Major Blues

A flat third inside a major sound

The added note sits a half step below the major third and is passed through on the way to it. Because the major third itself stays in the scale, the overall colour stays bright: this is not a minor scale with a raised third but a major one with a chromatic neighbour.

That neighbour is the same device as the flat fifth in the minor blues scale — a note taken from outside the diatonic set and used to lean into a chord tone rather than to sit on. Country lead playing, western swing and rockabilly are built very largely on it.

Building it from the major pentatonic

Start from the major pentatonic, 1 2 3 5 6, and put the flat third in. The formula then transposes by counting like any other: in C, C D E♭ E G A; in G, G A B♭ B D E; in A, A B C C♯ E F♯.

The consequence on guitar is that the new note lies between two notes already under the hand, so the shape itself does not move — only the number of notes inside it changes.

Major blues and minor blues are the same six notes

C major blues is C D E♭ E G A. A minor blues is A C D E♭ E G. They are the same collection of notes a minor third apart, exactly as the major and minor pentatonics are. Which of the two you are playing is settled by the chord underneath and by the note you treat as home, not by the notes available.

That is the practical answer to a question usually asked as though the two scales were rivals: learn one shape and you have both. The difference you hear is a difference of resolution — aim at the major third and the root and it is major blues, aim at the flat third and the sixth degree of the same set and it is minor blues.

The chords underneath

Over a I7 chord this scale supplies the major third and the sixth, so it sits closer to the harmony than the minor blues scale does: less friction, more consonance. It is the reason an unchanged twelve-bar form can sound like Chicago or like Nashville without a single chord being altered.

Common practice is to move between the two rather than to choose. Major blues over the I chord, minor blues over the IV, or a switch between them at the turnaround: players who sound fluent in the idiom are usually doing this instead of running one scale through the whole chorus.

On guitar, piano and bass

On guitar it is the major pentatonic box with a chromatic connector, and the flat third is normally slid or bent into the major third rather than struck cleanly. On piano the two thirds fall on adjacent keys, which produces the crushed grace note that is a signature of blues and boogie piano.

On bass it gives major-key walking lines a chromatic step between the second and third degrees. Here the flat third is a connector between chord tones rather than a colour in its own right, and it is usually passed through on a weak beat.

What it is confused with

The major blues scale is not the scale this catalogue lists as Blues Major. That is 1 2 4 5 6, a rotation of the major pentatonic known as Ritusen from the Japanese ritsu system, and it contains no flat third at all. The overlap in names is historical and carries no musical meaning.

The other frequent confusion is with the major pentatonic itself. The difference is a single note — and it is the note that makes the scale sound like blues instead of like folk.

Frequently asked questions