Blues Scales

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1. To form a blues scale from a major scale do the following:
   • no change to the tonic
   • skip the 2nd
   • lower the 3rd 1/2 step
   • no change to the 4th
   • raise the 4th 1/2 step
   • no change to the 5th
   • skip the 6th
   • lower the 7th 1/2 step
2. A shorter formula for the same process would look like this: 1 3b 4 4# 5 7b
3. Notice that the 4th note is used twice - first natural and then raised.
4. When improvising to a three chord blues progression, use only one blues scale - the one built on the tonic.
5. Blues scales can effectively be used over minor chord progressions.
6. Although there are 8 and 16 bar blues progressions, the most common progression consists of 12 bars in the following order: 4 bars I, 2 bars IV, 2 bars I, 1 bar V, 1 bar IV, 2 bars I.
7. As you can see in line 6, the most commonly used chords in a blues progression are Tonic (I), Subdominant (IV), and Dominant (V).
8. The blues scales are spelled as follows:
   • C blues = C Eb F F# G Bb
   • F blues = F Ab Bb B C Eb
   • Bb blues = Bb Db Eb E F Ab
   • Eb blues = Eb Gb Ab A Bb Db
   • Ab blues = Ab Cb Db D Eb Gb
   • Db blues = Db Fb Gb G Ab Cb
   • Gb blues = Gb Bbb Cb C Db Fb
   • B blues = B D E E# F# A
   • E blues = E G A A# B D
   • A blues = A C D D# E G
   • D blues = D F G G# A C
   • G blues = G Bb C C# D F
   • F# blues = F# A B B# C# E
   • C# blues = C# E F# Fx G# B
   • Cb blues = Cb Ebb Fb F Gb Bbb