Guitar scale
Bb Minor Blues Guitar Scale
Bb Minor Blues is a six-note scale built from Bb, Db, Eb, Fb, F, and Ab. Use it to study the scale's notes, interval formula, and guitar fretboard positions.
- Notes
- Bb, Db, Eb, Fb, F, Ab
- Formula
- 1 b3 4 b5 5 b7
- Semitones
- 0 3 5 6 7 10
How to read this scale
The notes are shown as pitch classes first. Square markers representBb root notes in the fretboard view, while circular markers represent the other notes in the scale.
Use the interactive fretboard to locate the Bb root notes and connect the remaining minor blues tones across standard tuning.
Sound and defining tones
Bb minor blues adds the flat fifth to minor pentatonic: b3 (Db), b5 (Fb), and b7 (Ab). The flat fifth is usually treated as a blue-note tension that moves into the fourth, fifth, or another chord tone.
- Characteristic tones
- b3Dbb5Fbb7Ab
Fretboard diagram
Open this scale in the fretboard tool
Start with Bb Minor Blues loaded, then adjust tuning, labels, colors, fret count, and orientation.
Open in interactive fretboardCommon chords and contexts
Use Bb minor blues over minor blues, rock riffs, and many Bb-centered dominant blues progressions. The blue note is expressive tension, not automatically a stable note on every chord.
- Use Bb minor blues over Bb minor blues, rock riffs, and many dominant blues progressions.
- It adds the flat 5 blue note to minor pentatonic for extra pull and grit.
Practice this scale on guitar
- Play Bb Minor Blues from one Bb root to the next in at least two fretboard positions, saying each note name and scale degree aloud.
- Practice moving through b3 (Db), b5 (Fb), and b7 (Ab) chromatically, then vary which note receives the accent or bend.
- Play one chorus of a blues in Bb using only minor pentatonic, then repeat it while adding the flat fifth only as a passing or approach tone.