Most musicians I know refer to an “F” or “Bb” blues scale as if there is only one.  In fact, there are two, just like each note in our music alphabet has a major and minor scale.  Thank heavens there is only one minor scale, and we do not have to deal with the “natural,” “harmonic,” and “melodic” distinctions.  I learned about this myself, working with “Garage Band” on the i-pad many years ago.  The elementary school I taught received one of the first federal grants to become a 1: 1 ratio i-pad participant.  There was absolutely no decent music app available at the time but “Garage Band,” but that turned out to be pretty good.  The problem was, there was no existing curriculum anywhere, So I did what any “normal” music teacher would do; I wrote one.

               In the “scale format” window in “Garage Band,” you are given about 11 formatting choices to choose from—all of the normal major and minor options, along with several modes.  Two choices confused me, the Major and the minor “blues” options.  I did not understand how it all worked until I started writing my curriculum for “improvisation.”  The similarity is (like in our scales) the major and minor blues scales contain the same notes.  The difference is; that the tonic of the Major blues scale begins one degree of its blues scale higher than the minor blues scale.

               For example, we will look at two different songs in “Assignment #38”.  The notes of the “E” blues scale include E, G, A, Bb, B, and D.  If you are trying to figure out which blues scale you are on, it all depends on what note ends up being the tonic note of blues scale that is being used.  The Major blues scale’s tonic begins on the “G” while the minor blues scale starts on an “E.”  The two “blues” examples I selected for this assignment, “Chances” and “The Blues,” are both excellent (and fun to improvise along with) examples of the slow “blues” genre. While playing both examples, carefully listen to how the same “blues” note (the “Bb”) enhances the blues “feeling” and tends to function as a “leading tone” going both up and down that particular blues scale. 

                In this assignment I decided not to use a vocal “count-off” to cue when to switch solos.  I felt by the time you got this far, your students should have a good “grasp” on “the blues.”  That being said, the soloists need to count the 12 measures rest between phrases.  Students at this time may even feel the “turn around” and can hear the end of each 12 bar blues phrase.