Scales › minor blues

minor blues scale

minor blues, ♭5 blue note

What color?

Minor pentatonic plus the blue note (b5/#11) that slips between the eleventh and the fifth: all the cry and color of the blues. The go-to tool for phrasing over a blues or a minor with expressive, vocal tension.

Origin & history

The blues scale: the minor pentatonic augmented by the "blue note" (♭5). Born of African American music, it is the basic vocabulary of blues, rock, and jazz.

Listen

• "The Thrill Is Gone" — B.B. King

Which chords to play it on?

The jazz consensus (Aebersold) recommends it on:

Try it in a real chart

Paste a chord chart into the tool: Pentania tells you, chord by chord, when this scale fits — and what other colors are open to you. Open the tool →