Play The Major Blues Scale In Any Key
You should now know the difference between the Minor Blues Scale and the Minor Pentatonic Scale if you’ve read the other articles on this site.
The diagram below shows the first box of the E Minor Pentatonic scale.
E Minor Pentatonic Scale First Box
And this diagram shows the first box of the E Minor Blues scale with the added flat 5th notes.
E Minor Blues Scale First Box
As with the minor scales, the major blues scale is the same as its pentatonic version with the blue notes added. The relationship between the major and minor blues box patterns is also the same as with the major and minor pentatonic box patterns.
You can take your minor blues scale and move it three frets down towards the head of the guitar and you then have your major blues scale. The G major blues scale is the same as the E minor blues scale.
Or, take the box patterns and move them down one position so that the first note of the second box is played at the root note or first position and you have your major blues scales.
The following diagrams show the fifth, first, and second boxes of the G minor blues scale.
G Minor Blues Scale Fifth Box – One Octave Lower
G Minor Blues Scale First Box
G Minor Blues Scale Second Box
The following diagrams show the fifth, first, and second major blues scale box patterns on guitar fretboard for the G major blues scale. Note how it is identical to the E minor blues scale.
G Major Blues Scale Fifth Box – One Octave Lower
G Major Blues Scale First Box
G Major Blues Scale Second Box
I’m not going to show you how to play all the boxes in different keys. You should be able to work them out now or you can download this free ebook. There’s no music theory involved, it’s just a handy quick reference guide that shows you all the notes on each string on the fretboard for the major blues scales in every key including the sharps and flats.
This is a Windows based program, sorry Mac users, that should work on any computer that has Windows 95 or above and Internet Explorer 4 or above. Just right click the link below and select save as to download to your computer, unzip and run the file, and follow the instructions to install it on your computer.
