music notation for c minor blues scale

Minor Blues Scale: Theory & Ear Training

The Minor Blues Scale is the blues scale that most people are familiar with…

The Minor Blues Scale has only six notes and is yet another existence proof that scales are not made up of “half steps” and “whole steps”.

C Minor Blues Scale Theory

The notes Me, Fi/Se, and Te are called blue notes, which create that delicious “bluesy” quality you immediately hear and feel!

piano keyboard showing c minor blues scale solfege and scale degrees ascending
music notation for c minor blues scale descending
piano keyboard showing c minor blues scale solfege and scale degrees descending
  1. The scale structure of the Minor Blues Scale is 1-b3-4-#4/b5-5-6-b7-1. Always. No matter what key you are in.
  2. The Solfege syllables of the Minor Blues Scale are Do-Me-Fi/Se-So-Le-Do. Always. No matter what key you are in.
  3. The only thing that changes when you change keys are the letter names.

Don’t fuss over whether F#/Fi/Fa sharp should be called Gb/Se/So flat or vice versa. These are all just names that you will eventually abandon like training wheels. At the end of the day, the sound-feeling and physical mapping on your instrument are all that matter!

Comparative Scale Study

Notice that the Minor Blues Scale uses all five notes from the Minor Pentatonic Scale, but adds an extra blue note Fi/Se. Don’t try to “memorize” this fact, but do realize how much certain scale types have in common and how learning one kind of scale helps you to learn others.

Minor Blues Scale Solfege Ear Training

Reading, playing, and singing the Solfege Syllables out loud is an extremely effective way to tune up your ears and to internalize the unique sound-feeling of each note in the scale with respect to the key center Do. Make sure to do this slowly enough for the unique sound-feeling of each Solfege Syllable to make a meaningful impression on your mind’s ear.

C Minor Blues Scale: Linear, Ascending…

piano-ology-scales-c-minor-blues-solfege-ear-training-linear-ascending

C Minor Blues Scale: Linear, Descending…

piano-ology-scales-c-minor-blues-solfege-ear-training-linear-descending

C Minor Blues Scale: Do-X-Do, Ascending…

piano-ology-scales-c-minor-blues-solfege-ear-training-do-x-do-ascending

C Minor Blues Scale: Do-X-Do, Descending…

piano-ology-scales-c-minor-blues-solfege-ear-training-do-x-do-descending

Note: While it’s possible to continue by singing a bunch of other musical patterns, the 80-20 Principle teaches us that a more efficient approach is to get your ear training material directly from the music that YOU want to play!

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Major Blues Scale: Theory & Ear Training

2 responses to “Minor Blues Scale: Theory & Ear Training”

  1. Alex Avatar
    Alex

    I am not sure, but if you talk about minor scale you should start your solfeggio with la. C = La not Do
    This is how it works in classical I don’t think is different in blues.
    A.

    Reply
    1. Frank J Peter Avatar
      Frank J Peter

      Thanks for asking, Alex.

      Alas, this is a case where music theory and ear training are horribly, confusingly taught–rendering trusting students to become trapped in their analytical heads and rendered deaf to the music they are playing.

      The bottom line is this: “Do” is the key you are in, always. And so, in this case C is “Do”, not Eb. Please don’t just trust me on this. Sing along and ask yourself: Which note sounds/feels stable and resolved and like home base. That’s “Do”! BTW, call “Do” anything you like… One, Fred, Ethel, Blue, Pittsburgh. The point is that C, in this case, is the key center… a key center that must be understood as such by intellect AND heard and felt as such by ear!

      Cheers!

      Reply

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