Questions & Answers with Neil Hogan #2.0.6

Q. I’m having some trouble understanding blues guitar scales. Can you enlighten me a bit?

A. Blues guitar scales are a really fascinating subject. The first thing to understand is that they are not part of the main families of scales, the traditional modes. There are seven traditional modes that are based on sequences of whole steps and half steps that follow the natural notes in an order determined by what note they start on. Perfectly clear? Yeah, right. The articles about modes address this in more depth.

Getting back on track, blues scales are came to us from some of the types of melodies that might be sung by slaves as they worked in the fields. The call and response style of singing combined with bending the pitch of certain notes as they sang to help their emotional expression. Even more confused?

The simple explanation is that the pitches of a major scale are altered at certain steps occasionally, frequently blurring the distinction between major and minor.

Some of the altered notes would be flatting the third, fifth, and seventh steps of the scale. The flatted seventh creates what we call a dominant seventh sound, a chord frequently used on steps 1, 4, and 5 in a blues progression. The flatted fifth is usually used as a passing note continuing up to the 5^th or down to the 4^th. The flatted third is commonly used to clash with the major third. This is what causes the blurring of major and minor sounds.

That’s the tip of the iceberg concerning blues guitar scales. Here are additional articles along the same line - guitar scales.