B♭ blues

B♭1D♭♭3E♭4F♭♭5F5A♭♭7

Minor pentatonic with one note squeezed in between the fourth and the fifth. It is written as a flattened fifth, so the fifth letter carries both of them and the fourth keeps its own.

The same sounds spelled from the other side are A♯ blues.

on guitar on piano

Written out

Fig. 2 · Bb blues, ascending

Every accidental is written in, rather than left to a key signature, so the letters can be read one at a time.

The step pattern

B♭W+HD♭WE♭HF♭HFW+HA♭WB♭

What is true of it

B♭ blues is B♭, D♭, E♭, F♭, F and A♭, and back to B♭.

Its steps are W+H – W – H – H – W+H – W, where W is a whole step and H a half.

Across the first twelve frets of the ukulele its notes fall in 25 places, which is what makes a scale a shape rather than a list.

Chords made only of these notes

D♭major D♭mminor B♭mminor B♭dimdiminished B♭m7minor seventh B♭m7♭5half-diminished seventh

Found by testing every chord in the catalogue against these 6 sounds, not chosen.

Other scales on B♭

B♭ major pentatonicpentatonic B♭ minor pentatonicpentatonic B♭ major bluespentatonic B♭ majormajor B♭ natural minorminor B♭ harmonic minorminor

C blues C♯ blues D♭ blues D blues D♯ blues E♭ blues E blues F blues all 374