Playing Blues Scales

trimmy · May 16, 2011

Steve John B said:
Great stuff, thanks Kev. I might have to sign up as a paid subscriber...!

Might !!! well worth the fee 🙂

kevgermany · May 16, 2011

Steve John B said:
Great stuff, thanks Kev. I might have to sign up as a paid subscriber...!

Please do, proceeds to charity, not our pockets...

kevgermany · May 16, 2011

Revised version, with both major and minor blues scales and a couple of typos fixed is now available for download in the paid subscribers section.

Have fun.

BrianJoeSandy · May 31, 2011

Here is how I learned blues scales in all keys. First learn the circle of fourths/fifths. play round the circle going in the direction of fourths. E A D G C F etc Now do it again but add a whole tone after every note EF# AB DE GA CD FG etc. These are called pentatonic pairs. Now play them in pairs of pairs. EF# AB then AB DE then DE GA etc now add a whole tone on the end and you have pentatonic scales in all keys. EF# ABC then AB DEF# etc if we think of these five notes as 12 456 (of a major scale) then pentatonic minor starts on 2 and pentatonic major starts on 4. It is now a simple matter to insert the blue note between 5 and 6 to get the (minor) blues whose tonic is 2. It works for me and once you have the circle of 4ths down pat the rest requires no memorising of particular scales.

BrianJoeSandy · May 31, 2011

http://www.opus28.co.uk/pentssample.pdf Is an interesting related article. For example to play over a D_7 use the 12 456 I was on about. With 1 on D then on G then on C. Voila just moving the pentatonic scale round the circle of 4ths. The article has two more scales which lead backto the start. Each scale is changed by a single note each time you go round by a fourth. This should clarify:
D-7 is DFAC Going up the page changes by a fourth

A G F
E C D
B A G
F# E D

think of that as part of 3 concentric rings of 4ths. Notice that going from right to left we have 123 of a major scale and 2 rows can be seen as

654
321

as we move the

654 pentatonic pattern up we lose the 6 and gain a new 4 Only one note changes up by a semitone.
21

First B replaced by C then E replaced by F and notice the last scale CDFGA is 7b 1 3b 4 5 if we take D as the 1 and that is pretty close to D_7

I hope that makes some sense. Apologies if this is turning into a treatise!

MartinL · May 31, 2011

kevgermany said:
Is this what you're looking for?:

http://kevsgallery.com/cafesax/Blues_Scales.pdf

One set of scales, marked as piano. That's what you read/play, but the saxes will play in a different key, so I've added a decode for each line. Hope it makes sense. Suggestions/corrections please.

Pete may want to move this to the paid subscribers section, so grab it while you can.

That link isn't working Kev, or not for me. Is it correct

dubrosa22 · Jun 1, 2011

You'll need to be a supporter to view that PDF which is now in the subscriber's section I believe.
It's for a good cause! 🙂

kevgermany · Jun 1, 2011

MartinL said:
That link isn't working Kev, or not for me. Is it correct

Dubrosa's right, it's in the subscriber's section now, as I mentioned in a later post.

Proceeds from the forum go to charity, not into anyone's pocket...

MartinL · Jun 1, 2011

kevgermany said:
Dubrosa's right, it's in the subscriber's section now, as I mentioned in a later post.

Proceeds from the forum go to charity, not into anyone's pocket...

I'm well aware of that Kev, thats why I subscribe and have been for two years now.... I still cant find the pdf though...

kevgermany · Jun 1, 2011

Sorry Martin, I didn't realise.

Blues Scale PDFs

The pdf below contains all 12 minor and major blues scales over two octaves. Use for reference, or for practice. Use in conjunction with the Rock and Blues for beginners article. Scales are in concert pitch, against each scale is the concert pitch the Alto and tenor sax will be in when playing...

cafesaxophone.com