Learn to Play Guitar - The Blues Scale

The challenge for most guitar players is 'what scales should I learn and which one should I learn first?' There's no shortage of scales available to the newbie guitarist in fact that's part of the problem, too much information.

Let's start at the beginning...

The basic scales to learn would be:

1. The minor pentatonic scale

2. The major pentatonic scale

3. The blues scale

I'd learn them in that order, master the minor pentatonic, next the major pentatonic and then the blues scale. I've covered the major and minor versions of the pentatonic scales in previous articles today our focus will be on the blues scale.

The Blues Scale

The blues scale is one of the most unique and frequently used scales. It is also important because it is the first real scale of American origin. The reason for the flexibility and feeling inherent in the blues scale are these:

(a) All of the traditional scale forms that form the backbone of "legit" musical training such as the diatonic major scale stem from the European musical culture. These scales all began and developed in an atmosphere of disciplined conditions e.g., they are a product of the piano keyboard.

Traditional scales where created and developed over the passage of time on the piano keyboard using a mathematical and scientific approach. The history of music shows the human intellect's even increasing need for more and more complex harmonic textures and with that need for harmonic complexity and

sophistication came the need to create more harmonically rich and exotic scales.

(b) In contrast the blues scale had its roots in an untrained, natural vocal origin. The important distinction between the "legit" scales and the blues scale is that the blues scale was a human vocal sound transferred to the instruments available at the time such as guitars played with a slide often referred to as "bottleneck" guitar as the slide was more often that not created out of the glass "neck" of a bottle.

Other instruments such as the bugle, trumpet and later the saxophone emulated the vocal sound or the work songs of people working on plantations, road and railway gangs.

Most early exponents of the blues scale, for example could not read music; did not study to develop their talent and facility; they were not technically aware of what or how they arrived at the music they produced. They heard and felt their music and that was all they needed.

Basic blues song structure

The blues started back in the 19th century as a form of folk music, it was originally performed by individual singers, guitarists, and banjo players. By 1920 three distinct blues formats had developed: the 8 bar blues, the 12 bar blues and the 16 bar blues.

From these three the 12 bar blues quickly became the most popular format it is still the most common blues form use by contemporary musicians.

The versatile nature of the blues scale makes it one of the most popular scales in modern music make sure you learn how to play this scale on the guitar.

And now I'd like to invite you to get free access to my "How To Remember 1,000 Songs" eCourse. You can download the course for free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com

You'll learn about hit song templates, easy chords, simple scales, red hot rhythms, and successful practice strategies in text, audio and video.

From Mike Hayes - The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar System