Major Blues Scale in the Key of E

[dasbeef]

Anyone tell me what it is? I've been using the minor one for ever, and need some MAJOR in my life...

[RandomHero]

www.jguitar.com

This will make you want to stab anyone who ever sold you a chord book or scale chart.

[ux4484]

man....I LOVE you guys!!!

[UnklMickey]

ux4484 said:

man....I LOVE you guys!!!

okay, but you're still not getting my Bud Light!

[dasbeef]

I cant find a major blues scale on there!
Amazing site though....

[dasbeef]

It's just that I sometimes hammer on the G# note, and a few others (don't have a guitar to hand so I can't think) and it gives a major sound.
Am I then thinking of a completely different scale?

[normus]

Give these a shot. The hollow circles are root positions.



and

[stratattack]

Here's an A major pentatonic (I think) scale I use.

---------------------------------------8-10----
--------------------------------8-10-----------
-----------------------7-8-9-------------------
----------------7-10---------------------------
---------7-10----------------------------------
--8-10-----------------------------------------

Hope that helps.


EDIT: oops you said E! Start on the 3rd fret and do that same pattern.

[sumgai]

stratattack,

Oops! The 8th fret on either E string is C, and that note is the flatted third of the A scale, making the scale minor. More, strictly speaking, this isn't pentatonic because you have the 7-8-9 series in the upper register, rendering more than the 5 requisite notes to make a scale pentatonic.

BTW, I also take exception to Normus' diagrams - No blues scale, major, minor or otherwise, should contain the second note of the scale. One can certainly play it "in passing", or as an accidental, but not in the ordinary sense of a blues scale.

In point of fact, the best advice to Keith is simple: your minor scale in one key is also your major scale in the relative key! Translation: If you know the minor pentatonic scale in A minor, you also know it in C major..... just "readjust" your thinking so that instead of holding your hand on the fifth fret/sixth string "A", you're holding your hand on the three strings (2, 3 & 4) that comprise the simple "C" barre chord. (Think of where you'd normally hold the fifth string at the 3rd fret with your index finger, and your third finger rests across 2, 3 & 4 at the fifth fret - that's a C major, right? )

And to go one step further, if you are in A, and you need to play the A major scale to "sound right", just shift your left hand down three frets.... now where is your index finger? Right, it's pressing the same three strings that you'd press to get A at the lowest part of the neck. All that would be needed is to strum the open fifth string for that root A note, and you're done. Play the "minor pentatonic" scale notes that you did for the fifth fret position of A, and now, Presto!, you're playing the A major scale!

Easy as pie, no?



sumgai

[stratattack]

Oh yea you're right that's just a minor pentatonic in a different position. I think this one's right cause I have my guitar to look at this time. (thanks to sumgai!)

A major pentatonic
-------------------------2-5------------
--------------------2-5-----------------
---------------2-4----------------------
----------2-4---------------------------
-----2-4--------------------------------
--5-------------------------------------

I took it up 2 octaves so it's easier to create something with

[ajent__smith]

www.jguitar.com/scale?root=E&scale=Major+Pentatonic&fret=0&labels=none¬es=sharps

Thats a pritty sweet site. i usually use the box scale between the 11'th and 14th frets
this is just the major pentatonic though, im not quite sure what a major blues scale would be, but its based off of that

-Ajent