I haven't tried it yet, but looking at it, I'm having some problems seeing how it could work and have a few questions:

1. In the key of C for example, the blues scale has the notes Eb, Gb and Bb - but wouldn't they stand out as duff notes when played in that key?? After all, the key signature of C has no sharps or flats.

2. Are the major and minor blues scales the same actual notes just with different roots?

MattyJam said:

In C the blues scale is written as follows:

C Eb F Gb G Bb it is a six note scale (root,b3,4,b5,natural 5,b7...the minor pentatonic in C is
C Eb F G Bb (5 note scale / no flatted 5th) the major pentatonic in C is
C D E G A... notice it includes the root, 2nd, natural 3rd, 5th and 6th and that all the note are identical to the A minor pentatonic scale because they are relative, same notes different roots or tonics. All these scales can be applied to major triads such as C major C E G. The minor pentatonic and blues can also be used over Cm, C7sus4, C7#9, Cm, C5, Cm9, Cm11, Csus2 etc... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonic
http://www.zentao.com/gui...tonic.html
Hope that helps you out a bit...

Just to add to what Frank said... yeah, it's the same notes. the way I remember it is just to play the minor pentatonic starting with the second note... that gives a major pentatonic in a different key.

ie:

minor C pentatonic:
C Eb F G Bb

start on Eb instead gives major Eb pentatonic:
Eb F G Bb C
[Edited 11/8/07 10:22am]

They aren't duff notes, if you play them in the right places...

I think what you mean is... if you have a C major chord progression... and you're playing C minor pentatonic over it... some notes don't "fit" into the chord progression...

that's where note choice, phrasing etc... become important... playing those notes that don't quite fit at the right time... creating tennsion... resolving tension etc... others can probably explain better.

rather than fitting into the scale of the entire chord progression... sometimes it's more important that the note that is being played, fit into the "present" individual chord...

the possibilities are really endless...

coolcat said:

So... you could play the C minor blues scale over a C major chord progression???

Really?

Also - if C blues scale is derived from the C minor scale why are the notes different? C minor scale has a Ab whereas C blues scale has a Gb and no Ab... what's that all about???
[Edited 11/8/07 11:07am]

MattyJam said:

yeah, definitely.

suppose you have a 12 bar blues chord progression playing

C, F, C, C,
F, F, C, C,
G, F, C, G

you can play C minor pentatonic (C Eb F G Bb) over the entire chord progression. or C minor blues (C Eb F F# G Bb)...

it sounds more bluesy with minor pentatonic and blues... than major pentatonic/blues (C major pentatonic: C D E G A C major blues: C D Eb E G A)...

try C major pentatonic or C major blues over this progression... it fits... but a little too well... doesn't sound bluesy enough.

you can use dominant 7th chords instead for all the above chords (make it sound more bluesy)...

MattyJam said:

I think of the minor blues scale as the minor pentatonic + the blue note (here Gb for the Cminor blues).

The minor pentatonic is 5 notes of the minor scale...

The major reason we think of it as minor, is because of the minor 3rd...

coolcat said:

Thanks for your help.

One last question - What's the formula for finding the "blue note"?

MattyJam said:

The third note of the minor pentatonic scale raised by a half-step...

so C minor pentatonic:

C Eb F G Bb

The third note is F. The blue note is F raised by a half-step, in other words F#, making the C minor blues scale:

C Eb F F# G Bb
[Edited 11/9/07 6:50am]