C Blues Scale on guitar
The blues scale is just the minor pentatonic scale with one extra note added: the "blue note" (a flatted 5th). This adds that classic bluesy tension.
The notes of C Blues Scale
Built on C, the scale degrees spell out like this. The degree is the number you would call that note relative to C:
RiffRoute writes every accidental as a sharp. A sharp and the flat above it are the same fret, so A♯ is B♭ and so on.
Where it lands on the fretboard
Every fret from the open string up to the 12th that belongs to the C Blues Scale, string by string. Root notes are highlighted.
- Low E: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 11
- A: 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10
- D: 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10
- G: 0, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12
- B: 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11
- High E: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 11
Your anchor points: C is at fret 8 on the low E string and fret 3 on the A string. Start every pattern from one of those and you always know where home is.
Use the blue note as a passing tone. Don't linger on it too long or it will sound dissonant!
Chords that fit
None of the chord shapes in RiffRoute's library fit inside the C Blues Scale using only its own notes — it is a scale you play melodically over a drone or a single sustained chord rather than harmonising it.
Other C scales
Same starting note, different colour. Switching between these over one C chord is the quickest way to hear what each scale does:
The Blues Scale scale in other keys
Practise it in the app
A list of frets only gets you so far. RiffRoute shows the C Blues Scale lit up on a full fretboard, plays it back and lets you practise it against a backing track.