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C♯ blues scale

The blues scale is minor pentatonic with one note added: the flat five, G.

Six notes instead of five, and most of what sets it apart from minor pentatonic comes from that sixth one.

How it sounds
Darker and dirtier than minor pentatonic. The extra note sits between the 4th and the 5th, and a line that runs through it slurs and moans the way a singer would.
Where it lives
Blues, from Delta acoustic to Chicago electric, and everything that borrowed from it: blues-rock, hard rock, jazz and funk. Few players stay inside it for a whole solo. Most mix in notes from major pentatonic over the same chords.

Scale positions

Position
Show
Position 1, frets 1 to 5
  • scale note
  • blue note
  • root
  • High E string: F♯ at fret 2, G (blue note) at fret 3, G♯ at fret 4
  • B string: C♯ at fret 2, E at fret 5
  • G string: G♯ at fret 1, B at fret 4
  • D string: E at fret 2, F♯ at fret 4, G (blue note) at fret 5
  • A string: B at fret 2, C♯ at fret 4
  • Low E string: F♯ at fret 2, G (blue note) at fret 3, G♯ at fret 4

Notes and intervals

In order, with the frets between them: C♯3E2F♯1G1G♯3B2C♯

Home. Every other note is measured from it. B sits two frets below.

C♯

Perfect unison

Three frets up from C♯: minor third.

E

Minor third

Two frets up from E: whole step.

F♯

Perfect fourth

G: the blue note, six frets from home. Players slide through it far more often than they stop on it.

G

Diminished fifth

One fret up from G: half step.

G♯

Perfect fifth

Three frets up from G♯: minor third.

B

Minor seventh

The blue note

The added note sits exactly six frets above the root. That distance is the tritone, the interval that sounds least at rest. Pentatonic scales leave the tritone out, and the blues scale puts one back in.

6 frets: the tritone

The C♯ blues scale on the A string, from fret 4 to fret 16: C♯ at fret 4, E at fret 7, F♯ at fret 9, G at fret 10, the blue note, G♯ at fret 11, B at fret 14, C♯ at fret 16. The 4th, the blue note and the 5th sit a fret apart. The blue note is six frets above the root: the tritone.

It also creates the only place in the scale where three notes sit a fret apart: F♯, G, G♯. Everywhere else, neighbouring notes are at least two frets apart. Most of the scale’s slides and smears happen in that cluster, and the blue note usually gets slid through on the way from one neighbour to the other.

The tritone

Minor notes over major chords

Blues is played over dominant seventh chords, and those are major: C♯7 contains E♯, a major third. The scale has E, the minor third, one fret lower. Played together, the two rub.

C♯7 over the C♯ blues scale. In both: C♯, G♯, B. Clashing, a fret apart: E against E♯. Bent up a quarter tone, E lands between the two, on no fret.

Most styles would hear that rub as a wrong note, and blues builds its sound on it. Guitarists often bend the E up slightly, so it lands somewhere between E and E♯: a pitch that isn’t on any fret. That in-between note is one of the most recognisable sounds in the style.

Notes over each chord

A blues rarely stays on one chord. The 12-bar form moves between three: C♯7, F♯7 and G♯7. The scale doesn’t change, but every note’s role does.

Each note of the C♯ blues scale over C♯7, F♯7, G♯7
NoteC♯7I7F♯7IV7G♯7V7
C♯R, fits the chord5, fits the chord11, colours it
E♯9, tension♭7, fits the chord♭13, colours it
F♯11, colours itR, fits the chord♭7, fits the chord
G♯11, tension♭9, tension7, tension
G♯5, fits the chord9, colours itR, fits the chord
B♭7, fits the chord11, colours it♯9, tension
  • fits the chord
  • colours it
  • tension

Step 1 of 3. Over C♯7, E rubs against the chord’s E♯: the blues clash.

The home chord

C♯7 contains a tritone: E♯ and B, six frets apart. Elsewhere that tritone pulls toward another chord and gets resolved. Blues treats the chord as home and leaves the tritone in place, so even the first bar sounds a little restless.

Blues progressions

Most blues follows one plan, the 12-bar blues: twelve bars, three chords. Four bars on C♯7, two on F♯7, two back on C♯7, then G♯7, F♯7, C♯7, and a final G♯7 that turns the form back to the start.

Form
  1. C♯7I7
  2. C♯7I7
  3. C♯7I7
  4. C♯7I7
  5. F♯7IV7
  6. F♯7IV7
  7. C♯7I7
  8. C♯7I7
  9. G♯7V7
  10. F♯7IV7
  11. C♯7I7
  12. G♯7V7 · turnaround
  1. C♯7I7
  2. F♯7IV7
  3. C♯7I7
  4. C♯7I7
  5. F♯7IV7
  6. F♯7IV7
  7. C♯7I7
  8. C♯7I7
  9. G♯7V7
  10. F♯7IV7
  11. C♯7I7
  12. G♯7V7 · turnaround
  1. C♯m7i7
  2. C♯m7i7
  3. C♯m7i7
  4. C♯m7i7
  5. F♯m7iv7
  6. F♯m7iv7
  7. C♯m7i7
  8. C♯m7i7
  9. A7♭VI7
  10. G♯7V7
  11. C♯m7i7
  12. G♯7V7 · turnaround
  1. C♯7I7
  2. G♯7V7
  3. F♯7IV7
  4. F♯7IV7
  5. C♯7I7
  6. G♯7V7
  7. C♯7I7
  8. G♯7V7 · turnaround

Three common variations:

  • Quick change moves to F♯7 early, in bar 2.
  • Minor blues builds the same plan on C♯m7 and F♯m7, with A7 and G♯7 in bars 9 and 10.
  • 8-bar is a shorter form.

Playing in C♯ blues

  • Four open strings.

    The low E, G, B and high E strings all belong to C♯ blues.

  • The open G is the blue note.

    G is the flat five here, so the open G string gives you the blue note without fretting anything.

  • The box at the 9th fret.

    With its root on the low E string, the minor pentatonic box starts at the 9th fret. The blue note adds the A string’s 10th fret and the G string’s 12th.

  • No open chords.

    C♯7, F♯7 and G♯7 all need barre shapes.

The major blues scale

Start the same six notes from E and you get E major blues: E F♯ G G♯ B C♯. Minor and major pentatonic share their notes the same way. Major blues sounds brighter, closer to country and early rock and roll.

The same six notes read from two homes. C♯ blues: C♯, E, F♯, G, G♯, B. E major blues: E, F♯, G, G♯, B, C♯.

Related scales