In this video I teach you how to improve your blues solos. We learn expand on the minor pentatonic scale by adding the flat 5 or blue note. We also look at dominant 7th arpeggios and playing between major and minor pentatonic scales and how we can mix these.

We begin with the A Minor Pentatonic Scale which everyone knows and loves. For reference those notes are A C D E and G.

From there we add the flat 5 (Eflat also known as the blue note) to the minor pentatonic scale and we create the BLUES scale. A C D Eflat E and G.

Next; we play with both the major and minor 3rd (C and C#) to move in and out of major/minor blues. Our expanded scale is now A C C# D E Eflat and G

These two notes when combined with the minor pentatonic scale give a wide number of variants that can be used to make your playing sound more sophisticated.

Finally, we use Dominant 7 arpeggios for each of the chords typically found in a blues song. In this case A7, D7 and E7. We look at two fingerings for each arpeggio that are located near the box position so that you can always come back to your familiar shape if you get lost. The purpose in examining the Dominant 7 arpeggios is to be able to apply these over the underlying chord and allow you to play the changes properly instead of just using A minor Pentatonic over all three chords.

A7 Dominant arpeggio notes are A C# E G

D7 Dominant Arpeggio notes are D F# A C

E7 Dominant Arpeggio notes are E G# B D

These arpeggios are from the mixolydian mode so you could of course also use the corresponding mixolydian mode over the appropriate 7 chord. At this time however I wanted to focus on the arpeggios so you can find the target notes that lead the ear through the chord changes.