 Chord. For example, if you want to use all major chords you can simply take the chords A, D, and E, plug them into the 12-bar blues formula and voilà, you’ve got a blues chord progression. You can create such chords by adding the lowered seventh scale tone to the chord you're playing (hence the name), and the result is a unique sound that your standard chords alone can't quite achieve. To play this scale in the key of E, start it on the 12th fret. The twelve-bar blues in C is based on chords built on C, F, and G. Sometimes there are extensions, and sometimes there are other chords inserted, but that's the basic twelve-bar blues. Therefore, adding a sixth tone to any given major triad produces a major sixth chord. Try these out with the sample progression we provided above, and listen to the differences in using the regular major chords and the seventh chords. Starting with the E-shaped blues scale, play each scale ascending and descending, beginning at the first fret and moving up one fret for each repetition of the shape. In this lesson, we’ll start by focusing on one of the most common blues scales: the A minor blues scale. Home > Scales > Blues Scales 12 Blues Guitar Scales - Beyond Pentatonics This lesson will explore the many different blues guitar scales used in all the blues sub-genres. In addition to boosting your improvisational skills, practicing this scale will also help you train your ear so you can learn new bluesy licks to incorporate into your playing. Learn the blues scales used to help shape early rock and the blues pentatonic scale with Kirk Fletcher. 4= Pinkie. This extra step gives the blues scale that unmistakably bluesy sound. Description of the Blues scale. In this case, that will be your A minor pentatonic scale. You’ve heard it before in blues music, as well as early rock and roll and country songs. In the case of the A minor blues scale, those chords are A, D, and E. However, to play a blues shuffle you won’t be strumming those chords as you know them. Since the key of G appears on the Circle of fifths diagram as both a major and minor key, the Lesson steps explain both ways of constructing this blues scale for this key:. The blues scale contains a minor 3rd, giving it a minor tonality. Here is a guitar tab showing a standard 12-bar blues pattern. C Blues: The big list of chords and scale notes Scale notes: C, D#, F, F#, G, A# MIDI file: scale_c_blues.mid (includes scale notes and chords) Other root notes: [C] , [C#] , [D] , [D#] , [E] , [F] , [F#] , [G] , [G#] , [A] , [A#] , [B] Other scales: List of available scales For instance, in the C blues scale the notes are C – Eb – F – Gb – G – Bb – C. The flat third, flat fifth and flat seventh notes of the scale are the blue notes of the scale. Start with your index finger on the 12th fret of your A string (A) and follow the tab to play this scale in ascending and descending order. Want to learn how to play the guitar? You'll also want to prepare yourself for playing the blues in other keys by expanding your arsenal of seventh chords. The Blues is one of the simplest styles of music of the 19th Century.. Today I want to show you how to play an easy 12 bar blues on your acoustic guitar using the fingerstyle technique.. For today, though, we'll focus on how you'd create your chords (and blues progression) in the key of C Major. This scale is essentially the pentatonic scale plus one chromatic note, often called the blue note. The blues scale sounds great paired with a variety of chords, but it’s especially at home being played over 12-bar blues. Place your 1st finger on the 2nd string/1st fret, Place your 2nd finger on the 4th string/2nd fret, Place your 3rd finger on the 5th string/3rd fret, Place your 4th finger on the 1st string/3rd fret, Place your 1st finger on the 4th string/2nd fret, Place your 2nd finger on the 5th string/3rd fret, Place your 3rd finger on the 3rd string/3rd fret, Use your 1st finger to bar the strings on the 1st fret, Place your 2nd finger on the 3rd string/2nd fret, Place your 4th finger on the 4th string/3rd fret, Place your 1st finger on the 5th string/2nd fret, Place your 2nd finger on the 6th string/3rd fret, Place your 3rd finger on the 2nd string/3rd fret, Place your 1st finger on the 1st string/1st fret, Place your 2nd finger on the 5th string/2nd fret, Place your 3rd finger on the 6th string/3rd fret, Place your 4th finger on the 2nd string/3rd fret, Place your 3rd finger on the 1st string/2nd fret, Place your 1st finger on the 5th string/4th fret, Place your 2nd finger on the 6th string/5th fret, Place your 3rd finger on the 4th string/5th fret, Place your 4th finger on the 2nd string/5th fret, Place your 2nd finger on the 2nd string/3rd fret, Place your 3rd finger on the 3rd string/4th fret, Place your 4th finger on the 1st string/4th fret. The A minor blues scale in the 7th position starts with your index finger on the 7th fret of the D string. This scale does require you to shift your hand position up one fret once you reach the B string so that your index finger is on the 13th fret. Then, you’ll learn three moveable minor blues scale shapes that will allow you to play the minor blues scale in any key you want. The standard 12-bar blues is a I-IV-V chord progression most typically divided into three four-bar segments. -- D# There are numerous permutations of the seventh chord you can apply to your blues playing. Then, you must shift your hand back to your starting position for the high E string. 3 Popular Blues Guitar Chords D7 Chord. The easiest way to remember this scale is to think of it as the minor pentatonic and simply learn where the added notes are within the normal five minor pentatonic positions. 2. 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