Quadrium - Music Theory Series Part 4 - Introduction to Scales 1 SI Lesson

Introduction

Hello. Welcome to my Music Theory Series. In todays lesson we will take a look at the scales. Let’s begin.

Definition

A scale is a sequence of musical notes in ascending and descending order that provides material for or is used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical work including melody and/or harmony.

It is important to remember a scale pattern on the guitar, if you know the pattern of a particular scale, you can move that pattern anywhere else on the fret board and be playing in a different key. By this, I mean if you are playing a major scale, beginning on the low E string at the fifth fret, which is an A note and then you played the same pattern of notes, but you started on the 3rd fret of the low E string, you will be playing a G major scale.

Now let’s take a look at scale types.

Scale Types

-Major Scale
-Minor Scale
-Melodic Minor Scale
-Harmonic- Minor Scale
-Pentatonic Scale
-Blues Scale
-Chromatic Scale
-Whole Tone Scale

-I’ve covered the major/minor and pentatonic scales in my previous lessons.You can find them in those links:

Guitar Scale Theory

Pentatonic Scales

Now let’s continue with the Blues Scale:

Blues Scale

(#=sharp,b=flat)

A Blues scale consists of six notes.(minor pentatonic scale plus #4th,b5th degree) A major feature of the blues scale is the use of blue notes.So what are those blue notes?Let’s see:

A blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes.(b3,#4/b5 and b7 degrees of a scale.))

Though the blues scale has an minor tonality, it is commonly 'forced' over major-key chord changes.

Now that we know how to construct a blues scale,let’s construct one.

Let’s say we want to construct a A Blues Scale.As i mentioned before we need a pentatonic scale plus #4th/b5th degree to construct a Blues scale.So:

A minor pentatonic scale:

A C D E G

e |--5--------8--
B |--5--------8--
G |--5-----7-----
D |--5-----7-----
A |--5-----7-----
E |--5--------8--

Now we need a diminished 5th/augmented 4th note. The fifth degree of A minor scale is a E note.Then the diminished 5th/augmented 4th is a Eb/D# note.If we add this note to our A minor Pentatonic Scale we get the A Blues Scale.

A C D D#/Eb E G

e |--5-----------8--
B |--5-----------8--
G |--5-------7--(8)-
D |--5-------7------
A |--5--(6)--7------
E |--5-----------8--

A Blues Scale All Patterns:

The constructing way is same for every scale.To sum up here are the steps to construct a Blues Scale:

1-Find the minor pentatonic scale of the given scale.
2-Find the Diminished 5th/Augmented 4th degree of the given scale.
3-Add the Diminished 5th/Augmented 4th note to the minor pentatonic scale you have found before.

That's it. You have a Blues Scale now.

Now that we have covered Major Scale,Minor Scale,Pentatonic Scale and Blues Scale. We will continue covering other scales in next lesson.
See you there.Keep rocking.

Quadrium(Dogukan)