The Blues Scale on Bass

The Blues and the accompanying Blues scale has its roots spread out all over the globe –

The Roots of the Blues

From the African Sahel and its Islamic influences, to Romani music, to Christian hymns, Sousa music and British folk songs, from Latin-American to Cuban music, even the slide guitar of Hawaiian music (as mentioned by W. C. Handy in 1903), all may well have played a part in the development of the Blues.

This unique blend of traits and hundreds of years of cultural exchange (the banjo, for instance, also has its roots in the African Sahel) from African, to Arabic and European traditions fused together to form something truly, and distinctly African-American –

In respect to its early history, most authors agree that the blues is a tradition that developed in the Deep South at the end of the nineteenth century under specific circumstances, moulding together traits whose remote origins can be traced to distinctive African regions with other traits from Euro- American traditions, such as the use on ending rhymes in most of the lyrics, to references to 1- IV-V degrees, strophic form and certain Western musical instruments. The search for the Blues “African Roots” has been a persistent concern in African-American studies. Kubik, G. 1999

After all, America itself was still in its younger years, in the grand scale of things; the first permanent English settlement in America was only two hundred years prior to the beginnings of the early Blues tradition – it was also a new world for so many other different musical cultures as well – America became a melting pot for musical possibilities, bred through cross pollination.

From undocumented rural post-Civil War American origins, the Blues grew into what would become one of the most widely recorded types of folk music in the World, this was to have an unprecedented influence on so many other music genres for years to come; which is perhaps not surprising, as the number one ingredient in Blues music, is emotion.

The definition of the word “Blues” is closely related to suffering, depression and mental anguish and thereby, closely related to Blues music itself; ironically, originally played to alleviate these feelings, but later Blues players would state that you can’t play the Blues unless you have a “blue feeling”, or are “feeling blue”; the pain needs to be felt.

The term had possibly originated from a phrase “the blue devils”, also describing conditions of melancholy or depression.

Later documentation of the word “Blue”, used more specifically in reference to grief or sorrow began to appear in the mid 1800’s as this quote from Andy Edwards describes: -

“We have to start somewhere in our story. And I'm going to start with the black abolitionist Charlotte Forten Grimke. She was a poet and an educator. And she mentions having the blues in 1862 and mentions ex-slave girls appreciating a tune called “Poor Rosie”. A tune that seemed to embody this word that she had used to describe her own depression”. Edwards, Andy. 2026

Blues became the name that more collectively encompassed the broad range of styles within its genre in the early 1900’s. Greatly aided in later years by W.C. Handy’s printed music pieces such as "The Memphis Blues", published in 1912.

Studio recordings followed in the 1920’s, from this point the Blues (some have named it one the greatest creations on the 20th century) grew alongside Jazz and Gospel, and gave birth to Rock’n’Roll in the 1950’s – the rest, as they say, is history.

Ok, that’s the history bit out of the way – what about the Blues scale as a useful musical tool for bass players?

Some more defining Features of the early Blues

Before we talk about useful tool for bass players, let’s look at some of the defining features of early Blues – we will find that these musical elements of the Blues will relate directly to what we can do on the bass and will definitely be useful tool for bass players!

Work Songs

Group singing whilst working was an African tradition – it not only had an artistic side to it, but a practical one as well, as it relieved boredom and focused the energy on the task – chopping wood in time to the beat of the singing for instance, this usually took the form of a leader singing out a melismatic phrase (sung on one syllable over many notes) and the group repeating it in unison.

The leader singer phrases repeated by the group is known as – Call and Response.

This style of music can be traced back to Islamic roots; by some estimates as many as 30 percent of Africans brought to America during the trans-Atlantic slave trade were Muslim, and their music customs and traditions, such as the gliding melismatic and microtonal “A-Dhan” Muslim call to prayer may have influenced their music making in the New World; leading eventually to the creation of a new music genre.

The sense of group rhythm (and maybe even swing rhythm) would have spread to their instrumental playing, especially with slide guitar, being very much a vocally inspired in sound and microtonal pitching

Waadeland (2004) has linked swing style to body movement, and used video recordings to study the body language of drummers in order to correlate their bodily movements to the rhythmic style being played. Lindsay, Kenneth A., and Peter R. Nordquist. 2006

A useful tool for bass players (apart from swing of course) – call and response is found when the bass and the drums create a tight groove, e.g., the bass plays with the bass drum (call), and then leaves a rest/space for the snare drum (response) – short form call and response groove.

