Blues Scale Worksheets
The Blues Scale is a bit of a strange one? No second note, no sixth note and a run of three chromatic notes somewhere in the middle! Unlike Major and minor scales which have been around for aeons The Blues Scale really just showed up in The Southern United States towards the end of the nineteenth century but its effect upon music and culture has been immeasurable. It can equally claim to be The Jazz Scale, The Rock Scale, The Funk Scale, The Soul Scale or The Reggae Scale. The music of The twentieth (and twenty first) century would sound very different had newly invented recording technology not created a situation in which the scale was able to extend its influence beyond its Southern roots. Blues Scales can be a tricky concept to get over to music students but the worksheets available here can help to make it much easier.
I cannot stress enough that study of Blues Scales should be introduced at the right stage of a music theory programme and that to look at them too early (before students fully understand note naming, whole and half step intervals and scale construction) will most probably result in confusion and the often expressed opinion that "music theory is too difficult"
Blues Scales
How and When To Teach Them
From Major Scales to Blues Scales
In order for a student to properly understand the construction of a Blues Scale (root, flat third, fourth, flat fifth, fifth and flat seventh) it is first necessary to know how a major scale is put together.
Once a student understands Major Scale construction then they can easily cope with the seemingly complicated alterations and omissions to the Major Scale required in order to come up with The Blues Scale.
The worksheets shown in the graphic above this text provide the scale formula for both a Major scale and a blues scale from the same given starting note. The student is given the task of following the scale formula for both scales and is thus encouraged to develop an understanding of how the two scales are constructed and how they differ rather than just memerising a sequence of letter names in order to recite them onto an exam paper at some given time in the future.
To help your students to aquire this "joined up" knowledge base you can download 400 professionally prepared handouts that can be printed over and over again for less than the price of a single textbook!
Blues Scales and Blues Scale Worksheets are not the only thing going on here! Have a look around the site and please feel free to download and use in your classroom (or private instrumental lesson) any the free resources that you feel may be useful?
musicteachingresources.com is a new sister site of the already well established guitar and bass teacher's resources website teachwombat.com
Below you can see an infographic which describes how a teacher might use our materials to take students from a point where they have no functional "joined up" understanding of how music theory works to a place where they "Get It!"
When they have applied themselves to the material dealt with in the ten steps outlined below then they will be ready to study Blues Scales and will not find them difficult
There is more to this than our Blues Scale Worksheets though......?
Printable Music Theory Worksheets
In addition to the above materials there are a host of similarly styled resources and worksheets covering minor scales and pentatonic scales (major and minor) as well as a whole load of stuff designed to ingrease student's understanding of blues scales etc?
The material has been devised so as to introduce principles and then test and reinforce understanding of those principles. The music worksheets and handouts provide a simple, flexible and powerful resource to music educators and help with the development of a functionable and workable understanding of the principles of music theory.
The worksheets are not specific to a particular style of music or exam syllabus (as the reality is that Bach used the same twelve notes as Charlie Parker?)
Once they have been downloaded you can print these invaluable music education resources straight from the hard drive of your computer or drop the files onto a memory stick and take them into your school or college for photocopying etc. Whatever suits the way you work? Any way you choose you can be sure that for the rest of your teaching career you will always have access to first class music worksheets.
Enjoy!
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It's not just about Blues Scales we cover an awful lot of ground here.
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Cheers! Rob!