Playing the Blues Scale

The blues scale is very fundamental to the music in most cultures around the world. It's really just a pentatonic scale with an extra note. Many times it is the best choice for soloing and there's no wrong way to do it (as long as you don't play wrong notes!).

So the scale degrees are one, flat three, four, sharp four, five, flat seven, and up to one again.

In the key of C it would be C, Eb, F, F#, G, Bb, C.

In the key of E it would be E, G, A, A#, B, D, E.

There are ways of playing the blues scale to be more interesting and soulful:
-First of all, don't just play a never ending string of notes, break up your ideas into chunks of notes called "phrases".
-Try to have a start and a ending to each phrase.
-Leave space between phrases (between a beat and a few measures).


Now when soloing, you want to build energy to a climax and then release that energy and start over. So in order to build energy:
-Repeat phrases and/or just repeat notes.
-Play ideas that ascend.
-Constantly switch directions up and down.
-Play busier which means faster and/or with less space.
-Play louder and crescendo.
-Play long intense notes.
-Bend notes (sometimes via grace notes for some instruments)


Now in order release energy:
-Play descending ideas.
-Play slower and with more space between phrases.
-Play long relaxing notes.
-Play softer.
-Don't play anything.

Try to play ideas from your heart... I know it sounds corny but it works. Also, don't forget to play contrasting ideas such as playing something really loud and then really soft, or play something fast and crazy and then play something slow and more relaxed. Finally, PLAY WITH EMOTION which could be joy, sadness, anger, even frustration. That's what makes many legendary musicians so good (Miles Davis, Coltrane, Hendrix, Zeppelin to name a few); they had so much emotion behind everything they played.