Call and Response

(See call and response exercise further down)

Call and response patterns are to be found in the Blues as much as Pop music, but an early and classic example of a sung call response pattern can be heard on the Alan Lomax 1948 recording of a prison work song called “Rosie”.

For more examples of bass call and response, listen to the bass and guitar in “Foxy Lady”, or “So What”, as the bass and piano trade phrases, or the answering phrases Jaco Pastorius played to Joni Mitchell’s vocal lines in their recordings together.

Field Holler

Another type of African-American work song is the Field Holler (field call/corn song); this would be sung unaccompanied (solo vocal style), expressing different forms of individual emotions and

feelings – this led to the Blues trait of melismatic singing (syllables of a word sung to rising and falling patterns).

This type of singing could trace its roots back to the music of the Western Sahel and its contact with the Muslim world– the style being reminiscent of the Muslim call to prayer, as mentioned above.

This vocal style is closely tied to the use of blue notes/scale use in instrumental solos; slide guitar for instance, that imitates vocal melismatic and microtonal approach to note choice, pitch phrasing, emotional inflection and rhythmic feel – These are always directly applicable to the bass.

Spirituals

The singing techniques mentioned above also began to develop in the African-American churches after the Civil War – stories from the Bible, “Exodus”, for instance were to them a reflection of their own struggles – these were expressed with the call and response patterns already mentioned, often containing blue notes, sung with a high degree of emotional vocal quality. These performances also saw a flourishing of complex, melismatic, syncopated polyrhythms, foot stomps and hand claps on beats 2 and 4; this was the beginnings of the Gospel Blues evolution – an evolution that spread to their instruments.

Rhythm of the Blues

Speaking of useful tools for us bass players; a very important aspect of the Blues genre is the rhythms that are found within all of its styles and variations – namely swing and shuffle (modified version of an 8th note rhythm – 1 and 2 and 3 and etc.) – as we will see, it is the small difference between these two rhythms that has a big effect!

It is not always easy to define, as swing or shuffle rhythms are always defined as being all about “Feel”: -

“Prior swing rhythm research discovered swing ratio as a metaphor representing some classic jazz styles of temporal variations in performed music as compared to written music. Our work shows that, in some cases, swing ratio is inadequate to properly model the real patterns of temporal variation”. Lindsay, Kenneth A., and Peter R. Nordquist. 2006

Already, you can see a pattern emerging here – Blues, whether rhythmically or tonally, is all about “Feel”.

Swing and shuffle are actually quite difficult to define because of all the microtiming variations between the two different, yet related rhythms.

Having said that, and just in the name of simplicity, let’s just break and compare the two rhythms down two very simple ways – they are both triplet-based rhythms, and they are both mirror images of each other (Negative Rhythm, in a very flexible way!) – one is Long/Short, the other is Short/Long –

Play these two exercises below: -

Swing

This is a good way to think about Swing: -

To swing, you make the first eighth note in a given pair longer, and make the other one shorter. The further you stretch the eighth notes away from their metronomic values, the more you swing. Hein, E. 2011

Swing rhythm hangs onto that first note, which really gives the rhythm its highly danceable loping feel. Start thinking about song like America’s “A Horse with no Name”, Bob Marley’s “Is this Love”, or the jazz standard “So What”, or the “Pink Panther” film theme tune – and immediately you will have a sense, and a feel of swing rhythm – it starts with a long rhythmic note on the strong down beat, followed by a shorter note on off-beat (syncopated) – Think of these rhythms when you play this: -

Shuffle

Shuffle rhythms have a tighter and stronger staccato downbeat feel to them, this really pulls a band together; consider The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues”, Stevie Wonder’s “Master Blaster”, Steely Dan’s “Reeling in the Years”, or John Lee Hooker’s Blues standard “I’m a Boogie Man”, or “The Odd couple” film theme – listening to them will give you a sense, and a feel of shuffle rhythm – it starts with a short rhythmic staccato’d note on the strong down beat, followed by a longer note on the off-beat (syncopated) – Think of these rhythms when you play this: -

One possible structure that may have led to the Blues scale

If we start to collate all of the vertical pitches contained within the three dominant chords used in the Blues chord progression – I7, IV7 and V7 – we see that two very interesting linear developments begin to emerge.

