Ask any guitarist (whether they play blues, rock, metal, jazz, or country) how often they use blues guitar scales. I'll bet 99% of them will tell you that they do every day they pick up their guitar.
Blues scales are so popular in guitar music because they are easy to play and sound really cool.
Think of your most favorite, and the greatest guitar solos of all time. What do they have in common?
Blues guitar scales!
Alright, time for a little bit of theory. The blues scale is built out of the root, flat third, fourth, flat five, five, and flat seven of a given key. So, in the key of E the notes E, G, A, Bb, B, and D would spell an E blues scale.
If you haven't learned your first blues scale yet on your guitar, you ought to start off with the E blues scale in open position. Open position means that your fretting hand will hang around by the nut and that there will be some open strings in the scale. In fact, about half of the strings will be open in this scale which is why it's a very easy scale to learn, especially for a beginner. It shouldn't take more than five minutes to find a tab for this.
So after you've got that one under your belt you ought to start moving that shape around to play blues guitar scales in different keys. Starting with the most common keys on the guitar, like A D C G and B, is wise. Then get used to moving it around through the circle of fifths.
It's also cool to master the scale in one key all over the entire fretboard, or up and down the single strings.
No matter why you want to learn blues guitar scales, you will be a better guitarist for it.
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