Blues Scale

[Soulstress]

Is the minor pentatonic scale considered the blues scale?

[piebaldpython***]

NO. If you take the minor pentatonic scale and ADD the flat 5th notes, then you have the minor pentatonic blues scale. The "blues scale" is actually the minor pentatonic blues scale.

I have a link to a site that shows you a fretboard and you click on whatever scale you want and all of the notes pop-up on the fretboard. You can further delineate it by showing the note names (A, B, C, ETC) or by the note position (root, iii, v, etc). Here ya go....just possibly the BEST link you'll ever get:
http://www.looknohands.com/chordhous.../index_rb.html

[Soulstress]

That site is SO helpful. It looks like a foreign language right now but I'll learn. Thanks

[piebaldpython***]

It's also great if you want to do an open tuning and you can get the site to show chords, scales in that open tuning.

[kidsmoke*]

Wow, PBP, that IS an awesome resource. I hadn't seen that before!

[Soulstress]

Well...I thought I would go there and click on minor pentatonic and add flat 5th notes but its not that easy. Just choosing the minor pentatonic is already confusing. I thought the numbers inside the black dots are suppose to be what finger you use. Thats how someone showed me the other day when reading the scales. They were showing me how its different from tabs where on there the numbers correspond to the frets.

But on this site here....what the heck is b1-b7? And one of the black bubbles has a 5 in it. So its not what finger you use. Whats going on, and which one should I select?

[Ch0jin]

Cool Link Pie, I've saved that for future reference!

Soul,

Look to the left hand side of the page, under the string names, you can select either "Display note names" or "Display intervals" The numbers are intervals (the relationship between the pitch of the notes), not suggested fingering.

I wouldn't worry about them for now. Just switch it to "display notes"

To show the "blues" scale, just select "Pentatonic Blues" from the list.

If you are trying to learn scales from scratch though, I actually would not at all recommend trying to figure it out from that website.

I (and of course I'm just saying how I did it, everyone is different obviously) would learn the "patterns" for the scales first. There are a buzillion places you can go online to learn the patterns for Pentatonic and Pentatonic blues and they'll show you the best fingering for each pattern. Once you can play all the patterns, you can link them all together for screaming solo's

I can't really recommend the best site (cause I learn't them from a book) but I reckon there's a very, very good chance Robert has some lessons posted online somewhere, or failing that, google pentatonic scale patterns and check on youtube if you want a video lesson.

Hope that helps!

[piebaldpython***]

Soulstress.....oh, you want fingerings too??? lol OK, go to Amazon.com and buy yourself the following book:

Blues You Can Use by John Ganapes

A fabulous book/CD for learning BLUES. Breaks the pentatonic minor and major scales down into 5 part sections. You finish that and VOILA, you have the fretboard in front of you, just waiting for you to add the emotion. lol

At this stage, you only need to buy the first book.

[Ch0jin]

Hey! I have the same book!

Its pretty good actually, although after years (and I do mean years) of only playing power chords and "plain" open chords, I'm struggling with some of the barre chord fingerings.

That book got me trying to play little licks between chords without moving the chord fingering much. Previously I'd drop my hand away and place it back in one of the scale box fingerings to do little fills and stuff. I'm still working on it, but it was a bit of a breakthrough for me.

Soulstress, I'm not sure where it is these days, but Robert posted some video lessons a while back on single and 2 string solo's (or scales, I can't recall what he called it...) These are super easy to learn and even though I knew the scales, I found them really helpful to find our ways of playing them. If you can find those, and practice a scale on only 2 strings (or only one) you'll be well on your way.

[Monkus]

Great advice !

you can also check out Justin Sandercoe's site here:

http://www.justinguitar.com/en/AA-000-LessonIndex.php

look for: BL - Blues

Great lessons...IMHO, pair those with Roberts videos and you're well on your way.

[sekeri]

Is the minor pentatonic scale considered the blues scale?

The blues scale is a variation of the pentatonic scale. Please take a look at these minor blues scale and major blues scale lessons.

[mainestratman]

Wow.. no love for the locals with online lessons?

Robert (our esteemed site admin): http://www.dolphinstreet.com/

Mark: http://www.markweinguitarlessons.com/

It'll help you to watch... and both these guys are good at what they do.