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Blues Scales

Minor Blues Scale

There are many advantages to the "blues scale.” Mostly that this set of notes is usable over the entire basic blues form. However, I avoid teaching this scale to my beginning improvisers for a couple reasons. Those reasons all center around the note colored red below.

The red note — the raised 4th scale degree — is quite dissonant at almost every point of the blues. It also tends to act as a magnet to young improvisers. They can’t help themselves. They land on it over and over again. This doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have purpose. If you remove the red note, you’ll find that you have nothing more than a minor pentatonic scale. This actually makes a lot of sense if you trace jazz and blues to its origins in Africa. Most indigenous African music is built upon pentatonic scales. The raised 4th scale degree is used as ornamentation. When this note is performed, it almost always will resolve down to the 4th scale degree or up to the 5th scale degree.

Work with students so they learn to hear the dissonance and use it appropriately.

Major Blues Scale

Like the minor blues, the major blues scale is based on the pentatonic scale — although this time, the major pentatonic. In this scale, it’s the raised 2nd scale degree that serves as the ornamentation. The raised 2nd will usually resolved down to the 2nd or up to the 3rd scale degree.