Major Blues: The Other Blues Scale

[m78w]

Hey Everyone,
I just posted a new lesson that talks about the Major Blues scale and it's application to Blues, Rock and Jazz music, check it out if you're into it.

Major Blues Scale Lesson

[Kman]

Interesting. I had always played major blues over the I chord and sometime on the V chord, the rest would be minor blues. Also, I only stuck with key that the song was in - if an A blues, then only A major blues scale or A minor blues scale. I'll have to experiment with this. Thanks.

[m78w]

yeah, the major blues scale is kind of like an arpeggio, you can use it over any Major 7th or Dominant 7th chord in a tune. Try it out on a 2-5-1 as well, play a minor blues for the 2, a major blues for the 5 and a major blues for the 1, cool sound and easy way to move motives around in a progression.

[Kman]

Originally Posted by m78w

yeah, the major blues scale is kind of like an arpeggio, you can use it over any Major 7th or Dominant 7th chord in a tune. Try it out on a 2-5-1 as well, play a minor blues for the 2, a major blues for the 5 and a major blues for the 1, cool sound and easy way to move motives around in a progression.

I assume you are talking root of the chord?

of course both will work ..... but do you mean:

B-7 use B minor blues
E7 use E major blues
A7 use A major blues?

or

B-7 use A minor blues
E7 use A major blues
A7 use A major blues

I never really thought of playing major blues over the V7. Good idea.

[m78w]

yeah, the first one, so for Bm7 use B minor blues, then use E major blues over E7 and A major blues over Amaj7, really outlines the chords but without sticking to a strict arpeggio

[princeplanet]

Originally Posted by m78w

yeah, the first one, so for Bm7 use B minor blues, then use E major blues over E7 and A major blues over Amaj7, really outlines the chords but without sticking to a strict arpeggio

I also think that A maj blues sounds fine against Bm in the above context, however, I usually use one or 2 passing notes (#2 and #7).

[m78w]

for sure, you can also use E major blues for both Bm7 and E7 since the iim7 and V7 chords are so closely related.

[princeplanet]

Yeah, so for key centers, it's good to know the maj pent based on the root as well as the 5th and be able to swap between them at will. With the passing notes, there are lots of cool ways to mix and match. I try not to overuse pents in this way as they can quickly sound predictable or "hokey", but they are a good way for rock and blues players to ease into the Jazz idiom because they're comfortable...

[m78w]

absolutely, you can also try one off the IV of the key, so in A major you could use A, D and E major pentatonics, one for each major triad based chord in the scale.