Ab blues scale

6 notes · the ♭5 passing note

The minor pentatonic with one note added between the 4th and the 5th. It is a passing tone rather than a chord tone -- it belongs to the move through it, not to any chord in the key, which is why it sounds wrong held and right in flight.

Heard in: Every blues ever played, and most rock solos.

Key

C C♯D E♭E F F♯G A♭A B♭B

major natural minor dorian mixolydian lydian phrygian locrian harmonic minor melodic minor lydian dominant altered major pentatonic minor pentatonic blues whole tone diminished half-whole diminished

The notes of Ab blues

The whole scale, with each note’s degree underneath it.

♭3

♭5

♭7

Twelve frets in standard tuning, high E at the top. Each dot is labelled with its degree rather than its note, because that is the part that moves with you when you play the shape somewhere else. The green dot is the root of whatever is being shown — the scale, or the chord chosen out of it.

Chords from Ab blues

Stacking thirds through this scale does not give chords: the gaps in it are not thirds. It is a scale to play over chords rather than one to build them from, so what matters here is which chords it fits, below.

What to play Ab blues over

The chords on Ab whose every note this scale contains, biggest first. The largest of them is the one that pins the scale down: over Abm7 there is nothing in Ab blues that can sound wrong.

Abm7 Abm7b5 Ab7sus4 Abm Abdim Absus4 Ab5

Every scale on every root is on the scale index, and every chord on the chord index. Where the shapes and the theory come from is on the about page.

Ab blues scale

The notes of Ab blues

Chords from Ab blues

What to play Ab blues over

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