Pentatonic blues are scales which incorporate an “off-scale note”, or an extra pitch that doesn’t occur naturally in their scale, into them to add tension and give your playing an authentic blues sound. When used tastefully, these notes add tension as well as give your music an inherently bluesy flavor.
These scales are derived from minor pentatonic scale, adding an additional blue note b5 (or #2/b3), which should help familiarize players with all the shapes up and down the fretboard. Taking time to familiarise oneself with these scales is worthwhile and will allow one to become proficient with all its variations.
The Blues Scale
The blues scale is an indispensable tool in the arsenal of any serious guitarist. Comprised of notes from both minor and major pentatonic scales, with one additional note called the blue note added on, this additional chromatic note changes how these scales sound to add an authentic blues sound – making for more dynamic guitar playing! Learning this scale will add variety and emotion into your playing.
The Blues Scale is fairly easy to comprehend – it essentially comprises the minor pentatonic scale with the addition of an additional flat fifth note known as the blue note, making the sound even more bluesy. This blue note can radically transform its sound; indeed it plays an integral part of blues music that can be utilized in various styles to produce different genres.
Beginners are advised to start off slowly when learning the blues scale, starting by learning its essential parts: root note, octave notes, major second and major third notes. Mastering these elements will serve as an excellent foundation for mastering the entire blues scale. Once this foundation has been laid down successfully, you can begin studying it more comprehensively.
Do not neglect learning the entire scale – it will prove immensely helpful and is essential in many aspects of your playing. Just use it sparingly at first – otherwise known as the ‘bluesy scale’!
The blues scale is also well suited to dominant 7 chords due to its unique ‘blue seventh’ interval; not only can it work over these chords, but its use also extends into other types of harmony (such as triads). As such, this scale offers much more versatility than Mixolydian mode which only really functions well over dominant 7 chords.
The Minor Pentatonic Scale
To play pentatonic blues effectively, it is crucial that you have an in-depth knowledge of the minor pentonic scale as this will form the base of most of your licks.
The minor pentonic scale is an easy five note scale with minor tonality that most guitarists will be familiar with already. Starting with your root note (just as with major scale), then add additional chromatic notes on either side for that blues sound.
Like its major scale counterpart, each interval on the minor pentonic scale consists of intervals that are at certain distances from its root note; this distance will be known as ‘tones’ and can range anywhere between 1 to 5. As illustrated below, A is the initial tone and all other notes of this scale have white labels with black circles representing them; D# marks out of scale is also included here.
Once you master the minor pentatonic scale, it can be applied to nearly all chord progressions in blues music. This is because its tonic chord contains many minor triads and minor 7th chords with flat 3rds and b5ths that work beautifully alongside it.
Minor pentonic scale is also an excellent way to play over major chords, creating an attractive solo. Most major chords already include major/minor conflict; by adding in some minor blues scale notes you can create an impressive sounding solo performance.
As demonstrated in this video, the initial lick begins on G, moves into C7, and finally uses A minor blues scale for extra tension.
An essential factor when playing pentatonic blues is always targeting the root note of each chord, in order to avoid hitting any dissonance that might ruin your solo and create discordant notes that might ruin its sound. Furthermore, doing this will also make your playing more melodic while helping bind all your notes together – an excellent way to ensure cohesive playing!
The Major Pentatonic Scale
The major pentatonic scale can be just as beneficial to musicians as its minor blues counterpart, but requires different strategies and an approach. One reason for this may be due to containing a “blue” note which is absent in its minor blues equivalent. This tension-inducing note adds tension while giving this scale its distinctive bluesy sound, creating intervals between notes which you can then use to generate melodies or licks.
You may already recognize this sound from other genres of music; rock and blues music often employ this style of acoustic guitar playing, featuring its signature sound associated with this genre. Major pentatonic scale melodies are commonly utilized when creating melodies for this instrument.
As with the minor blues scale, there are certain rules associated with its usage that must be understood to make the most out of this scale. For instance, you should avoid employing it over dominant chords as this will create an unpleasant clash between its notes and those found within it; similarly it would not be suitable to play this scale over the IV chord in blues progression due to this clash between its notes and those found there.
As this can be difficult to grasp, taking your time when learning this scale is crucial. Since there are various positions on the fretboard and extra rules attached to this mode of playing. Therefore, to begin learning this scale it would be prudent to memorize and apply the minor pentatonic scale thoroughly before moving onto learning its major version.
After having mastered the minor version, try shifting your attention to major blues scale. This will enable you to develop transitions between them and use major blues in many similar situations as minor pentatonic. Once completed, try mixing both scales together to see which combinations work well for you.
The Blues Box
B.B King made famous a scale pattern known as the BB box that isn’t a standard scale – rather, it is composed of notes drawn from both minor pentatonic and major blues scales to create his signature solo sound. To form this musical phrase, add minor third to first shape of minor pentatonic scale before flattening fifth octave of major blues scale and further octave of minor pentatonic scale – giving an extremely flexible set of notes that allows one to create any number of different phrases within blues music.
To effectively use this scale, it’s crucial to understand how intervals work. Intervals not only indicate where two notes are close together but also how they sound when played; B.B King box intervals create a consonant sound when played compared with major and minor scales which contain more discordant intervals that create dissonant sounds when played.
With that understanding in place, let’s now examine how the BB box can be used to play some classic B.B King licks. Here is an example phrase using only the BB box; notice how its bends begin in C – giving more major feel – before changing keys for jazzier feel in A & finally B for extra emotion in phrases.
As seen above, the BB box can help to produce numerous amazing blues licks. However, be wary when using it over minor blues progressions; its notes could clash with some notes within an octave chord due to its flat third (b3) interval. However, other than this restriction it remains an excellent scale to have in your repertoire and can easily be combined with shapes 1 and 2 of minor pentatonic scale for creating various blues phrases.