First, the movement of the V7 chord built on scale degrees 1, 4 and then 5 convert the scale degrees on any root from a Mixolydian, to Dorian, then Ionian, and then back to a Mixolydian scale. The second is the chromatic voice leading taking place in the upper harmony notes.

Voice leading within the twelve-bar Blues Chords Progression

The following analysis diagram compresses the chord progression of the twelve-bar blues into just four bars, demonstrating that the voice leading intervals contained within the non-diatonic I7 IV7 V7 I7 chord progression (basically taking the Mixolydian shape through three different positions/locations – for instance A7, D7, E7 – these chord tones create their own scale –

It is the middle ground action of the 3rd, flat 7th, 3rd, flat 7th, 3rd of the I IV V I chord progression, which creates a changing major 3rd to minor 3rd and back again scale degree fluctuation against the home key root/tonic.

This give us the ambiguous blue note of a minor 3 rd against a major background as our ears adjust to the chord change – this is our first blue note.

This in itself demonstrates the common Blues scale technique of starting a major phrase on the I chord, and repeating that same phrase again with a minor 3rd on the IV chord – Charlie Parker’s “Cool Blues” is an excellent example of this: -

Interestingly, if you superimpose the A Major (Ionian), the A Dorian and the A Mixolydian scale one over another, you wind up with Nonatonic (9 note) Blues scale: 1, 2, b3, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7, 7, 8 – it looks as if this scale may well be the result of chord tone/pitch collection.

Also notice that this scale breaks up into two groups of five notes – a tone (whole step), followed a chromatic group of 3 semitones (half steps) – exactly the pattern that you find in Gospel bass lines, and the chromatic passing notes of “Hey Joe”.

Try playing the above three scales in that order in the key of A (for instance), over a Blues backing track in A, and then all of those notes put together, as in the 9-note scale below –

How does it sound, which one feels best for improvising?

These 9 notes are also the very same 9 note scale that Winthrop Sargeant put forward in 1938 – (more of him later) – demonstrating his conclusions as to the Blues scale pitch structure.

In later years, this scale has sometimes been called the Dorian Melodic Bebop scale.

Major and Minor Blues Scales

Notice how the shape of these next two Major and Minor Blues scales are the same as the Major and Minor Pentatonic scales and modes, with the addition of the one blue note – see my “The Complete Pentatonic Scale”.

The Major Blues Scale

Bear in mind, that all of the following scales are usually used in fragments when it comes to bass lines, occasionally the whole scale is used, and certainly using chromatic approach notes is an iconic Blues trait, amongst other styles of music – the thing to take away from all this is a palette of ideas to experiment with.

The Blues scale may be looked upon as a major, or minor pentatonic scale with an added note; a blue note no less!

Major Blues Scale, is perhaps misnamed, as it has a minor 3rd scale degree as part of its structure – 1, 2, b3, 3, 5, 6, 8 – one way to consider the scale as a major Pentatonic scale with a passing blue note. This is an interesting pattern to play in one finger per fret – using 1 2 4 fingering works well here – sometimes you can combine the techniques.

Here is the same scale again

This pattern favours using 1 2 4 fingering – the choice being 1 1 3 4, or 1 4 2 4 The one finger per fret option alternative being 1 shift 2 3 4.

A blue note (in the simplest terms) is a dissonant note outside of a standard scale – in this case, a minor 3rd against a major 3rd in the Major Blues scale, these “out of place” notes create tension when playing them either up, or down in pitch.

The Minor Blues Scale

Mode 5 of the Major Blues scale (counting the modes as the five pentatonic modes, each with its blue note added – see The Complete Pentatonic Scale), the Minor Blues scale may be looked upon as a minor pentatonic scale with an added b5 – 1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7, 8.

The addition of a b5 in between the perfect 4th and perfect 5th of the scale allows you to create either a chromatic passing note, e.g., a hammer-on from the b5 to the perfect 5th, (usually followed by a b7) or a release bend (Or slide) from the b5 into the perfect 4th (usually followed by a b3 descending to the root), amongst many other possibilities.

The blue note is a dissonant note outside of a standard scale – in this case, the addition of a flattened b5 in between the perfect 4th and perfect 5th creates a chromatic passing note that can create tension when playing it either up, or down in pitch – consider the b5, 4th, b3 root descent pattern in “The Ace of Spades”.

