Scale family
E blues
Six notes: E G A B♭ B D. E minor pentatonic with one note added, the blue note B♭.
- Notes
- E G A B♭ B D
- 1 ♭3 4 ♭5 5 ♭7
- Same notes as
- G major blues Its relative
- Without the blue note
- E minor pentatonic Its pentatonic
- Root, E
- Notes of the box
- Notes of the chord you're on
- Blue note
Jam along
The 12-bar blues in E
Play along with a repeating twelve-bar blues. The neck highlights the notes in your box that belong to the current chord.
The blue note
Hear what the blue note adds
Put B♭ between A and B and the minor pentatonic becomes the E blues scale. Try sliding through it into a neighbouring note.
Pentatonic
- E
- G
- A
- B
- D
Blues
- E
- G
- A
- B♭
- B
- D
Hear both
Exercises
Five drills, with a click
Start in box 1 and play along with the metronome. Follow the highlighted notes on the neck above.
- Box 1, up and downEvery note once, low to high and back. Say the note names.70 bpmLevel 1
- Connect box 1 to box 2Up box 1, slide to box 2, back down. The shared notes are the bridge.70 bpmLevel 1
- Groups of threeThree notes at a time, one step up each time, through box 1.80 bpmLevel 2
- Hit the chord's notesOver the 12-bar, land on the lit notes as each chord changes.90 bpmLevel 2
- Call and responseHear a two-bar phrase, then answer it in the gap.80 bpmLevel 2