{"id":3113,"date":"2024-01-26T18:57:10","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T18:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/?p=3113"},"modified":"2024-01-26T18:57:12","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T18:57:12","slug":"guitar-soloing-the-problem-with-scales-part-3-minor-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/guitar-soloing-the-problem-with-scales-part-3-minor-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Guitar Soloing – The Problem With Scales Part 3 – Minor Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\nPart 1<\/a>\n\n\n\nPart 2<\/a>\n\n\n\nPart 3<\/span>\n\n\n\nPart 4<\/a>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Blues chords and scales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is a slightly confusing topic, and one that tends to contradict a lot of what we learn in common music theory. The best thing to do with blues is to not try correlating it with typical music theory – just learn the basic ideas and think of it simply as \u201cBlues stuff\u201d – it\u2019s just what musicians do in Blues music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I go further, blues can be complex and get a bit \u201cout there\u201d but we\u2019re not talking about any of that. Everything that follows is about typical blues – the type we here from the likes of BB King, Clapton, Freddie King, Stevie Ray Vaughan etc. In many cases it also applies to the heavier style blues rock, Jo Bonomassa, Gary Moore, Johhny Winter etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with applying scales to these styles of Blues is we get told a few options. Minor pentatonics, major pentatonics, Major scales, minor scales, blues scales and dominant \/ Mixolydian scales. The reality is actually a lot simpler, it just takes a while to sink in – especially if you\u2019ve been watching too many Youtube videos and too much interaction on Facebook groups, where most self proclaimed experts don\u2019t really know what they are talking about. Sorry if that sounds arrogant but it\u2019s an unfortunate reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I say think of it all as just \u201cblues stuff\u201d it\u2019s quite important that you understand what this means. In short, it\u2019s just the evolution of taking ideas from all styles of (typical) blues music, old and new and piecing them together. Most of the well known guitarists have built their style by simply listening to others and making things their own. It doesn\u2019t need to be theoretically correct and trying to theorise it usually just leads to the bad information and confusion – the worst offender of them all being told to play Mixolydian over each chord – but we\u2019ll get to that later in major blues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the previous parts of this lesson series we concentrated on scale notes, chord tones and making scales more melodic by paying attention to what notes we play over the chords. To some extent, this does also apply to the blues but it\u2019s probably not the best way to go about it. You can go a long way with this style by mostly using the minor pentatonic, learn some solos and a whole bunch of cliche licks over both major and minor blues chord progressions, and spend a whole lot of time practising string bending. Play them over and over until your brain and fingers just piece them together into your own style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there was only one rule with blues, I\u2019d say it\u2019s this. Generally speaking we only use minor scales over minor blues chord progressions. For other blues, anything goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the heart of blues is the I-IV-V, but it comes in many flavours and this is where it can tend to get confusing. In the most basic form, in the key of C major for example, this would be C \/ F \/ G. In C minor (i-iv-v) this could be Cm \/ Fm \/ Gm. We\u2019ll often also see 7th chords among them but we\u2019ll get to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the minor blues, we\u2019ll mostly use the minor pentatonic scale, often with the b5th blues note, and that\u2019s pretty much it. Can it be done differently? Yes. Will it still sound like the blues we expect to hear? Probably not. The natural minor scale is a perfect fit for the chords but will likely sound too sweet or melodic if overused, although in small doses can add a nice touch. This is not what we want in blues most of the time. It typically needs some tension and to be a bit edgy. It\u2019s more about expression with the scale notes, not a perfect melodic fit. Some of this is just my opinion, try what you like but most typical minors blues will be centred around the minor pentatonic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For major blues, things are different. We can use major scales (sort of), the major or minor pentatonic, good use of the b7th (too often mistaken for Mixolydian) or a mash up of the the lot. Before anyone puts on their arguing hat, remember we\u2019re talking about common blues here. Ok, enough talking, let\u2019s break some of this down and figure out why these things work this way and how maybe it evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minor Blues<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll start with minor blues and get it out of the way because it\u2019s not as complicated. Here\u2019s a chord progression for a basic i-iv-v in C minor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"C<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

If this chord progression was used in something like an easily listening pop tune then the C natural minor scale would be a perfect fit because all of the chords are in the key. We can still use this scale for blues but it won\u2019t sound very bluesy – for example, something like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"c<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Example 34<\/strong>
Using the Natural minor scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"guitar<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"c<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Example 35<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blues typically makes more use of expression and longer note durations, so as usual, what we want to avoid is playing too much up and down the scale pattern like this, it sounds very amateur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"guitar<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"guitar<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"guitar<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"c<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Over the G7 there will be two notes of the minor pentatonic that you need to watch out for because the b3rd in Gm will now be a major 3rd. This is the note B and sits right between the Bb and C of the C minor pentatonic. The diagram below shows where the notes are, the blue dot is the note belonging to G7 and the reds are the ones to watch out for. I call them \u201cavoid notes\u201d but this doesn\u2019t mean don\u2019t try them, this is blues after all and clashing notes aren\u2019t always going to sound wrong, especially when resolved, but as long as you are aware then it makes it easier to know where potential trouble could be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"minor<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With that said, this is a great chord to be targeting chord tones on. It\u2019s the last chord in the turnaround, it doesn\u2019t quite belong to the key and often sounds great to highlight it by making it stand out by targeting the B note, especially if you bend into it, maybe something like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 38<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"guitar<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"minor<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s often more effective and easier to just target chord tones rather than avoid those that might clash. An easy thing to remember when we have a bVI7 chord, the b5 of the blues scale is a good target tone to remember, it fits the chord. If this is then followed by the V7 then it\u2019s also safe to assume that a semitone down is going to be another good note choice for this chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following example I do just that. Bend up to the Gb (the b7 of the A7 chord) and then over the G7 release the bend back to F (the b7 of G7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 39<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"guitar<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"c<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Next, in Guitar Soloing Part 4<\/a>, we\u2019ll look at Major Blues.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\nPart 1<\/a>\n\n\n\nPart 2<\/a>\n\n\n\nPart 3<\/span>\n\n\n\nPart 4<\/a>\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blues chords and scales This is a slightly confusing topic, and one that tends to contradict a lot of what we learn in common music theory. The best thing to do with blues is to not try correlating it with typical music theory – just learn the basic ideas and think of it simply as … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lessons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3113"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3238,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3113\/revisions\/3238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}