The minor blues scale as we know it goes back quite a ways. My thinking is that it evolved from the minor pentatonic scale, which would have been a common scale / group of pitches / color to both the African American and Native American peoples during the early European colonization of the southeast region of the North American Continent. To this minor pentatonic group of pitches we add the tritone interval from the European system of music and abracadabra, the blues scale emerges. The sound created by this color becomes one of the central threads within the weave of American music.
As the years passed, what we know today as a three chord delta blues, based on the minor blues scale, evolved into Ragtime jass in the 1880's, which then evolved into Dixieland Jazz, then Chicago Jazz, then New York Jazz, then swing jazz, then bebop jazz, then post bop jazz, then hard bop jazz, then cool jazz, then rock jazz, then fusion jazz, then contemporary jazz and into the smooth jazz of today. At the time of the swing jazz era, some cats were for the most part sticking to the three chord format, creating a kind of "swing jump blues", which was and still is today a dancers delight. This very cool sound from the 40's evolved in the early fifties into rock and roll, at which point "Elvis entered the building", and the rest of course, is history.
After these early rockers went to Britian, things changed for the Jazzers and Blues folks of the day, "pop" or popular music in America moved from being jazz and blues based to become more rock and roll. Blues based American rock and roll took the western world by storm, and when this bug bit four guys in Liverpool, on the urban island of Great Britian, things began to change rapidly. Overnight sensations, the Beatles were every marketing executive's dream come true, creating one after another top 40 hits. Dozens of groups modeled themselves after the "fab four", coming up with so much important popular music that by the time this rock meteor was burning itself out by the late 80's or so as disco and punk, the long slumbering and always smouldering blues and jazz worlds re-emerged with a freshness, clarity and simplicity that was readily embraced by a now more sophisticated, technologically enhanced culture, perhaps looking for a bit of their musical roots in a more sophisticated American format.
Today, country blues is big, straight ahead three chord blues is huge, swing blues dance music is huge, jazz blues is jazz blues, cool, sophisticated, hot and heavy, the pop, hip hop and rap music is huge and all of it has a toehold or more in the blue musical color i.e., the minor blues scale, an original and purely American contribution to the musical world. So simple yet so cool. Cool with this?
So, with this in mind, starting at the natural top of the minor cycle of fourths, moving by the root motion of the perfect fourth, we build this melodic colossus on each of the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale.
Example 1, A minor blues. Favorite key for guitar players globally.
Example 2, D minor blues. Duke's "In A Sentimental Mood", a slow bluesy ballad would be a cool tune to learn.
Example 3, G minor blues. Bob Marley's "I Shot The Sheriff" is a sad, bluesy folk tune in G.
Example 4, C minor blues. "Suger" by Stanley Turrentine is a classic "double" blues in C minor.
Example 5, F minor blues. Blues in F is a common jazz players key. F concert puts the horn players in G, alto's in D. Using the minor color over the major / dominant seventh chord changes is very common, I like to call it the blues magic.
Example 6, Bb minor blues. Try creating melodic ideas from this color over straight ahead Bb major blues changes, very common substitution.
Example 7, Eb minor blues. Eb major is the common key to many important jazz standards. Try tagging one of your solo's on a standard with a blues lick or two. John Coltranes "Blue Trane" turns into blues in Eb.
Example 8, Ab minor blues. Move an idea up or down by half step and your back in two very common blues keys. Think chromatically?
Example 9, Db minor blues. Just a half step away from perhaps the most common key of all. The half step lead in is probably the simplest and coolest trick in the book. In this case the pitches get a bit out there but the half step motion is vital to a jazz and blues players palette. Harmonic motion by half step, from either above or below is very common, cool, and really gives the groove a push in terms of it's forward motion. The half step lead in can also be indespensable in getting things to swing. Melodically, it's tricky at first, but being able to create a melodic idea, then modulate that idea up or down chromatically is a goal worth pursuing. As the tempos get faster and faster, the lines and pitches often get closer and closer together. Anyway, Db blues, check it out.
Example 10, Gb minor blues. See # 9 above.
Example 11, B minor blues. Minor dominant of the key of E major / minor, a very common blues key. Know Moondance by Van Morrison?
Example 12, blues in E, a Delta blues player's dream come true.
| major blues scale / 12 keys | minor blues scale / 12 keys |
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