Guitar Practicing Tips – Blues Scale in Major

Mike Slayen Studios Picks 2The blues scale is a great way for beginners to start improvising and an integral scale for all guitarists to have in their musical tool box. It is versatile and a bit forgiving in that it is basically a five note pentatonic scale with the added ‘blues’ note…the #4.

It’s easy to know which key to use the blues scale for a minor key. If you’re in A minor you play A minor blues, E minor-E blues…etc.

What is not so obvious is which major key to use the blues scale. Unless you are playing a straight ahead blues you can’t really use the same theory…G major= G blues, etc.

The answer lies with the ‘relative minor’ key. The relative minor is 3 half steps below the root of the major key. So the relative minor of C major is A minor. G major is E minor.

Once you know which relative minor you can rip away.

Here is a list of  Major keys and their relative minors commonly used in guitar.  A cheat sheet to get you started, but, you will NEED to know these intimately as part of your music theory repertoire!

Major key / Relative minor key(where to use your blues scale)








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