Additional Notes - the Blues Scale
An additional note is a note which does not belong to the scale, but can be used against most chords in a progression without sounding out of key. The notes of the minor pentatonic scale are I, bIII, IV, V, bVII (revise lesson 6) and so for an A minor pentatonic, the notes A, C, D, E and G are used. One additional note is the bV, which for the key of A is an Eb note. With this note added, it becomes the Blues Scale.
Pattern One - Blues Scale - Key of A
Experiment using this new note in your improvising. Draw a fretboard diagram (21 frets), adding the Eb (bV ) note to the A minor pentatonic scale to create the A Blues scale, and become familiar with its position in each pattern. The following lick uses the Blues scale with the extra Eb note and moves through patterns one, two and three.
Other notes which may be added to the minor pentatonic scale are II, III, and VI notes of the major scale. In the key of A these additional notes are B, C# and F# .
As before, draw up a fretboard diagram and add these extra notes to the Minor pentatonic scale. Remember that some additional notes will not always blend in with all the chords of a Blues progression, whereas the Blues scale notes will. Here is a short solo which makes use of these extra notes.
Rock Licks
The following Rock licks involve the use of additional notes to the minor pentatonic scale, played with a triplet rhythm.
Pick only the first note (all the others are slurred).
Start with all 3 fingers in position.
This technique can be applied to any group of three notes within the scale.
In this exercise, start with the first finger barring across three strings at the 5th fret.
You should apply the licks studied in this lesson to other scale patterns.
