Ok, this is the scale that you’ve all been waiting for.

If there is ONE scale that fits the Blues vocabulary…it’s this one.

This is basically a minor pentatonic scale with a flatted 5th added. This is what’s regarded as the “Blue” note.

Below is an A minor pentatonic scale and for comparison, an A Blues scale.

A minor pentatonic:

A C D E G

A Blues:

A C D Eb E G

1 3 4 b5 5 7

Next, we have 2 patterns for an A Blues scale.

E |------------------------------------------5-|
B |--------------------—-------------5--8------|
G |-------------------------5--7--8------------|
D |-------------------5--7---------------------|
A |---------5--6--7----------------------------|
E |--5--8--------------------------------------|
E |--------------------------------------------------12—15----|
B |--------------------—-------------13--15--16---------------|
G |-------------------------12--14----------------------------|
D |-----------12--13--14--------------------------------------|
A |--12--15---------------------------------------------------|
E |-----------------------------------------------------------|

Want To Learn More …

country-boxIn my experience with guitarist I found a lot of newer players assume that learning how to play country guitar is much easier than other types.

Reality is that this couldn’t be further from the truth. It actually requires a lot of practice and dedication to get to a level to play comfortably.

If you sit and listen to some real country songs you may be able to hear difficult picking patterns that require a lot of skill to play.

Country is one genre of guitar that I like to tell students to really immerse themselves into all types of country music to get a real feeling or how the music should be played.