This minor and major blues scale bass guide will teach you everything you need to know about applying and playing the blues scale.
So, if you’re a beginner or intermediate bass player looking to improve your skills in blues music, and improve your overall scale knowledge, then you’ll love this lesson.
What is the bass blues scale?
Knowing your bass pentatonic scale shapes will help you understand the bass blues scale shapes.
As a whole the blues scale is the pentatonic scale with an added “blues” note. In the minor blues scale, this note is the b5. In the major blues scale, this note is the b3.
What is the minor blues scale for bass?
The minor blues scale for bass is the minor pentatonic scale with an added b5 (flattened fifth).
Minor blues scale formula
The minor blues scale formula is:
1-b3-4-b5-5-b7
What is the major blues scale for bass?
The major blues scale is for bass is the major pentatonic scale with an added b3 (minor third).
Major blues scale formula
The major blues scale formula is:
1-2-b3-3-5-6
Neck diagrams and PDF’s
A major blues scale bass fretboard diagram
A major blues scale bass diagram PDF
A minor blues scale bass fretboard diagram
A minor blues scale bass diagram PDF
Tips for mastering the blues bass scale
Now that you’ve learned your minor and major blues scale bass positions, it’s time to apply them.
Start by learning popular blues songs to understand the blues scale in the beginning.
In the long run you’ll want to practice the minor blues scale in every position on the fretboard.
There are five total minor blues scale positions to learn. These positions can be used for the major blues scale shapes, too, because the shapes are all relative to the root note.
This means you’ll want to understand relative major and minor scales and understand transposition as well.
Thanks for reading, and best of luck in your bass guitar playing efforts!
