Blues Scale

The Most common blues scale is easily created from the Minor Pentatonic scale with an added flat 5th.

So in C the Blues scale would be:

1. C (Tonic /Root note)
2. D (W)
3. Eb (H)
4. F (W)
F# (H) Flat 5
5. G (W)
6. Ab (H)
7. Bb (W)
8. C (W)

Blues Scale Formula: 1-b3-4-b5-5-b7

Pentatonic Scales

There are many pentatonic but the most common in
western music are the Major Pentatonic & Minor Pentatonic

Penta means 5, tonic means tone
so it's a 5 tone scale.

The Major Pentatonic is the same as the Major Scale but you remove the 4th & the 7th degrees:

1. C (Tonic/Root note)
2. D (W)
3. E (W)
4. F (H)
5. G (W)
6. A (W)
7. B (W)
8. C (H)

Major Pentatonic Formula: 1-2-3-5-6

The Minor Pentatonic is the same as the Minor Scale except it has the 2nd & the 6th degree removed.

1. C (Tonic /Root note)
2. D (W)
3. Eb (H)
4. F (W)
5. G (W)
6. Ab (H)
7. Bb (W)
8. C (W)

Minor Pentatonic Formula: 1-b3-4-5-b7

Minor Scale Formula

The Minor (Aeolian Mode) scale is much more difficult as there are 3 different versions of the
minor scale; The Natural, Harmonic and the Melodic Minor scales.

The good news is that you can use the Natural minor scale to build the other two, and there are some other tricks to simplify the process.

Natural Minor:W-H-W-W-H-W-W
It's can be seen in all natural keys by starting on A on a keyboard:
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A
and that is a good way to visualize it if you use a keyboard for your memory-ization

So building a Natural Minor scale starting on C

1. C (Tonic / Root)
2. D (W)
3. Eb (H)
4. F (W)
5. G (W)
6. Ab (H)
7. Bb (W)
8. C (W Octave Tonic)

The Harmonic Minor is the same as the Natural but has a Raised 7th a (half-step) to Create a Leading tone (half-step) between the 7th and 1st (8th) degree as opposed to the Subtonic (whole-step) that the Natural minor has, the tonal gravitational pull with a Leading tone is much stronger than a Subtonic (notice how in C major, B wants to resolve back to C on your instrument; all notes have pull in relation to one another or the tonic).

C Harmonic Minor (Natural Minor w/ 7th raised a half-step)

1. C (Tonic / Root)
2. D (W)
3. Eb (H)
4. F (W)
5. G (W)
6. Ab (H)
7. B natural (3 half-steps) raised 7th
   
8. C (H Octave Tonic)

You might have noticed that the harmonic Minor is the same as C Major but it has a flatted 3rd & 6th, this is also an acceptable way to build the Harmonic Minor or memorize its pattern (Major scale with a Flatted 3rd & 6th).

The Harmonic creates its own problems having 3 half-steps between the 6th & 7th degrees, this is a difficult interval for singers to sing but it works well for chords (harmonically, hence Harmonic Minor) so we have one more minor scale to learn, the odd one.

The Melodic Minor scale:
The Melodic Minor scale has two versions, ascending and descending.
This seems odd but it has its reasons, the melodic minor scale is built upon the
Natural Minor scale as well, but it has a Raised 7th like the harmonic & and raised 6th.

But when you descend you must revert them to what they used to be.

C Melodic Minor Ascending C (Tonic / Root) D (W) Eb (H) F (W) G (W) A (W) raised 6th B natural (W) raised 7th C (H Octave Tonic)

C Melodic Minor Descending C (Tonic / Root) D (W) Eb (H) F (W) G (W) Ab (H) reverted Bb (W) reverted C (H Octave Tonic)

You can interchange all minor scales for Harmonies (chords etc.) or Melodies or anything else you please.

Major Scale Formula

The Ionian (Major) scale is a very much needed and used scale.
and from it you can build many chords, scales and modes.

Using whole steps (tone) and half steps (semi-tones) the Basic formula is:
W-W-H-W-W-W-H
or as semi-tone and Tones same thing:
T-T-S-T-T-T-S

A semi-tone is the smallest interval in western music from C to C# or from B to C or E to F.

