Blues Scale
How do you play it?
Once you are comfortable playing the beginner lessons and understand the major/minor scales pick up the blues scale for exploring.
This is an important scale to learn as it is practically used in almost any style of music. Jazz, Rock, Boogie Woogie, Country – you can find the use of this scale almost everywhere.
Knowing the blues scale will also help you to play some interesting piano-riffs!
Structure of a Blues scale
The Blues scale is different from the major/minor scales in the sense that there are very few notes in this scale. Besides, the distance between the first two notes is one and a half step. Then there are three notes, which are chromatic. So, if you compare it with major/minor scales, the Blues scale would look weird to a beginner. But once you practice it and get used to it, it will be fun to play with.
The Blues scale based on the C key would look as follows.
C Eb F F# G Bb C
What about the fingering? Normally, you play the blues scale with only the right hand and play chords with your left hand. So using the right hand, you can keep the thumb for the white keys and the third finger for the black keys.
Practice makes perfect
Playing the blues scale in the key of C should not be a problem but it will take time to play it in all the 12 keys. So move gradually. But one thing is for sure; you are going to love playing in this scale if you like improvising. You will also need to spend some time learning the seventh chords, if you cannot play them already.
With this we come to the end of another lesson. I hope it was informative. Keep Practicing and have fun!
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