Sliding Blues Scale – Break OUT of the box!

Too many guitarist get trapped inside “the box”, which is to say the blues scale shape. In this Sliding Blues Scale lesson I’ll show you how to break free and find your creativity again.

Every scale, including the blues (or Pentatonic) scale connects all over the entire neck. And like everything else in life, it can get boring if you’re doing the same thing over and over.

Sliding Blues Scale - Breaking out of the box

This sliding blues scale I’m going to teach you can be played in any key. And by learning it you can start to experiment with traveling around the neck soloing. This will give you more variety and lead to more experimentation. All you have to do is use the RED dot as the reference note. It is the ROOT note of any given scale you are playing.

Check it out!

In this example, instead of playing the same ol blues scale in A.  This sliding scale will start on the third fret of the low E string.
Sliding blues scale in the key of Am

Another example
Let’s say you wanted to play a sliding blues scale in the key of B. Then this pattern would start on the 5th fret on the Low E string, but its ROOT, would be B (7th fret). Just like the Blues scale, you can move it around anywhere you want, as long as you stay mindful of its root note.

Colors on the diagram

  • When you are traveling up the scale (ascending), the BLUE arrows show you which frets and which direction to slide on.
  • When you are traveling down the scale (descending), the GREEN arrows show you which frets and which direction to slide on.
  • The RED note represents the root of the sliding blues scale. In this case, the root note is A. And the scale works with Am chord progressions.

A TON of blues, rock, country and metal songs use this scale. Once you learn and memorize it, you’ll start hearing variations of it in a lot of the music you hear. Keep your ears open and listen for it.

  • “Seek and Destroy” by Metallica – it’s in there.
  • “Love Gun” by Kiss – it’s in there.
  • “I got the fire” by Montrose – it’s in there.
  • “The Emerald” by Thin Lizzy – it’s in there.
  • “Honey Hush” by Foghat – it’s in there….

… you get the picture. 😉

 Homework FUNWORK
Practice playing the blues scale in A like you normally would. Then occasionally switch over to the sliding scale and back again.

A FINAL NOTE:
You can drop in and out of the sliding scale once you learn it. You do not have to play it from the bottom to the top. IN FACT, there are positions all over the guitar neck to play the blues scale. We will cover them in the next lessons, but for now, go ahead, slide around and have some fun.