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Blues scale on guitar
The blues scale on guitar: the minor pentatonic box plus the ♭5, fret by fret, the root for all twelve keys, played at a tap, MIDI and WAV to take.
In the blues scale on guitar, the top note here is A3, 220.0 Hz. Mika stops there.Tap Hear it, or tap any note on the board.
A C D E♭ E G
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.
The A blues scale on guitar
One position, frets 4–8, low E string first: low E: 5 8 (1 ♭3) · A: 5 6 7 (4 ♭5 5) · D: 5 7 (♭7 1) · G: 5 7 8 (♭3 4 ♭5) · B: 4 5 8 (♭5 5 ♭7) · high E: 5 8 (1 ♭3). 0 = open string.
1 is the root. Put it on the fret the table below gives for your key and the same shape plays that key.
The blues scale in all twelve keys
| Root | Notes | Fret, low string | Fret, next string |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | C E♭ F G♭ G B♭ | 8 | 3 |
| C♯ | C♯ E F♯ G G♯ B | 9 | 4 |
| D | D F G A♭ A C | 10 | 5 |
| E♭ | E♭ G♭ A♭ A B♭ D♭ | 11 | 6 |
| E | E G A B♭ B D | 0 | 7 |
| F | F A♭ B♭ B C E♭ | 1 | 8 |
| F♯ | F♯ A B C C♯ E | 2 | 9 |
| G | G B♭ C D♭ D F | 3 | 10 |
| G♯ | G♯ B C♯ D D♯ F♯ | 4 | 11 |
| A | A C D E♭ E G | 5 | 0 |
| B♭ | B♭ D♭ E♭ E F A♭ | 6 | 1 |
| B | B D E F F♯ A | 7 | 2 |
Where the blue note sits
Take the minor pentatonic box and add one fret: in A, the E♭ at the 6th fret on the A string and the 8th fret on the G string. That note between the 4th and the 5th is the blue note, and the trick is to pass through it, from D to E♭ to E, rather than land on it. Most 12-bar blues in E and A are played from this shape.
More scales
Blues scale Blues scale on piano Pentatonic scale on guitar Major scale on guitar Minor scale on guitar Minor pentatonic scale on guitar
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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