Fretboard Reference

The Blues Scale

The blues scale is minor pentatonic plus one note: the ♭5, sometimes called the “blue note.” It sits between the 4th and the 5th, and it's a passing tone — something you slide or bend through on the way somewhere else, not a note you land on and hold. Shown here in A minor, added onto the same boxes and horizontal shapes from the other sheets.

The Two You'll Actually Use

The ♭5 fits naturally into Boxes 1 and 4 — these are the shapes you'll reach for when you actually want that blues sound.

What about Box 2, Box 3, and Box 5? The ♭5 can technically be added to all three — Box 2 on the low E string (fret 5), the G string (fret 2), and the high e string (fret 5); Box 3 on the low E string (fret 3), the D string (fret 5), and the high e string (fret 3); Box 5 on the A string (fret 5) and the B string (fret 3). But in practice, you'll rarely reach for any of them when you're actually playing blues. Boxes 1 and 4 are where the sound lives.

The Horizontal Shapes

Same addition works on the two-string shapes. The ♭5 lands on whichever string in each pair already carries three notes — it just becomes a fourth.

Root

Scale tone

♭5 — the blue note

It's called a blue note because of how it's used, not where it sits — bend into it, slide through it, lean on it for a beat. Try holding it and it just sounds like a wrong note.