Perhaps the most famous use of this scale in full occurs in the bass riff to “Sunshine of Your Love”.

Here is the same scale again

in 4th finger position – here the finger options in 1 2 4 fingering are slightly different than those above, due to the chromatic note in between the 4th and 5th scale degree – one approach here is to use fingers 4 1 4 shift 2 4 1 4 to cover the intervals on the way up, and 4 1, 4 2 1 shift 1 4 on the way down.

“Sunshine of Your love” being a great example of using the entire descending Minor Blues scale.

Jamey Aebersold

In 1967, the Blues scale had a general consensus as to its structure, although there was some disagreement over this. In that year the Blues scale of the time made an appearance in Jamey Aebersold’s method book – “How to Play Jazz” – the same Minor Blues scale we use now; a Minor Pentatonic scale with an added b5 – the blue note of the scale –

Aebersold’s version opts for the enharmonic (same pitch, different name) #4 – don’t worry too much about these interval’s names; think more about pitch direction – sharp going up, flat going down.

This is a great quote from the above book: -

“Resurrect the child singer inside yourself, sing out loud when you are by yourself!”

This famous and inspiring quote comes from Jamey Aebersold; the jazz educator and author of the “jazz play-along” format.

Aebersold is a strong advocate (as is Dr. Edwin E. Gordon – the most famous teacher and researcher associated with audiation) for vocalising; singing is a direct link between your ear and your instrument. (This will be covered in future articles). When you sing a melody or an improvised line out loud, you internalise a rhythm, a phrase, or a melody, with none of the constraints of your instrument– eventually the two become one and true expression is achieved. This is why Indian Tabla players traditionally vocalise and memorise the rhythms they need to know before approaching their instrument– the Blues was also a tradition learned by ear.

Even Bluesier Blues Scales

How deep does this rabbit hole go?

The answer is, of course, however deeply you want to explore it –

I would recommend that beginners, and bass players who are not interested in music theory to read no further, and just enjoy using the two scales above (perhaps make that three of the above) – they will take you far.

(Email for more exercises with the Blues scale).

For those of you who prefer alternatives, and more options to explore that may well improve your knowledge and technique by improvising with new things – read on!

I would also highly recommend watching all of Panos Charalampidis (Funkpunk) YouTube videos series on the Real Blues Scales, and Blues history – perhaps one of the best discussions on the subject.

Oddly enough, the further back in time you go, the more notes seem to be added to the Blues scale –

Having said that, there have been some mentions of Heptatonic scale being one of the Blues scales – the Dorian b5 (not to be confused with the Dorian b2, which is mode ii of the Melodic Minor scale) – Although it would be a great scale to work with in a Blues situation and definitely worth practicing with, it doesn’t seem to be related to the scale family that we are looking at, lacking as it does the perfect 5th.

See it in “The History of the Minor Scales”.

As David Evans says (in his 1982 book, Big Road Blues), “There is no single Blues scale, but many Blues scales –

However, they all have a major 3rd, which makes sense, as a lot of Blues is in the major key; even when it isn’t, the major 3rd is usually present somewhere – let’s have a look at some them: -

Winthrop Sargeant

Winthrop Sargeant was one of the first to name the Blues scale in 1938 – he had been a symphonic violinist in San Francisco, who left his performing career to become a music critic. He distilled this scale from a number of early jazz recordings (underlining the connection between the Blues and Jazz) – 1, 2, b3, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7, 7, 8.

Here is his version of the Blues scale: -

This is a Nonatonic (9 note) Blues scale – and is a very interesting scale, especially the three semitones leading to the root; to my mind, this has more in common with frequently used blue notes in actual blues bass lines, solos and vocalisations, which was Sargeant’s conclusion.

Notice that this scale is basically a Major scale (Ionian) with a Dorian scale superimposed over it – see analysis above.

Leonard Bernstein

In 1939, Leonard Bernstein’s Harvard thesis “The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music” was written as an investigation into the “national” music of America, but he looked more along the lines of taking elements of Blues music and fusing them with Classical music – much the same way that Bartok had done with Hungarian folk songs.

