A Blues Scale All Guitar Fingering Positions. The A Blues Scale is the Minor Pentatonic Scale with a passing tone (b5 or diminish 5th) note added to it. The A Blues Scale usually works with every position where you would play the pentatonic scale. The added (b5) note gives the sound a very interesting flavor while playing blues solos.

It never hurts to practice the scale and learn all the all fingering positions. This way you know the A Blues Scale all over the guitar fret board and are not just playing one fingering position all the time. Try playing the A Blues Scale at the fifth fret shown in the first scale fingerings below. The next octave scale fingering position is the same as the first one at fret (17) and starts over again after the last fingering.

Next try it in the key of E starting at the open string scale fingering position fret (0) instead of fret (5) and play all the scale fingering positions up & down. Find a blues song in the same key and experiment jamming along in all the these scale fingering positions to get a feel for it. Try it with a slow blues song to make it easier. The song by Stevie Ray Vaughan – Leave My Little Girl Alone is in A and it’s a good one to start with. As an exercise try bending notes with the Interval (5) one note below interval (b5) note up a half step to the (b5) note. The more you master playing the A Blues in all the fingering positions the better you will know your way around the guitar fret board and not get lost hitting a dissonant off note.