Greetings blues lovers. Here is the final article in a 3 part series on what scales work best for playing over what chords. This time we will cover minor chords and the scales that suit them. For starters, scales with a major 3rd in them will clash over minor chords which contain a flat 3rd. The notes are a half step apart and are dissonant when played together. This is the most important rule for choosing which scale to use over minor chords. Here is a list of chords in the minor family and the scales that suit them.
Two ways to play each chord:
And the scales to go with them:
Here are some chords for you to use in a simple A minor blues progression.
In the progression a number is placed above each chord to indicate how many counts it is to be played.
4 4 8 8 8 4 4 8
Amin Dmin Amin Dmin Amin Emin Dmin Amin
As usual the pentatonic minor and minor blues scales are the easiest to apply. They have fewer notes all of which work great over most chords you will find in a blues progression. Not to mention that a huge part of all popular styles of guitar playing are based around these two scales. Personally I use them most of the time and occasionally add other 'in between' notes to highlight a chord change or imply more diverse melody during a lead phrase. No matter what style you play it's a good idea to know different types of scales so you can have some creative options. All of our scales will work very well over the A minor chords. Unless you plan on staying in a minor chord all the time you'll need some options for matching together chords in the progression.