Blues Scale For Guitar - How to Play Jaw Dropping Lead Guitar

By John Robert

When I was a younger guitarist I used to watch in awe at players that could effortlessly jam with other's playing lick after lick of great lead guitar. I thought I would never be that good until I learned the blues scale for guitar. The blues scale opened my eyes to the world of improvisation and within a month I was up there jamming along with them. This article will show you how to play a blues scale for guitar and also give a few pointers on successfully using it to play lead guitar.

First a little background on the blues scale for guitar. The blues scale is derived from the minor pentatonic scale. If you play a minor pentatonic and add one note (the flatted fifth) you get the blues scale. This added note is what gives the scale its sad, dark quality. In medieval times the flatted fifth was known as the 'The Devil's Note' and its use banned in some kingdom's. Today though people are more forgiving of this unusual tone and some actual prefer it. The blues scale can be found in almost al forms of music whether it be rock, jazz, blues, heavy metal, and other world music.

Here is a diagram of the Blues Scale for Guitar

¦--X--¦------¦------¦--X--¦
¦--X--¦------¦------¦--X--¦
¦--X--¦------¦--X--¦--O--¦
¦--X--¦------¦--X--¦------¦
¦--X--¦--O--¦--X--¦------¦
¦--X--¦------¦------¦--X--¦

The X's and O's represent the notes that make up the blues scale. The O's are the flatted fifth or 'blue' note. If you were to omit these notes from the pattern you would be left with the minor pentatonic scale.

How to use the Blues Scale for Guitar

The scale pattern I have shown above can be played starting any fret of your guitar. It works well over minor chords, power chords and Dominant seventh chords. Practice the scale up and down until you memorize the notes well enough to do it without looking. Then try juggling them around to come up with your own licks.

Cool blues guitar trick: Play a note not in the scale and bend or slide into the note that is in the scale. You will have to experiment with this one because not all outside notes will sound as pleasing as other's but this is a really cool sound that will instantly make you sound like a pro.

For more tips and ideas on playing the blues scale for guitar try listening to some of your favorite rock and blues bands. See if you can jam along, or try to pick out what they are playing. Just remember to have fun with it first and then before you know it you will be able to jam out some blues and rock with anyone.

John Robert has been playing guitar for longer than he can remember. Aside from teaching guitar for the last three years he enjoys writing articles about playing blues guitar and other guitar related topics. If you are serious about mastering the blues you owe it to yourself to check out PlayingThroughTheBlues.info