Blues Scales.....

[Satchwood]

Attached is a simPle blueZ scale chart that I uSe that works for Major or Minor pentAtonic blues sCales.

[Tony]

Attached is a simPle blueZ scale chart that I uSe that works for Major or Minor pentAtonic blues sCales.

It's amazing how dots before your eyes can give you, well, dots before the eyes.  This is the same scale that 48 posted at the beginning (minor pentatonic with a flatted fifth) but it took me awhile to realize that.  Phew, I was confused for a minute.  But I'm not sure how it work when you wanted to play a major pentatonic run, but then again I'm not a blues player.

[The Reverend 48]

Basically Minor Blues is more "traditional" and Major Blues has a "happier/ country feel"
The relationship is shown below:



I have done a little demo which hopefully will help
BTW I am only using the scale notes in the diagram above

A Great Bluesman said "It takes 20 minutes to learn the notes and 20 years to learn how to play them".........

Enjoy

[The Reverend 48]

And here's the backer...
You might recognise it as the base for Greenys "Heart in a Cage"
I hope a few more will have a go at Greeny's excellent Version

[Tony]

Now this makes sense.  If you are using these in different keys then that's going to change everything.  The major pentatonic in one key (say, C) is always going to be the same as the minor pentatonic in the key that is a sixth above (A).  And the minor third of the first key (Eb) is always going to be the same as the flatted fifth of the second key.  So your diagram is using the term blue note to mean two different notes in the two scales, the b3 in C and the b5 in A.  I'm getting it now.

[Satchwood]

I think you got it Tony!  You sound like you understand music theory too.

I think my "all inclusive" blues scale chart can be confusing at first (sorry), but it works for playing blues in all keys, whether major or minor sounding, or even for playing in all keys via straight pentatonic scales (without the blue note). 

Sometimes music theory gets kind of confusing to me, so I often use this simple 3 fret counting method when I'm trying to figure out which scale to play.

[Sprocket]

I know a lot of you are familiar with this but...If you fancy having a go at a bit of lead guitar and are not familiar with the notes you need...I found this a handy little guide as a start ...
I printed it then laminated it and used a wipe off marker to hi light stuff....
BTW the black notes are root notes
remember its not the number of notes you play its the feeling in them
Have Fun

I learned the 5 patterns last year, and Im pretty fluent moving them around in the different keys(and then I went back and learned the blue notes)...Im not so good converting it to the Minor scale on the fly, I pretty much have to count it off of the first major shape....but that will come with time, its all the same 5 patterns to me at this point anyways.
But heres my question...which are the best notes to bend and which are the best to slide into? I read reference to this once in a book but have yet to find that page again. If it can be explained, feel free to use the first position or R, b3, etc if need be...I can transcribe it for the other patterns later.

[Sprocket]

Attached is a simPle blueZ scale chart that I uSe that works for Major or Minor pentAtonic blues sCales.

One more question...what does the "nm" and "(n-3)M" in your example mean? For some reason that looks useful, like to convert from major to minor...but I cant wrap my head around the formula.

[The Reverend 48]

Attached is a simPle blueZ scale chart that I uSe that works for Major or Minor pentAtonic blues sCales.

One more question...what does the "nm" and "(n-3)M" in your example mean? For some reason that looks useful, like to convert from major to minor...but I cant wrap my head around the formula.

the "nm" is the root position of the minor blues scale
(n-3) is 3 frets back from "m" which is the first position of the Major blues scale......

[Satchwood]

Sorry this is so long...I hope this helps explain it at least the way I understand it.  I actually typed this up a few weeks ago for a friend of mine.  48 basically answered the question - but here's a longer version with some relative minor stuff thrown in:

From the chart:

nm = minor root starting note

(n-3)M = Major root starting note is 3 frets down from minor root starting note

(n+3)m = minor root note plus 3 frets up from Major root starting note

nM = Major root note

For example, if I want to play a simple 'A' minor pentatonic blues scale using box 1 position, I do the following:

Position my hand at fret nm = 5 (root note A) then play the scale.

For a major sounding blues 'A major' tune, I would position my hand at fret:

(n-3)M  (5 - 3=2)  three frets down from the minor position

(the big 'M' stands for Major, the little 'm' stands for minor).

You can also work the other way as well (Major to minor).  A little tricker and is the reason why I use Major / Relative minor knowledge a bit (ie. Am is the relative minor for C Major):

For example, if you want to play blues (box position 1) in C Major, you position your hands at fret:
   nM = 8 (root note C on the big E string)

Now you want to switch to a more minor sounding scale, then position your hand at fret:

   (n-3)M = 8 – 3 = 5 (root note A, A minor is the relative minor of C Major)

Pretty cool, I think...

So now if you want to play a G minor blues tune: position one would be nm=3 or the 3rd fret (root note G).  If you want to then switch to a G major sounding scale, just move your hand 3 frets down (n-3)M which is the open position.  E minor is the relative minor of G Major.

This little code can help anyone play blues in any scale, whether major sounding or minor sounding.  This works for straight Pentatonic scales as well (except without the blue note). 

A little tricky at first, but it just requires understanding the simple code and counting frets.  I know not much music theory here.

I then personally do a lot of sliding around between box positions to connect the different positions to get more elaborate smooth sounding.  I also think of chord positions to help me out and use Major key / relative Minor key knowledge as well.  Here are a few Major/minor correlations that I find helpful:

A minor is the relative minor for C Major (A is three frets down from C)
B minor is the relative minor for D Major (B is three frets down from D)
D minor is the relative minor for F Major (D is three frets down from F)
E minor is the relative minor for G Major (E is three frets down from G)
F# minor is the relative minor for A Major (F# is three frets down from A)

I hope this helps, and doesn't sound confusing...