Bb blues scale
- Notes
- Bb Db Eb Fb F Ab
- Formula
- 1 b3 4 b5 5 b7
- Steps
- W+H W H H W+H W (W tone, H semitone)
- Also called
- Bb minor blues scale, Bb hexatonic blues
- Also written
- A# blues: A# C# D# E E# G#
Six notes from Bb up to the next Bb. Each note is written with the letter its degree names, so the spelling follows the formula.
Bb blues on the piano
From Bb4 to Bb5, the root in blue-green.
Intervals from Bb
| Note | Degree | Interval | Semitones |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bb | 1 | root | 0 |
| Db | b3 | minor third | 3 |
| Eb | 4 | perfect fourth | 5 |
| Fb | b5 | diminished fifth | 6 |
| F | 5 | perfect fifth | 7 |
| Ab | b7 | minor seventh | 10 |
Bb 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 Bb 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 Bb blues is built
The Bb minor pentatonic scale with one note added: the flat 5th, Fb, between Eb and F. That note is the "blue note", usually played in passing or bent up to F rather than held. The scale is played over all three chords of a blues in Bb, although its minor 3rd, Db, clashes on paper with the major chord Bb; that friction is the blues sound, and guitarists often bend the Db 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. A# blues is the same sounds written from A#; 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.