Guitar scales in blues music are one of the most important factors to consider when playing blues guitar. Without even a basic knowledge of them, you’ll struggle to ever gain a real understanding of the notes you’re playing or how to eventually create your own sound. So, for the purposes of this article, I’m going to introduce you to two essential blues scale patterns and provide you with some tips on how to get the best out of them! So, let’s get on with learning the shapes. Here the letters represent the strings and the numbers represent the frets.
Pentatonic Scale in E
E: Open & Three,
A: Open & Two,
D: Open & Two,
G: Open & Two,
B: Open & Three,
E: Open & Three
Blues Scale in E
E: Open & Three,
A: Open, One & Two,
D: Open & Two,
G: Open, Two & Three,
B: Open & Three,
E: Open & Three
Notice how the blues scale is more or less the same as the pentatonic just with one note added? That extra note (in this case Bb) is actually known as ‘the blue note’ and is what gives the blues style it’s sound.
Now you know these two scale shapes, the best thing to do is to practice them along to some blues backing tracks. That way you’ll really get to know how they sound within the context of a song. Then, once you’re used to them, make sure you learn as many blues licks as you can. Licks are essentially phrases written using these scale shapes, so they’re a perfect example of how you can actually USE the scales and make them sound musical, rather than a simple collection of notes.
