Guitar Lessons by Brian

Three basic elements when improvising are the arpeggio, the blues scale, and the major scale. Throughout the summer, I will be posting new blog posts and videos on the subjects of improvising and getting the uptown blues sound. So, please subscribe and keep in touch.

Uptown Blues is the sound you hear from blues players that tend to have a jazzier sound to their playing. Robben Ford and Duke Robillard are a couple examples. Most blues players tend to use the minor blues scale predominantly, which is the most common tool for playing the blues. Lightning Hopkins is a good example of using the minor blues scale primarily. While there may be various tricks used to get that uptown sound, a great way to get it is to mix the major blues scale with the minor blues scale, creating a hybrid of the two scales. In This series of videos I explain how to combine the major and minor blues scales to get that uptown blues sound. If you like the videos please subscribe and leave comments. I tend to produce more videos when I get feedback from the public. Enjoy and keep jamming!

1. Using tones and semi-tones (whole steps and half steps), how do you construct a diatonic major scale?
w w s w w w s

2. What three intervals of the major scale are used to construct a major triad?
1 3 5

3. What are the five types of triads and what intervals construct these triads?
major 1 3 5, minor 1 b3 5, augmented 1 3 #5, diminished 1 b3 b5, suspended 1 4 5.

4. What is the difference between a Major 7 chord (CMaj7) and a Dominant 7 (C7) chord?
A major 7 has a 1, 3, 5, 7 while the dominant 7 has the 1, 3, 5, and b(flat) 7.

5. What are the seven triads in the key of C?
C Dm Em F G Am Bdim

6. What is the difference between a minor pentatonic scale and a minor blues scale?
The minor pentatonic has the 1, b3, 4, 5, b7. The blues scale is the same intervals except it also has a b5.

7. Why is Am called the relative minor of C major?
Because they share the same key signature or they have the same notes. Am is built off the 6th degree of the relative major. The C major scale has the notes C D E F G A B while Am scale has A B C D E F G.

8. What are the three blue notes?
b3, b5, b7

9. How is a C9 chord different than a Cadd9? A C9 has the intervals 1, 3, 5, b7, 9 while the add9 has 1, 3, 5, 9.

10. What does pentatonic mean? penta means five and tonic means tone. The pentatonic scale is a five tone scale. It has five notes.

1. Using tones and semi-tones (whole steps and half steps), how do you construct a diatonic major scale?
2. What three intervals of the major scale are used to construct a major triad?
3. What are the five types of triads and what intervals construct these triads?
4. What is the difference between a Major 7 chord (CMaj7) and a Dominant 7 (C7) chord?
5. What are the seven triads in the key of C?
6. What is the difference between a minor pentatonic scale and a minor blues scale?
7. Why is Am called the relative minor of C major?
8. What are the three blue notes?
9. How is a C9 chord different than a Cadd9?
10. What does pentatonic mean?

The answers to the quiz will be on the next blog post.

I will be performing at Santa Fe Flats Wednesday, May 13. Music and great Mexican food.