Basic Music TheoryRecipe for Any Standard Blues Scale
1 Take one Major scale of your choice
2 Use the tonic of the Major scale as the first note of the blues scale.
3 Lower the third degree of the Major scale a half step to get the second
degree of the blues scale.
4 Use the P4 of the Major scale as the 3rd note of the blues scale.
5 Lower the P5 by a half step to get the 4th note of the blues scale.
6 Put the needed accidental in front of the 5th to get a P5 for the 5th note
of the blues scale.
7 Take the seventh degree of the Major scale and lower it a half step for
the 6th degree of the blues scale.
8 Use the P8 for the seventh note of the blues scale.
9 Turn lightly over and over in your brain and under your fingers until
memorized.
10 Repeat from step one with a new scale until all 12 are memorized.The Major Blues Scale
The Major blues scale is a slight alteration of the standard blues scale.
See if you can spot the difference. There is a M2, a M3, and a M6, but no
P4, and no m7.Example 26.2 The C Major blues scale.
If you were talking to a “jazzer”, and asked her what the Major blues
scale was, she’d say, “Tonic, two, flat three, three, five, six, eight,” or
something similar. This a shorthand version of describing each degree of
the Major blues scale as it relates to the Major scale.