C Blues Scale on Guitar
Diagram, notes, and audio for the C Blues scale on guitar. Free in your browser.
About C Blues on guitar
When players ask which scale to learn first on guitar, the C Blues is almost always on the short list. It is gritty, expressive, and unmistakably American, and you can hear that mood in every phrase you build from it. Run through C, D#, F, F#, G, A# once aloud — that is the full set, and every other note is outside the scale.
On guitar the blues scale is the language of the bend — that flat-five is almost always approached from below by bending up. From a music-theory angle the scale's interval pattern matters more than the note names — start on a different root and you still hear the same flavour. Save this page and come back to it whenever you need a reference for C in this scale type.
Frequently asked questions
- What notes are in the C Blues scale?
- The C Blues scale contains the notes C, D#, F, F#, G, A#. That is 6 pitch classes, played in that order from the root upward.
- What does Blues mean in music theory?
- Blues is a six-note scale that adds a chromatic "blue note" to the minor pentatonic. The interval pattern is the same in every key — choosing C as the root just shifts every pitch up or down without changing the scale's character.
- How do I practise C Blues on guitar?
- Start with the diagram on this page, play the notes slowly ascending and descending, then add a metronome at a comfortable tempo. Once the fingering is automatic, try improvising short phrases that always land back on C.
Switch instruments
See C Blues on a different instrument — same notes, new diagram.