Music Theory Series Part 4- Introduction To Scales 1, by Dogukan Ozturk Options

[quadrium]

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 scale types.

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

Of course there are many more types of scales.But these are the most common scales.

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

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=37817 (for Major and Minor Scales)

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...showtopic=37733 (for Pentatonic Scale)

Now let’s continue with the 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.

Thats 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

This post has been edited by quadrium: Mar 12 2011, 03:47 PM