A blues scale

The notes of the A blues scale

A C D E♭ E G

Formula: 1 ♭3 4 ♭5 5 ♭7. Steps from note to note: 3 2 1 1 3 2 semitones (one and a half, whole, half, half, one and a half, whole).

The A minor pentatonic scale with one note added: E♭, the flat fifth, the blue note. Slide through it, don't sit on it.

In Hz, from A4: A4 440.0 · C5 523.3 · D5 587.3 · E♭5 622.3 · E5 659.3 · G5 784.0.

The A blues scale on the piano

White keys: A C D E G; black keys: E♭.

For the fingering, slide the thumb under after the black keys, never onto one.

The A blues scale on guitar

One position, frets 4–8, low E string first: low E: 5 8 (A C) · A: 5 6 7 (D E♭ E) · D: 5 7 (G A) · G: 5 7 8 (C D E♭) · B: 4 5 8 (E♭ E G) · high E: 5 8 (A C). 0 = open string.

The root A sits at fret 5 on the low E string and at fret 0 on the A string. Slide the same shape there for any other root.

The guitarist's blues

A is the most common blues key on guitar: the 5th-fret box with E♭ added on the A string's 6th fret and the G string's 8th. On the piano it is all white keys except E♭. Over A7, D7 and E7 the six notes cover the whole 12-bar.

More scales

Blues scale C blues scale G blues scale F blues scale D blues scale A minor pentatonic scale A minor: scale and chords

How this page works

Hear it plays the scale up and down at 100 BPM on one of four Brumm sounds. Take it gives the same notes as a MIDI file and a WAV. − and + move the root. Every note here is computed from the formula.

Sources

Scales and modes: Open Music Theory, musictheory.net. Piano fingerings: the standard scale-book fingerings (ABRSM scale books; Hanon, The Virtuoso Pianist, part 3). Trumpet valves: the standard B♭ trumpet fingering chart (Yamaha, Bach). Hz: A4 = 440 Hz, ISO 16.

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