I find that I’m struggling with ‘key signature’ in Boogie Woogie. My classical training has trained my brain to ‘see’ the key I’m in when I’m playing. If you ask me to play in the key of ‘D’ I can easily see F# and C# and what the scale/chords/arpeggios look like on the keyboard. When I think of blues scales I draw a blank. I can play them and I’m working on practicing the ‘three finger’ scale in all the keys. But, often I have to meticulously think ‘Ok, if the blues scale in ‘A’ is 1 ½ step, 1 step, 1 step, …then if I apply that to ‘B’ 1 ½ step is… . Painful. And then you throw in the flat fifth and then there’s other ‘grace’ notes that get mixed in there and it seems to be full of accidentals and AHHH!!

I could think Intervals: 1, b3, 4, 5, b7 OR Semi-notes: 3 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 OR Formula: Whole and a half, Whole, Whole, Whole and a half, Whole

Sure it’s a Pentatonic scale but a classical ‘long hair’ rarely used it. I can try to think of it as a major scale without the 4th and 7th notes but… . Even writing about this is a headache. I expect I’m just heading for a paradigm shift of some sort but I don’t know how to get there.

I know…I’m making no sense and there’s probably going to be a ‘DAH’ moment rather than a paradigm shift coming up.

Is there a way to get my brain to think and see pentatonic/blues ‘key’? Is there a practice regime or good blues scale book that helps with the visual input or…???

Thanks for lending an ear/eye and probably some fingers.