Scales
D Major Blues Scale
D · E · F · F# · A · B
The major pentatonic with a flattened third added — brighter than the minor blues, and the sound of country and gospel lead playing.
D Major Blues Scale
D · E · F · F# · A · B
Fingering on the piano
| Hand | Fingering | Notes | Play it on your instrument |
|---|---|---|---|
| Right hand | 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 | D · E · F · F# · A · B · D | |
| Left hand | 5 4 3 2 1 2 1 | D · E · F · F# · A · B · D |
One octave ascending; 1 is the thumb. A standard fingering, not the only one.
Tap a key or a fret to hear it.
Scale degrees
D Major Blues is made of the notes D · E · F · F# · A · B. Each is a degree counted from the tonic, and the gaps between them are the step pattern W H H W½ W W½.
Read on: scale degrees · building any scale · pentatonic and blues scales
Related scales
D Major Blues is a selection of notes from larger scales rather than a seven-note scale of its own, so it has no chords of its own: it takes them from the scales that contain it, listed here with the scales it contains and its related keys.
Scales inside it
D Major PentatonicD · E · F# · A · B
Every note of this scale is in D Major Blues.
D Flat Three PentatonicD · E · F · A · B
Every note of this scale is in D Major Blues.
Scales that contain it
D Bebop MinorD · E · F · F# · G · A · B · C
Contains every note of D Major Blues.
D Composite BluesD · E · F · F# · G · Ab · A · B · C
Contains every note of D Major Blues.
D ChromaticD · Eb · E · F · F# · G · Ab · A · Bb · B · C · C#
Contains every note of D Major Blues.
Understanding D Major Blues
Names and spellings
A blues scale is a pentatonic scale with one added note, the “blue note”. The minor blues scale is the one most players mean by “the blues scale”; the major blues scale is its relative, built on the major pentatonic.
How it is built
On D the scale is D · E · F · F# · A · B, following the step pattern W H H W½ W W½. It is the major pentatonic with a ♭3 inserted between the second and third degrees.
The added flat third sits a semitone below the major third, so the classic gesture is to slide from one to the other — the move that makes a line sound like country rather than like a scale exercise.
How it is used
It is the same set of notes as the minor blues scale a minor third below, which is why players often think of it as "playing the minor blues shape from the sixth degree".
It sits naturally over a major or dominant I chord, and it is the default vocabulary of country, western swing and gospel soloing.
Learn this properly
Chapter 7: Scales: Major and MinorCommon questions
- What notes are in the D Major Blues?
- The D Major Blues contains D · E · F · F# · A · B. Find every scale that contains these notes with the scale finder.
- What is the difference between major and minor blues scales?
- They contain the same notes a minor third apart. Which one you are playing depends on which note you treat as the tonic.
- Where is the major blues scale used?
- Country, western swing, gospel and rockabilly lead playing, over major and dominant chords.
- How do I play D Major Blues?
- On guitar start with the 1st position, played from the lowest string upward; the instrument panel on this page shows its frets and the positions further up the neck. On the piano the right hand ascends 1 2 3 4 1 2 3, with 1 as the thumb. Every position plays when you press it.
- What is the formula of D Major Blues?
- From D the steps run W H H W½ W W½, where a whole step is two frets or two keys and a half step one. Apply the same pattern from any other note and you get the same scale on that root, which is why every root of this scale has a page here.