The “major” blues scale Some improvisers find it helpful to think of a major blues scale. The difference between a major and minor pentatonic scale is identical to the difference between the major and minor blues scale: the major blues scale is a rotation of the blues scale of its relative minor. Begin the blues scale on me (↓^3)(↓3^)(\downarrow\hat3), and you will get a blues scale for the relative major. These relationships are summarized in Example 5

Having examined the structure of the blues scale, we can now explore the tonal potentialof the scale.2 Figure 9.4 illustrates the structure of G blues scale.This scale has a minor feel to it; notice the use of ≤3, ≤5, and ≤7. By starting the scale onB≤3 and continuing through the octave, we are able to generate a major scale that, inaddition to having the “blue” 3rd, also contains the major 3rd needed for major anddominant 7th chords. A major blues scale, shown in Figure 9.5, starts on ≤3 of the regularblues scale, contains a perfect 5th, major 6th, and major 9th, and establishes a convincingchord–scale relationship with the B≤6/9, B≤13 or other B≤–based dominant 7th chords.In addition to more generic usage of the blues scale (where a single scale is used in thecontext of different chords), we can be more discerning and assign a regular blues scaleto minor chords and a major blues scale to major and dominant 7th chords.