A blues scale
- Notes
- A C D Eb E G
- Formula
- 1 b3 4 b5 5 b7
- Steps
- W+H W H H W+H W (W tone, H semitone)
- Also called
- A minor blues scale, A hexatonic blues
Six notes from A up to the next A. Each note is written with the letter its degree names, so the spelling follows the formula.
A blues on the piano
From A4 to A5, the root in blue-green.
Intervals from A
| Note | Degree | Interval | Semitones |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | root | 0 |
| C | b3 | minor third | 3 |
| D | 4 | perfect fourth | 5 |
| Eb | b5 | diminished fifth | 6 |
| E | 5 | perfect fifth | 7 |
| G | b7 | minor seventh | 10 |
A blues on the guitar
Standard tuning, high e on top as in tablature, open strings to fret 12. Every dot is a note of the scale; the pattern repeats from fret 12 up.
Chords that fit A blues
Every chord of the common types (triads, sus, sixths, sevenths, add9, 7b9, 7#9) whose notes are all in the scale, on each of its notes, spelled as on the chord pages. A 6-note scale has no single set of "the" chords the way a seven-note scale does.
How A blues is built
The A minor pentatonic scale with one note added: the flat 5th, Eb, between D and E. That note is the "blue note", usually played in passing or bent up to E rather than held. The scale is played over all three chords of a blues in A, although its minor 3rd, C, clashes on paper with the major chord A; that friction is the blues sound, and guitarists often bend the C slightly sharp.
Played some notes and not sure which scale they come from? The scale finder listens to the piano, a MIDI keyboard or the microphone and ranks all 180 scales.
What this page cannot do
- One spelling per scale. the root is spelled the way that needs the fewest sharps and flats.
- Equal temperament only. Blues and many folk traditions bend notes between these pitches, and Arabic and Turkish maqam scales use quarter tones that a piano cannot play.
- The guitar diagram shows standard tuning only and does not suggest fingerings; any note can be played in several places.
- The sound is a simple synthesised tone made in your browser, not a recorded instrument.