The Tonic/Root note is the first note of a scale.

use this formulat to bulid any major scale eg. C Major:

1. C (Tonic/Root note)
2. D (W)
3. E (W)
4. F (H)
5. G (W)
6. A (W)
7. B (W)
8. C (H)

Scale Degrees (Chord building)

The scale degrees are very useful for many things, but the one that I find most helpful is how
scale degrees disignate quality of intervals. this is what I mean:
Major: I-ii-iii-IV-V-vi-vii°

• the I chord, IV and V chord for any major scale is Major because it is in uppercase roman numerals

• the ii chord, iii and vi chords are minor for any major scale and the vii° is diminished (degree symbol (°) designates this)

so if you were in the key of C (where most start) you would have:

1. C Major (I chord)
2. D minor (ii chord)
3. E minor (iii chord)
4. F Major (IV chord)
5. G Major (V chord)
6. A minor (vi chord)
7. B diminished (vii° chord)

the same applies to any Major key

All Major chords have a Root Major 3rd and a Perfect fifth.
So C Major would be C-E-G

All minor chords have a Root, minor 3rd and a perfect fifth
So C minor would be C-Eb-G


All diminished(°) chords have a Root, minor 3rd and a diminished fifth
So C diminished would be C-Eb-Gb

All augmented(+) chords have a Root, Major 3rd and a Augmented fifth
So C Augmented would be C-E-G#


you can then easily glance at music and see the notes C-Eb-G in the key of C and
know that it's a minor key.

In any Major key if there are accidentals (#'s,b's or natural symbols) that the
chords quality is the same as the scale degree, eg. in the key of D Major:
(D Major has 2 sharps: F# and C#)

1. D Major (I chord)
2. E minor (ii chord)
3. F# minor (iii chord)
4. G Major (IV chord)
5. A Major (V chord)
6. B minor (vi chord)
7. C# diminished (vii° chord)

Read this over as it will make most everything in music theory a lot simpler.

Chord Building

major                       1  3  5
6                           1  3  5  6
6/9                         1  3  5  6  9
maj7                        1  3  5  7
maj7(b5)                    1  3 b5  7
add9                        1  3  5  9
maj9                        1  3  5  7  9
maj11                       1  3  5  7  9  11
maj13                       1  3  5  7  9  11  13
maj7(#11)                   1  3  5  7 #11
maj(b5)                     1  3 b5
aug                         1  3 #5

min                         1 b3  5
m6                          1 b3  5  6
m7                          1 b3  5 b7
m(add9)                     1 b3  5  9
m6/9                        1 b3  5  6  9
m9                          1 b3  5 b7  9
m11                         1 b3  5 b7  9  11
m13                         1 b3  5 b7  9  11  13
m/Maj7                      1 b3  5  7
m/Maj9                      1 b3  5  7  9
m/Maj11                     1 b3  5  7  9  11
m/Maj13                     1 b3  5  7  9  11  13
m7(b5)                      1 b3 b5 b7

7                           1  3  5 b7
9                           1  3  5 b7  9
11                          1  3  5 b7  9  11
13                          1  3  5 b7  9  11  13
7(#5)                       1  3 #5 b7
7(b5)                       1  3 b5 b7
7(#9)                       1  3  5 b7 #9
7(b9)                       1  3  5 b7 b9
9(#5)                       1  3 #5 b7  9
9(b5)                       1  3 b5 b7  9
7(#5#9)                     1  3 #5 b7 #9
7(#5b9)                     1  3 #5 b7 b9
7(b5#9)                     1  3 b5 b7 #9
7(b5b9)                     1  3 b5 b7 b9
7#11                        1  3  5 b7 #11

sus2                        1  2  5
sus4                        1  4  5

dim                         1 b3 b5
dim7                        1 b3 b5 bb7
halfdim                     1 b3 b5 b7

Circle of Fifths (5ths) Minor

The Minor circle has many tricks to remember its order
but since we know the Major Circle of Fifths we can easly relate it to that considering you need to know yor relative major/minor keys anyway you can combine the two in your head to know both and their relation to each other.

to get the number of SHARPs for the minor side, just subtract 3 from the major so B major is 5 #'s and B minor would be 2 #'s.

you also might notice that C & F# in Major at at zero and 6 and in minor C falls at 9 o'clock and F# at 3 o'clock and because everything has been shifted to A from C.

for both circles I remember D, A, E at the top B,F#,C# on the right, Bb,D#,G# on the bottom and G,C,F on the left.

Remembering them in blocks like that seems to help with quick recall.