Blues scale

The minor pentatonic scale with an added flattened fifth, giving six notes that carry the characteristic blues tension.

The extra note, the flattened fifth, is often called the blue note because it sits between the fourth and fifth degrees and refuses to settle. Players usually treat it as a passing tone rather than a resting point, bending through it on the way to the fifth, which is why the blues scale in practice sounds less like a fixed set of notes and more like a way of moving. Its shape on the fretboard is the minor pentatonic with one extra note, so learning it costs almost nothing.

Example: A minor blues scale contains A, C, D, E flat, E and G, the added note being the flattened fifth.

Blues scale

See also