Many people don't bother with the study of blues guitar scales when learning to play lead guitar because they see them as a distraction. I mean, why waste hours and hours of your precious time practicing scales up and down, backwards and forwards, over and over again when you could be learning actual solos and songs?
All you really want to do is learn some cool licks so you can play awesome blues lead guitar, right? And you want to do it now, without wasting hours of your precious time learning pointless scales.
That was me when I first started playing. I wanted to be good -- no, not just good -- II wanted to be great. But I didn't want to waste time learning scales.
Well, I've got news for you that I wish someone had shared with me when I first started playing -- you're not going to get very far if you're not prepared to put in some work first to lay a foundation that you can build from. And that means learning scales.
But, before you click away in dismay, I'd like to reassure you that it's not that hard and actually it can be fun.
I got my wake up call one day from a friend of mine who also played guitar but who had studied the piano prior to that. He was pretty knowledgeable about music in general and had a good grasp of music theory (and therefore guitar theory), which allowed him to play awesome sounding solos over pretty much any song, even if he'd never heard it before.
I asked him one day how he was able to do this and the explanation he gave me really opened my eyes to the importance of music theory for any guitarist. What he told me gave me the kick up the rear I needed to roll up my sleeves and take the time to learn blues guitar scales.
This is how he explained it to me...
Imagine you are a writer. A writer uses letters to make words. Those words are then crafted into sentences, lines of poetry, entire books and so on.
Now think of a blues guitarist. Blues guitar scales are the building blocks, or the alphabet, of blues guitar. Each note is like a letter of the alphabet. Put the notes together and you've got a lick - licks are your blues "words". Join a series of licks together and you've got a blues solo.
Suddenly it all made sense. I immediately knew that I had to learn how to play these incredibly important scales. I recommend that each and every guitarist incorporates scale practice into their schedule. It brings so many benefits, not just in terms of musical knowledge and a grounding in musical guitar theory, but also in terms of better technique and improved finger strength and dexterity.
The first scales you should learn -- even if you are not primarily a blues guitarist -- are the blues guitar scales. The reason is simple: they are used in so much modern music, from rock to country and jazz to alternative, not to mention the blues itself, that there's really no getting away from them.
The first scale you should learn is the minor pentatonic scale. Starting from the root note, it goes up a tone and a half, then a tone, another tone, then a tone and a half, and then back to the root note played an octave higher. Here is the tablature for the minor pentatonic in E, position 1.
Blues Guitar Scales in E - Position 1
---------------------------0-3--
----------------------0-3-------
-----------------0-2------------
------------0-2-----------------
-------0-2----------------------
--0-3---------------------------
Master this scale because it will serve you well.
Once you've got the minor pentatonic blues guitar scale under your belt, there will be no stopping you.
