Blues
This scale is also known by other names: Minor Blues.
3 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 3 - 2About Blues
The F blues scale is F, A♭, B♭, C♭, C and E♭ — the F minor pentatonic with the flat fifth added. On guitar it is played from the first or thirteenth fret, and unlike the C or A versions it offers no open strings at all, which changes how it is phrased.
The notes
F A♭ B♭ B C E♭, then F — the flat fifth written as B natural here for readability, though it functions as C♭. Five of the six notes make the minor pentatonic; the sixth is the blue note.
The scale works over F7, B♭7 and C7 alike, which is what makes blues improvisation possible without following the chord changes note by note.
On the fretboard
The first-fret box is where the shape sits lowest, and it is uncomfortable — the same problem that makes F major hard. Most players use the thirteenth fret instead, or the eighth-fret position with the root on the A string.
The absence of open strings means every note can be bent and vibratoed, which is an advantage: open-string blues in E or A cannot bend the tonic, and here everything is available.
Where it is used
Horn-led blues and jazz, where F is a common key, and any guitar solo over a song that arrived in F from another instrument.
It is also the key many blues jams settle on when a saxophone is present, which means a guitarist who only knows the E and A shapes will be caught out. Learning this position is what fixes that.
Related Scales from Blues
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