B♭ Blues
Minor pentatonic + the flat-5 'blue note'. Six notes. The foundation of blues, blues-rock, and modern guitar vocabulary.
Audio source: tonejs-instruments by Nick Brosowsky (MIT)
What notes are in the B♭ Blues scale?
The B♭ Blues scale uses the notes B♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, F, A♭ (one octave; the pattern repeats at higher registers).
What's the Blues scale formula?
The Blues scale follows the interval pattern W+H W H H W+H W, where W = whole step (2 semitones) and H = half step (1 semitone). Apply that pattern starting on B♭ to get the B♭ Blues scale.
What chords work over B♭ Blues?
Blues scale works over the I / IV / V of any blues progression. The ♭5 is a passing tone — don't sit on it.
How do I finger B♭ Blues on Piano?
On piano, scales typically use a 1-2-3 / 1-2-3-4 thumb-under pattern for white-key scales. Black-key scales (F♯, G♭, etc.) shift the thumb-under positions onto white keys for ergonomic clearance. Hanon Exercise No. 1 and Czerny Op. 599 No. 1 work through the canonical pattern.
When would I use the Blues scale?
Minor pentatonic + the flat-5 'blue note'. Six notes. The foundation of blues, blues-rock, and modern guitar vocabulary.