Minor Blues Scale

The minor blues scale is the minor pentatonic with one extra note: the flat 5th, the "blue note". That single chromatic step between the 4th and the 5th gives the scale its gritty, crying sound, the one you hear in blues, rock, jazz and soul whenever a line slides or squeezes through a half step on the way somewhere.

This chapter is the compact reference for the scale, in A. The free first lesson gives you the formula, all five boxes as fretboard diagrams, where the scale fits and how to move it to any key. The second lesson adds new drills: Box 1 in sixteenths, ascending groups of three through both blue notes, skip-a-note intervals in Box 2 and a line that connects Box 1 and Box 2 with slides on the blue note. The third lesson puts it over a funky Am7 to Dm7 shuffle vamp, with two original licks that use the b5 the way it works best: as a passing note between chord tones.