Pentatonic and Blues Scales

The simplest scales are the pentatonic ones - they have only 5 notes. The blues scales have 6 notes. "m" stands for minor and "M" stands for major (the difference between a minor scale and its major correspondent - containing the same notes - is three frets. For example, the major correspondent of F#-minor is A-major, the major correspondent of A-minor is C-major). The blue bullets show the note to be added in order to transform a pentatonic scale to a blues one:

 

The next table shows the correspondence between the root of the scale and the fret on the guitar where a certain scale should be played. For instance, if you want to play in the root of A, you should start at the 5th or 17th fret, for the root of C, you should start at the 8th or 20th fret, for the root of Eb, you should start at the 11th fret:

Root

A

A#

Bb

B

C

C#

Db

D

D#

Eb

E

F

F#

Gb

G

G#

Ab

n = fret

5

17

6

18

7

19

8

20

9

10

11

0

12

1

13

2

14

3

15

4

16