C major blues scale on violin
C major blues has 6 notes: C D E♭ E G A. Degrees: 1 2 ♭3 3 5 6. Formula: W H H W+H W W+H.
What notes are in the C major blues scale?
C, D, E♭, E, G and A. It has 6 notes; its formula in whole and half steps is W H H W+H W W+H.
What does C 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 C 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 fingerboard lights up the notes of each chord as it plays. It's a backing track made for this scale in C:
- Blues (I7–IV7–V7): 12 bars over C7, F7 and G7. 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): C7 | F7. Two 7 chords: slide the ♭3 (E♭) up to the 3rd (E), the major-blues move.
C major blues on the violin: first position
No frets: string by string (G D A E), from the open string to the fourth finger:
- G string: G A C D
- D string: D E♭ E G A
- A string: A C D E♭ E
- E string: E G A
Same notes as
Major blues in other keys
On other instruments
C major blues on piano · C major blues on guitar · C major blues on bass · C major blues on ukulele · C major blues on mandolin · C major blues on banjo · C major blues on viola · C major blues on cello · C major blues on alto sax · C major blues on tenor sax · C major blues on trumpet · C major blues on flute · All scales