If you want to explore a variety of bluesy licks, the e minor blues scale is an ideal starting point. It’s simple enough for anyone to learn and provides you with the foundation needed to explore different riffs and improvisational possibilities.
This scale can be an invaluable aid for improving your guitar playing in general. Combine it with other bluesy licks and resources to craft a distinctive sound of your own.
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The e minor blues scale is a widely-used instrument in jazz and blues guitar. It provides ample opportunities for improvisation, as you can use it over various chord progressions without changing keys. Unfortunately, mastering this scale requires some practice; however, once you learn how to play it well, you will soon find yourself incorporating it into your lead playing and creating an individual sound!
The first thing to note about the e minor blues scale is its close relationship to the natural minor scale (Aeolian Scale). Both these melodic scales share several intervals, which serve to indicate distances between notes.
These intervals can be used to define major and minor 7 based chords, as well as dominant 7 chords. Blues music often incorporates tonality clashes into its song structure; so learning the blues scale will enable you to improvise over these chord progressions effectively.
If you’re new to the e minor blues scale, begin with some basic exercises to get your fingers used to its shapes. Doing this will help reinforce each shape all over your neck and develop rhythmic precision. A great exercise to begin is playing each shape slowly to a metronome set at its lowest tempo possible; this will facilitate fluidity with each shape and make transitions between them much simpler.
Once you can play the e minor blues scale smoothly and confidently, you can move onto learning some licks that use this interval. These will serve as a great starting point and give you plenty of ideas for creating original melodic lines using this scale.
Start by playing some straightforward box patterns using this scale. Doing so will build your confidence when learning the scale, allowing you to eventually select two or three favorite patterns.
Next, you can start creating your own licks that you can use in guitar solos or when improvising over blues songs and chord progressions. This part of the learning process is incredibly enjoyable as it allows for creative freedom with the guitar while adding some extra flavor to your sound!
Finally, it is beneficial to practice playing this scale over a variety of chord progressions such as 12-bar blues or rock and roll. You could also experiment with using different chords like maj6 and b5 chords to hear how it sounds.
Add some variety to your blues scale playing by employing the blues form, which consists of quarter note rhythms played with bending picking style. You could also incorporate this form into guitar solos as an effective way to build tension and release during improvisation.
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The e minor blues scale is an integral component of blues guitar repertoire and can be used by players across several styles. It consists of a minor pentatonic scale with an added flat fifth (known as “blue note”) that gives it its distinct sound and makes it increasingly popular amongst musicians.
This scale is an incredibly straightforward to learn, and is commonly employed across a range of genres. As such, it should be part of any guitarist’s arsenal.
Add more variety and creativity to your solos by exploring chromaticism. It can help you craft various melodies and styles, making for an excellent starting point for composition.
When learning the e minor blues scale, it is essential to comprehend how notes interact with one another. You can do this by playing the scale both ascending and descending order; this will make you more familiar with it and also enable you to play lead runs more confidently in your songs.
You can use the e minor blues scale to craft various rhythmic patterns, including syncopation and swing. These two characteristics set blues music apart from other genres.
The e minor blues scale is an accessible and user-friendly scale to learn, which can be employed in many genres. It provides a perfect starting point for chromaticism as well as creating melodies of various types – making it perfect even for jazz musicians to begin with!
Learning this scale is a breeze, but it’s essential to comprehend how the notes fit together. Playing both ascending and descending scales will not only increase your comfort with the guitar but also enable you to play lead runs in your songs more confidently.
When learning the e minor scale, it is essential to remember that it contains several root notes. These include the open low E string, second fret of D string and open high E string.
The main root notes of the e minor blues scale can be seen on the diagram below, all highlighted in black. It’s essential to keep this in mind as you practice this scale so that you don’t get lost when playing a new song.
This scale is an incredibly accessible one, often found in blues guitar music. It provides a great foundation for various rhythmic patterns such as syncopation and rocking.
You can use the e minor blues scale to add variety and creativity to your solos. It offers plenty of potential melodies and styles, plus it serves as an excellent starting point for chromaticism.