From his research however, Bernstein did produce this interesting Decatonic (10 note) scale, adding one more blue note the scale degrees – 1, 2, b3, 3, 4, b5, 5, 6, b7, 7, 8 – possibly described as Lydian superimposed on Dorian badly spelled: -

George Russell

Russell provides us with two Blues scales in 1953

George Russelll was an influential music theorist who became popular in 1950’s – Russell provides us with two African-American Blues scales, treating them more as a Lydian scale with a minor Pentatonic scale superimposed – the “Auxiliary Diminished Blues Scale”: -

Russell’s first is an Octatonic (8 note) scale, notice the use of the #4 – this scale is also known as the Half-Whole Diminished scale 1, b2, b3, 3, #4, 5, 6, b7, 8 – also the only Blues scale to use a b2 (b9), a popular interval with Robben Ford and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Russell’s second scale is an Decatonic (10 note) scale, notice that it is enharmonically identical to the Blues scale put forward by Leonard Bernstein fourteen years earlier in 1939 – the only difference being the substitution of a #4 instead of a flat 5th - Lydian superimposed on Dorian correctly spelled: -

All together now – Useful musical tools for us bass players?

That is a total of 5 Blues scales – how do we uses them all?

A true “Blue” note is really microtonal in nature – the pitch of that note lies in the flexible area between major and minor intervals – Neutral intervals – notes to be found through the vocals, slide playing, string bending, or a fretless neck.

But we also have the technique of imitating that sound with the use of semitone approach notes, with or without slides, or hammer-ons, as a pianist would do.

Traditional music theory doesn’t “explain” the Blues very well. Consider this: The I chord in the Blues is a dominant 7th chord. Also, the Blues scale Is unlike any other found in Western music.

The Blues is more than just a musical form, it is a sound, a feeling an attitude. Levine, Mark. 1995

If we superimpose all the blue note intervals that have been used in all of the above Blues scales – b2 b3 b5 b7 – side by side, over a Major Pentatonic scale, we get this surprisingly user friendly scale 1, b2, 2, b3, 3, b5, 5, 6, b7, 8: -

As you can see, if we start to fill in this list of possible blue notes alongside the Major pentatonic scale, we end up with a 9 note (Nonatonic) scale reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein’s – three more notes and we have a complete chromatic scale – but this is where these scales find their characteristic Blues sound – blue notes resolving to common chord tones.

Remove the b2 and the b3 and you have the Lydian Dominant scale (mode IV of Melodic minor).

See History of Minor Scales

If we add the two remaining perfect and major intervals to the above scale, we arrive at these 11 notes, a Hendecatonic scale – 1, b2, 2, b3, 3, 4, b5, 5, 6, b7, 7, 8: -

Ok, the rabbit hole has gone deep enough!

For bass players, most of these notes will be taken up as chromatic passing, or approach notes between chords, again aiming for those target chord tones to underline the harmony.

Where it gets interesting is the adding of improvised fills, solo, and melody playing to the microtonal range – where pitch becomes more fluid, more liquid like – by which I mean it can be a microtonal approach to target notes, e.g., 1, 3 5 of a chord – this is what adds emotion to a Blues scale; tension and release.

The Blues does not operate under any rules as such, but one thing it shares (be it roughly) in common with Classical music is the voice leading practice of sharpening notes on the way up and flattening notes on the way down in the form of microtonal techniques of slide, bend, vocal inflections approach to chord tones – very much worth practising on the bass!

How to sound sad with just one note

A slow bend, descending to the flat 3rd is signature sound of sorrow: -

Now amplify that by all the blue notes that you can use to surround a pentatonic scale, creating phrases that link chord tones – sadness comes from delayed dissonant resolution.

To this, extremely flexible and infinitely variable scale, add each note with a chromatic enclosure, upper or lower chromatic approach note – essentially a scale with pentatonic at its heart –

On the other hand, consider the fretboard diagram as above, or written music notation – it is confined by its own lack or accuracy; the blues scale, in either form, is essentially a pixelated view of something that is fractal in its sonic nature.

By this I mean Blues (especially the emotional part of the music) is really present between the notes – the actual microtonal inflections contained within a bent minor 3rd (or any other “blue” note) in a Blues performance would be very difficult to represent accurately in Western notation, or to interpret the sound from notation if the original source had never been heard; to say that a blue note is a “felt” thing, is perhaps itself, more accurate.

These Blue note areas in between Minor and Major are called “Neutral” notes, where pitch movement becomes more fluid.

As Gerhard Kubik puts it – “Flexible pitch areas”

Or as Jeff Todd Titon puts – “Pitch complexes”

To the early Blues men, they were referred to as “Worry notes”.

