How To Play All the Blues Scales On The Fretboard

Music theory gets confusing when learned out of order but when we take the time to learn things step by step it tends to be simple and clear. Today we are going to take another step on our scale journey, we are going to be learning all the blues scales.
 

From a C Major Scale: C D E F G A B C

E--------------------------------
B--------------------------------
G------------------2-4-5---------
D------------2-3-5---------------
A-------3-5----------------------
E--------------------------------

We can remove the F and B Notes to form a C Major Pentatonic Scale:
C D E G A C

​E--------------------------------
B--------------------------------
G------------------2--5----------
D------------2--5----------------
A-------3-5----------------------
E--------------------------------

And then add a note into the pentatonic: The Flat third - EB

E--------------------------------
B--------------------------------
G------------------2--5----------
D-----------1-2-5----------------
A-------3-5----------------------
E--------------------------------

​To form a C Blues Scale: C D Eb E G A C
and we can add Eb  to all the other shapes:

E--------------------------------3-5---------
B-------------------------3-4-5--------------
G---------------------2-5--------------------
D--------------1-2-5-------------------------
A---------2-5--------------------------------
E---3--5-------------------------------------
 
E---------------------------------5--8-------
B---------------------------5--8-------------
G---------------------5-7-8------------------
D---------------5--7-------------------------
A---------5-6-7------------------------------
E---5--8-------------------------------------
E------------------------------------8--10-11--
B-----------------------------8--10------------
G-----------------------7-8-9------------------
D----------------7--10-------------------------
A-----------7-10-------------------------------
E---8-10-11------------------------------------
 
E----------------------------------------10-11-12-
B---------------------------------10-13-----------
G--------------------------9-12-------------------
D-----------------10-12-13------------------------
A----------10-12----------------------------------
E-10-11-12----------------------------------------
 
E-----------------------------------------12-15---
B--------------------------------13-15-16---------
G-------------------------12-14-------------------
D---------------12-13-14--------------------------
A--------12-15------------------------------------
E-12-15-------------------------------------------

​Work on all those shapes, move them around and get comfortable building simple melodies. Next time we are going to work on some playing examples and learn about modes.

Rod Ferreira has been a guitar teacher for over ten years. Rod specializes in acousitc, electric, blues, and rock guitar. Sign up for a one-on-one lesson today!

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