Losing yourself in the moment, letting your emotions go, finding your voice and connecting with your audience. These are all reasons why I love playing the Blues.
If I describe harmonically what is going on, the major/ minor ambiguity, the dissonances and predominantly dominant harmonies. I really lose the essential quality of “The Blues”, which for me is all about singing through your instrument.
Anyway enough of this woolly stuff! Lets talk about the basics and what has become the essential Blues scale.
First things first. When you’re soloing over a harmony, it doesn’t matter whether the backing track is a Major or Minor harmony, you’ll use the same scale, the Blues Scale.
Here are the intervals as mapped against a major scale.
The distinctive quality of the Blues scale is created by the dissonance of the b3, b5 and b7 notes. Especially when played, especially against a Major harmonic background.
These are the 5 standard guitar fingerings for the Blues Scale.
As usual I’ve identified the root note in black. If you’re observant, you may notice that the above shapes are based on the Minor 7th Pentatonic Scale. The only different is the addition of an extra note (b5), highlighted in red, this is known as “The Blue Note”. Get used to moving through this, or maybe lingering on it. As you develop your voice, you’ll find this a wonderfully expressive note to use.
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