Consider the blue note areas (this is why I consider the Major Blues scale as I, and the minor Blues scale a mode 5) – this wider pitch range starts to introduce microtonal notes (these “in between” notes - Neutral intervals) within semitones, via bend, slide, or vocal inflection – coupled with rhythm and timing – that are usually resolved on to chord tones.

Tension and release: -

This is where this sad feeling lies.

“Flexible pitch areas” or “Pitch Zones”

Try playing these blue intervals above one at a time – by which I mean start with the flat 2, and slide down to the root –

For instance, F sliding down to E on the D string (3rd fret to 2nd fret), into an open E

Go from the b3, sliding into a major 3rd to the root

Slide a #4th into a 5th, up to a b7

You get the idea – but try to add emotion when playing them, which usually means hold the dissonant note longer.

The Blues is mode is actually a modal frame, a framework of melodically sensitive notes interspersed with less important notes Van der Merwe, P. 1989

Only by listening, and through repetition will you achieve an authentic representation of the sound, and the feeling, most importantly – these notes are, of course the most defining, and emotional part of the genre.

More to the point, this spreads across all genres.

Blues scales from the real world

The thing to notice with all of the bass lines from the following examples that borrow some, or sometimes all of the available pitches, is that the chromatic notes take from the Blue(s) scale are mostly used in chromatic approach to the next chord – again, think “Hey Joe”.

Some Notable examples of the Blues scale(s) in use in different genres

Look out for the blues notes circled

Blues

Some mentions of Blues scale use:

"The Thrill Is Gone" "Sweet Home Chicago" "Cross Road Blues" “Got My Mojo Working" "Hoochie Coochie Man"

“Road House Blues”: -

Pop

Some mentions of Blues scale use:

“Step Right Up” "Walk This Way" “Heartbreaker" “Hound Dog" “Day Tripper”

“Sir Duke" ascending Major Blues scale: -

“Sunshine of Your Love”: -

A descent all the way down the minor Blues scale.

Funk

Some mentions of Blues scale use:

“Jungle Boogie" “Watermelon Man" “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" “Cissy Strut"

"I Wish" - Close to the Winthrop Sargeant Blue scale, creating a chromatic ascent to the root: -

“Come on, Come Over”: - Ascending notes from the Minor Blues scale

Jazz

Some mentions of Blues scale use:

"C Jam Blues" "All Blues" "Blue Monk" "Straight, No Chaser" “Bags' Groove" "Mr. P.C."

“Take Five”

Some closing Thoughts

The Blues is one of the best ways to experiment with your own style and rhythms – what are your influences? – Throw them into the melting pot, the same way they did, over 100 years ago.

Having said that, there are three areas in which all of the Blues scales are useful to bass players: -

Increase speed, accuracy and effectiveness of learning things by ear.

Know the Blues scale? If you had never heard “Sunshine of Your Love” before, you would recognise a minor blues scale and be able to play the bass line back almost instantly.

Help write your own bass lines

All of these Blues scales simply give you a broader palette of ideas to work with, but with freedom of expression.

Finally, when it comes to improvising or soloing

Learning soloing, improvising, working on embellishing melody with the help of chromatic approach notes, trills, enclosures, slides or string bends will always be the best way forward in to finding new approaches.

As for technique, this grows with the desired level of complexity; the more you practice slides, fast scalar runs, arpeggio patterns, hammer-ons, pull-offs, the more they will come back and enhance your playing and expression on your bass.

Improvising with Call and Response

This is a useful idea for creating fills, or developing short improvisational phrases within a small framework – this builds confidence, experimentation and exploration of the bass neck – this will also give you 6 bars of improvisation over the 12 bar – IV – V chord progression.

It also lays the groundwork for extending these ideas: -

Instead of one bar, this idea can be stretched to 4 – literally trading 4’s with yourself (usually a jazz performance idea, where musicians would improvise for 4 bars, and then be answered by another musician playing the next 4 bars in a chord sequence) – this would entail playing 4 bars of Blues bass line, followed by 4 of improvisation.

This becomes quite challenging, as 4 bars into 12 goes 3 times, so you would be starting on different chords the second time around the 12-bar sequence – this is the point to experiment more with blue notes, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, and most importantly feeling the emotion inherent in the Blues.

