A Blues
Minor pentatonic plus one dirty note.
The blues scale is the minor pentatonic with one note added — the flat 5th. That single 'blue note' is the sound of blues, rock and every expressive bend.
Pentatonic with a blue note
A Blues is A C D E♭ E G — A minor pentatonic with an added ♭5 (E♭). That extra chromatic note is the 'blue note' that gives the scale its grit.
- Six notes: 1 ♭3 4 ♭5 5 ♭7.
- The ♭5 (E♭) is the added blue note.
- Everything else is the safe minor pentatonic you know.
The blue note
The ♭5 (E♭) is a passing tone — slide or bend through it between the 4 and 5. Lingering on it sounds sour; passing through it sounds like the blues.
- The ♭5 is a passing tone, not a resting note.
- Slide 4 → ♭5 → 5 for the classic blues move.
- It adds the crying, chromatic tension over a shuffle.
Where it lives
Over a 12-bar blues, a shuffle, or a rock groove in A, the blues scale is home. It works over both minor and dominant blues in the same key.
- Use it over a blues or shuffle in A.
- Fits both minor and dominant blues progressions.
- Just one note away from the minor pentatonic.
Add one flat 5th to the minor pentatonic and the scale learns to cry — that blue note is the whole sound of the blues.
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