Blues Scale

The blues scale opens up many possibilities when it comes to note choices and the progression of melody. Obviously, it's often used in blues music but it's also very noticeable in many rock, soul, R&B, metal and even pop songs.

The blues scale adds one note to the . This note is referred to as the "blue note". The blue note in the diagram above is indicated by a non filled in circle. The diagram above uses the position 5 pentatonic scale in G/Em and includes the blue note twice (using a lower version and higher version of the same note, an octave) within the position.

Pentatonic Scale

In order to understand more on how the blue note is determined, let's see how the note is derived from our normal diatonic scale positions. Since we're looking at the blues scale using the 5th position in G/Em, we derive the blues scale from the position 5 diatonic scale (which is also commonly known as the minor scale, as the position starts on the minor root).

This diagram shows us that the blue note is on the fret before the 5th note of our minor scale (from position 5). This is referred to in music as the "flatted 5th".

The normal diatonic positions often give a more classical approach to melodies. The blues approach, much like rock often uses simpler patterns and less notes, omitting the same notes that are omitted from the pentatonic scale. This gets rid of the 2nd and 6th notes of the diatonic scale. This diagram shows the blues scale using the same notes as the pentatonic scale but with the blue note (the flatted 5th) added in.