And Finally

Here is my favourite Blues scale neck-board diagram: -

Ok, perhaps a joke, then again, perhaps not!

This neck diagram is simply a visual way to consider (in a pixelated way), as well as to hear in your head (audiation), and connect all of the 11 pitches in between the root and the octave in a free and fluid way, experiment with it – all centred around whatever style of music you enjoy playing.

It does seem that we may as well call an authentic Blues scale (which in reality, does not exist) a Dodecaphonic, 12 note scale – moving to and from chord tones, or other target notes; either through microtonal pitch bending, or chromatic approach.

Double that, if we apply Traditional Arab art music that divides the octave into 24 quarter-tones – leading to all of the “Natural” intervals in between major and minor – here perhaps is one of the strongest links within our African-American Blues scale investigation – both traditions use the pitches that fall between the semitones of Western notation.

Useful musical tools for us bass players?

I would describe the Blues scale as infinitely useful to us bass players!

All of the above applies in being useful to us bass players; when it comes to learning something new, creating your own basslines, improvising or soloing –

This is an invitation to be inventive (in all styles of music) without the boundaries within the use of single note pitches, and to be more aware of the space in between the notes that, as we have seen, are free and open with respect to “Flexible pitch areas” or “Pitch Zones” – therein lies the spirit of the Blues.

For related practice, see the bass scales hub, major-scale bass, and Demystifying the Modes.

References

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• Brown, Steven & Emily Phillips (2023). “The Vocal Origin of Musical Scales: the Interval Spacing Model.” Frontiers in Psychology 14, 1261218. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1261218.
• Burns, Edward M. (1999). “Intervals, Scales, and Tunings.” In Diana Deutsch (ed.), The Psychology of Music, 2nd ed., pp. 215–264.
• Curtis, M. E. & J. J. Bharucha (2010). “The Minor Third Communicates Sadness in Speech, Mirroring Its Use in Music.” Emotion 10(3), 335–348. doi:10.1037/a0017928.
• Bernstein, Leonard (1939). The Absorption of Race Elements into American Music, undergraduate thesis, Harvard University.
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• Drabkin, William (1980). “Diatonic.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 5.
• El Shibli, Fatima (2007). “Islam and the Blues.” Souls 9(2), 162–170. doi:10.1080/10999940701382615.
• Evans, David (1982). Big Road Blues: Tradition and Creativity in the Folk Blues. University of California Press.
• Everett, Walter (2009). The Foundations of Rock: From “Blue Suede Shoes” to “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”. Oxford University Press.
• Haslip, Jimmy (1995). Jimmy Haslip’s Melodic Bass Library: Scales and Modes for the Bass Guitarist. Alfred.
• Hamer, M. (2000). “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing. But What Is Swing?” New Scientist 2270, 48.
• Hein, Ethan (2011). “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing.”
• Kubik, Gerhard (1999). Africa and the Blues. University Press of Mississippi.
• Levine, Mark (1995). The Jazz Theory Book. Sher Music.
• Lindsay, Kenneth A. & Peter R. Nordquist (2006). “A Technical Look at Swing Rhythm in Music.” JASA 120(5 Suppl.), 3005. doi:10.1121/1.4788071.
• Mermikides, Milton (2024). “The Colour Spectrum of Scales and Modes.” Gresham College lecture.
• Oliver, Paul (1980). “Blues.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 2.
• Oliver, Paul (1998). The Story of the Blues. Northeastern University Press.
• Robinson, Bradford (1980). “Blue Note.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 2.
• Russell, George (1953). The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, first edition.
• Sargeant, Winthrop (1938; rev. ed. 1946; Da Capo reprint 1975). Jazz: Hot and Hybrid.
• Titon, J. T. (1977). Early Downhome Blues: A Musical and Cultural Analysis. University of Illinois Press.
• Van der Merwe, Peter (1989). Origins of the Popular Style. Clarendon Press.
• Waadeland, Carl Haakon (2004). Spectral Properties of Rhythm Performance. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.
• YouTube: “Alan Lomax, Negro Prison & Blues Songs Rosie” (czarnuszo21); “The Birth of The Blues | a history” (Andy Edwards); “The History and Evolution of the Blues p.1 [16th-17th century]” and “Microtonal Blues Scales p.1 [Introduction]” (funkpunk); “Blues and ragtime | Music - Howard Goodall’s Story of Music” (BBC Bitesize for Teachers).