THE UBER BLUES SCALE
Welcome to our super spicy Uber Blues scale feature. The aim of this lesson is to take the ever-popular Blues scale and augment it by introducing extra notes to provide us with the opportunity to create chromatic runs and add more colour, harmonic variety and interest. But first, let’s review what the Blues scale is and how it functions.
If we take the Minor Pentatonic scale (R- b 3-4-5- b 7) then add the b 5 we end up with a six-note scale that many refer to as the Blues scale. or sometimes the Minor Blues scale. Spelt out it looks like this: R- b 3-4- b 5-5- b 7.
Our examples are in the guitar-friendly key of A Minor and we have used an open key signature so you can see where the all-important chromatic notes are placed and how they’re used. The Blues scale in the key of A Minor has the following notes: A-C-D-E b -E-G. The b 5 (often referred to as the ‘blue’ note) has an unsettled, dissonant quality. Introducing it sets up a three-note chromatic run from
