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

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