Altered Scales In Your Minor Blues

Incorporating the Altered Scale Over the Dominant Chord

Okay, now we're going to have a look at ways we can incorporate the altered scale over the dominant chord.

The Basics

• So basically, when you get to the fifth chord in your 12-bar, or in any particular progression, when you go from A, say, for example, if you're in A minor, when you get to your E, it's an opportunity to use an altered scale.

The Altered Scale

• I'm going to begin by just showing you the altered scale so you can have a practice at it. This is the altered scale, and we're going to start it from E.

Here's how to play the altered scale from E:

1. A String

   • 7th fret on the E
   • 8th fret on the E
   • 10th fret on the E

2. D String

   • 6th fret on the D
   • 8th fret on the D
   • 10th fret on the D

3. G String

   • 7th fret on the G
   • 9th fret on the G
   • 10th fret on the G

4. B String

   • 8th fret on the B
   • 9th fret on the B
   • 11th fret on the B

5. High E String

   • 8th fret on the E
   • 10th fret on the E
   • 12th fret on the E

• You can obviously come back down, and I'll just quickly show you that:

  • 10th on the E
  • 8th
  • 6th
  • and 4th.

• But we're going to mainly look at it from here because most of the licks we're going to learn start from this particular scale.

Demonstration

What I'll just do is we'll just do a little bit of a demonstration, and I'll show you how that altered scale sounds over the dominant chord.

• If I could just have that little vamp from the root to the fifth.
  • 1, 2, 3, 4.

So there's an example of the sort of thing you can do using the altered scale over the dominant chord.

Example Licks

First Example

• I'm going to show you some example licks that you can play over that particular progression.

Lick Breakdown:

• All of these are going to be right on the nose of that E7 chord.
• Whatever happens during the A minor, you can ignore.
• The lick itself is going to start on the E7, and this particular lick goes like this:

1. Start on G (10th fret)
2. Go to B (9th fret)
3. Then to E (8th fret)
4. Finally, up to E (12th fret)

• The sequence is:
  • 12, 10, 8,
  • 9th fret on the B,
  • 7, 8 on the E string,
  • and then back to your A note on the B string, which is the 10th fret.

Let's just hear it against the backing.

• 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Second Example

The next example is going to be slightly more ambitious, covering quite a lot of the strings. It goes like this:

1. E String
   • 12th fret to the 8th
2. B String
   • 9th fret
3. G String
   • 10th fret
4. G String
   • 9th fret (give it a little bend up and down)

• You can think of this in two halves, actually, that's like your first half of it.

Call and Answer

• There's our first half, and then we're going to go to the second part:

1. G (7th fret), passing note
2. D (10th fret)
3. D (6th fret)
4. A String (8th fret)
5. D note (5th fret on the A string)
6. E (7th fret), add a little bend.

• It's a bit like an answer if you like, to this one.
• So it happens twice, like so.

Let's hear that with some music.

• 1, 2, 1, 2, 3.

Final Example

Our next and final example using the altered scale over the dominant is going to be this one:

• It runs all the way down, back down to the low octave on the A.
• So it resolves again like so.

Breakdown:

1. Start on G (9th fret) and give it a little bend (just a half bend, equivalent to the 10th fret).
2. Bend down to the 7th fret.
3. Run down the altered scale and resolve back on A.

Step-by-Step:

• From there, bend on the ninth to the seventh, then run:
  • 10th, 8th, 6th on the D,
  • 10th, 8th, 7th on the A,
  • and then:
  • 10th, 8th, 6th, 4th, up to the 5th to play that A on the final note of that run.

Let's hear that with some music so you can get what it's supposed to sound like.

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Conclusion

There you go. That's our third and final example.

As with all of these ideas, it's up to you to go and make up your own licks and see if you can do something better. So go away, have a go at that. Learn the scales, learn the arpeggios, and learn everything that you can.

If you can bring those all together in one particular style, you'll be on your way to making sure that your blues playing doesn't sound pedestrian but sounds out there as it should.