F major blues scale on bass
F major blues has 6 notes: F G A♭ A C D. Degrees: 1 2 ♭3 3 5 6. Formula: W H H W+H W W+H.
What notes are in the F major blues scale?
F, G, A♭, A, C and D. It has 6 notes; its formula in whole and half steps is W H H W+H W W+H.
What does F major blues sound like, and when do you use it?
Major pentatonic + passing ♭3: optimistic blues, country and soul. Use it over major and 7 chords.
Chord progressions to improvise with F major blues
In Jam mode (the Jam button above) a band of grand piano, upright bass and drums (recorded instruments) plays these progressions as swing, bossa, groove or ballad, and the fretboard lights up the notes of each chord as it plays. It's a backing track made for this scale in F:
- Blues (I7–IV7–V7): 12 bars over F7, B♭7 and C7. The 12-bar blues: three 7 chords with the scale on top. The clash between the ♭3 and the chord's 3rd is the blues.
- I–IV (I7–IV7): F7 | B♭7. Two 7 chords: slide the ♭3 (A♭) up to the 3rd (A), the major-blues move.
F major blues positions on bass
In standard tuning (E A D G), with 2 notes per string, F major blues is played in 5 positions along the neck:
- Position 1: frets 0 to 4 (starts on the root)
- Position 2: frets 1 to 5
- Position 3: frets 2 to 8
- Position 4: frets 5 to 10
- Position 5: frets 7 to 13
Same notes as
Major blues in other keys
On other instruments
F major blues on piano · F major blues on guitar · All scales