The Blues Scale: Learning the Seven Patterns of the Minor Pentatonic Scale.The blues scale is one of the first scales that many (if not all) guitarists learn. Its use in popular music like Rock, Metal, Jazz, and even Country is about as wide spread as the I, IV, V progression that supports it. I'm not saying it is used in every song; however, you may find that a lot of guitar leads in songs will use this scale. In fact, you may even hear a guitar player play a minor scale (like the Dorian or Phrygian mode) and then finish the lead on a blues lick. The main scale in which guitarists use to play blues (at least these days) is the Minor Pentatonic Scale. It is called "penta" tonic because the scale only consists of the 1, b3, 4, 5, and b7 tones of the major scale. That is, "penta" or a five tone scale. However, despite the fact that it only consists of five tones, you will find that they are the meanest five tones you will ever learn. Trust me on that statement. Like most scales (Major, Minor, etc.), the Minor Pentatonic scale consist of overlapping patterns that run up and down the neck. In this case five besides the usual seven. Plus, like chords, all you have to do to change the key of these patterns is to shift each pattern to the new key. In this section, I am going to teach you each pattern of the Minor Pentatonic scale. I will use the key of A for all of the examples. The reason I choose the key of A is because there are no sharps or flats within the A Minor key in which this scale (in a way) is derived. The other reason is that it is easier to visualize these patterns on the guitar fret board when you play them in the key of A. So, let's get started on your journey to making some mean blues licks. Click on pattern 1 below to start your journey, or you can start at any of the other pattern licks: Pattern 1
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