Do All Musicians Agree On The Blues Scale?

Good morning. This is Duane. We’ve been doing a series on music theory called “Good Stuff You Really Ought to Know About Music!”  Today I’d like to take up a hybrid blues scale. Yesterday we took up the five main types of scales: major scales, minor scales, chromatic scales, whole tone scales, and so on. Today I want to take up a hybrid. You know what a hybrid is. For example, I drive a hybrid car; it’s partly electric and it’s partly gas. Maybe you do, too.

In any case, the scale I’m going to describe is a hybrid scale. It’s made out of more than one part, more than one section. Let me tell you this, too: that there’s not wide agreement at all about what notes are in the scale. This is the blues scale I’m talking about. Let me what it usually is. Here’s a tonic scale, a diatonic scale. The blues scale is this for sure, a flatted 3rd, the flatted 5th, the 5th, the flatted 7th, and the octave note.

However, a lot people put that note in, too: the major 3rd. I’ll explain why in a minute. A lot people put in the major 7th as well as the flat, so there’s not widespread agreement. If you look down below this video I will have a link in there that you can go read a Wikipedia article about the blues scale. You’ll see there’s several opinions or several varieties. That’s as it should be, because everybody plays it a little different.

I use the notes of that scale I just described, but I also use a couple other notes. I’ll show you why right now. The blues originally happened … it was sung. It had a melancholy or a sad sound to it. The sound that was created was somewhere between the major 3rd and the minor 3rd. It wasn’t the minor 3rd; it wasn’t the minor 3rd; it was somewhere in between there. Trombone players can do it. A lot of instruments can get that quarter step but on a piano you can’t do that because you either have to play that or that, or you can play it together. That gets a little bit of a sound.

What I like to do is to play the major 3rd there and the minor 3rd there, that kind of sound. Or there’s a D 7th with a minor 3rd on top and a major 3rd there. That’s why I’m including the E natural in the blues scale, which a lot of people don’t. Everybody seems to agree that there should be that note included in the blues scale. It’s the raised 4th or lowered 5th. Everybody agrees that there’s a flatted 7th, because there’s almost always a 7th sound in the blues. The 7th is in agreement.

However, when I get to the V7 chord I might want that sound. There I’m creating a major 3rd and a minor 3rd. The 7th is also in the scale. Here’s the notes I use in the blues scale: the root, the 2nd, the flatted 3rd, the 3rd, the 4th, the raised 4th or the flatted 5th, the 5th, the 6th, the dominant 7th and the major 7th. All those are used when I play, and certainly with tons of other musicians as well.

That’s the hybrid scale. That’s the blues scale made out of several components. Hopefully that helps a little bit in understanding that area of music theory. Thanks for being with me. If you enjoy these little tips, come on over to PlayPiano and sign up for our free tips series because it’s all free. Thanks. Bye bye for now.

***For lots more good stuff on piano playing come on over to my website at https://www.playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips – “Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions!”

Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn

Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ4pYYTR_mY&feature=youtu.be

Here is an article on Wikipedia about the blues scale and all the varieties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues_scale

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