Major and Minor at Once

Here is something that should not work. The blues plays a minor pentatonic scale over dominant chords that contain a major third. In the key of G, the scale offers B flat while the G7 chord underneath insists on B natural. Those two notes are a half step apart and by every rule of harmony they should clash.

They do clash. That friction is the sound of the blues, and pretending it is not there is what makes a solo sound polite.

The advanced move is not to pick a side. It is to use both, deliberately, and usually in that order: play the flat third and then move it up a half step to the major third. Slide it, bend it, or hammer it — but let the listener hear the note travel from sour to sweet.

Combine the two pentatonics and you get the major blues scale: the root, second, flat third, major third, fifth and sixth. Both thirds, side by side, exactly as the music wants.

G Major Blues

G major blues. The flat third and the major third are both there, one fret apart — that pair is the whole sound.

Flat third to major third, over G7

Slide the third fret up to the fourth on the G string. Play it slowly enough that both notes register as separate events.

e
B
G
D
A
E

--------------3---|
----------3-------|
--3/--4-----------|
------------------|
------------------|
------------------|

This track is a dominant blues in G and its changes lean on G7 and C7, so the clash is available in every bar.

Play a chorus using only minor pentatonic, then a chorus using only major pentatonic. They sound like different genres — the first gritty, the second almost country.

Then play a third chorus moving between them, and make the move audible. The players people describe as having feel are usually just doing this on purpose.

A dominant blues in G. Minor chorus, major chorus, then blend them.