Learn Blues Scale Basics

In this video guitar lesson, we will move on with the basic guitar series and work on E minor blues scale. Basically, this blues guitar scale is very similar to the minor pentatonic with the addition of a flatted fifth note. The special tone of blues playing is caused by the addition of the flatted fifth note (A#). This gives the scale the distinct bluesy sound and adds alot of funk to how the guitar sounds

Jamplay instructor Mark Brennon, will give you step by step guitar instructions in this exclusive blues guitar lesson.

Using techniques such as slurring and hammer ons, we will also explore a few licks in the blues scale for practice.

On top of the above mentioned techniques, we can also use slides and vibratos to add more bluesy feels to our licks and riffs. Enjoy the lesson!

Extra notes on learning the blues scales

When you intend to improvise on the guitar or play a solo, you would need to know what notes to play and the notes that you CAN play over a piece of background music.

If you had been playing classical guitar for a while before moving on to exploring the blues, you would realize that the blues genre is crazy and breaks quite a number of “musical rules”. For example, blues music often use the dominant major 7th chords in their progressions and turnarounds. On top of that, there is a prominent use of the flatted fifth in the pentatonic scale that makes up for the special bluesy sound.

There’s a reason behind this special interval. In the past, the black slaves in USA tried to play their African music using western musical instruments such as the guitar, harp and piano. In order to get the correct interval, the black musicians had to bend or slide between notes to obtain the correct tone.

I would also highly recommend you to listen to blues heroes like BB King and Eric Clapton to get a feel of how they play the blues. When you listen more, your mind would program itself better to play along to the blues as well as inspire yourself to play better.

P.S. You might want to bookmark the easy songs to play an acoustic guitar section regularly for updates on videos that help you learn playing the guitar.