There are different types of blues scales that can be used for lead guitar playing. You can also use them to make some blues backing tracks so that you can play along with the tracks and learn faster. Blues backing tracks can help you to play solo or lead even when there is no second guitarist present and the best thing is that you can even purchase some of the best blues backing tracks from the Internet from companies such as 50Blues. Let's take a look at some of the most common blues scales used for lead guitar playing and for creating blues backing tracks.

You can start with a natural A-minor scale also known as the A minor scale. Here's how it looks:

ABCDEFGA w w w w w

You can start practicing the natural A-minor scale till the time you are extremely comfortable using it. You can use all the notes that are there in this blues scale for playing the lead guitar with a blues backing track. There are many blues players who use the A-minor pentatonic or the Am pentatonic scale in a mix with the natural A-minor scale.

From time to time you should try and mix two scales together to bring out a varied blues sound. To play the natural A-minor scale, you can tune it to play the Dm7 chord. The Dm7 comprises of D-F-A-C notes. The only chord that is not in the A-minor pentatonic scale is F because A-minor pentatonic comprises of A-C-D-E-G notes.

On the other hand, the natural A-minor scale comprises of A-B-C-D-E-F-G notes. So what you should ideally do is emphasize on the F taken from natural A- minor scale while playing the Dm7 chord. This will bring out a definitive blues scale and sound that can be played as lead with blues backing track.

Some of the best blues scales are just minor pentatonic scales with some added notes. This added note is commonly referred to as the blues note and helps in bringing out the specific blues sound. You can play a basic minor pentatonic scale or the basic blues scale, which will consist of 6 different notes.

When you are playing the lead or creating a blues backing track for a solo then you will need to play all the points for all the 6 notes that are within one position. For example: If you use a C blues scale then you will find that it consists of C E F G G and B notes. Here are the notes that are found in the basic C blues scale:

|--C--|-----|-----|-E--| -1st string |--G--|-----|-----|-B--| |--E-|-----|--F--|-G--| |--B-|-----|--C--|-----| |--F--|-G--|--G--|-----| |--C--|-----|-----|-E--| -6th string | 8th fret

The idea is that there are 6 different notes mentioned above and once you have reached your 6th note, you will need to start back from the C note and go over the process again and again to master the lead.