12 Hole Ocarina Tabs

About

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

12 Hole Ocarina Tabs has put free tablature for the 12-hole ocarina online since 2012. There are 63 songs, lessons and scales here, each laid out note by note with the finger chart drawn under it. Hover over a note, or tap it on a phone, and it plays, so you can hear a tune before your fingers have it.

New Ocarina Tabs by Email

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Leave your email and I will send you a short note whenever new 12-hole ocarina tabs go up, so you are not left checking back to see what is new.

Privacy Policy

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Short version: I run a small ocarina-tab site, not an ad-tech operation. However, I AM a Sr Security Engineer with almost 30 years of experience and therefore I know a little bit about tech that most website owners gloss over. I’ll try to explain what and why without getting into the weeds too deep.

Accessibility

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I want this site to be usable by everyone, including people who use a screen reader, navigate by keyboard only, or need low-vision support. My target is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA.

Create Ocarina Tabs in the Editor

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Build 12-hole ocarina tablature right in your browser. Click a note on the staff to add it, use the sharp and flat toggle for accidentals, and hear each note as you place it. Add rests and line breaks, type a syllable of lyrics under any note, then preview the finished tab exactly as it appears on a song page. The editor never uploads anything: the whole piece lives in your browser and in the share link you choose to copy.

Contact

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Have a question or a song request? Send it below and I will reply when I can. Requests can take a while, so please do not be offended if I am slow; I answer when time allows.

Cookie Policy

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

12 Hole Ocarina Tabs does not use tracking or advertising cookies.

The only thing stored on your device is an optional light/dark appearance preference, kept in your browser’s local storage so the site remembers your choice. It contains no personal information and is never sent to a server. Clearing your browser storage removes it.

Links

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ll comment on these when I get a chance, for now they are just links used for making ocarina songs.

Requests

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

New Tablature Schedule
#

This site is about Ocarinas. I am posting new melodies in sheet music and tablature form every day. (Well, not every day. I currently have about 100 tabs I’ve created but haven’t had time to add them, formally).

Terms of Service

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

By using 12 Hole Ocarina Tabs you agree to these terms.

The tablature and tools are provided free, “as is,” with no warranty of accuracy or fitness for any purpose.
Content is for personal, non-commercial use. Song titles and lyrics remain the property of their respective owners.
We may update or remove content at any time.

For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

About For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow
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The tune behind For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow is French. It is the old melody of Malbrough s’en va-t-en guerre, a song about a soldier gone to war, and English speakers took it over for the toast sung at birthdays, retirements and send-offs. The same tune also carries The Bear Went Over the Mountain.

O Come O Come Emmanuel

Wed, 25 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Where O Come O Come Emmanuel comes from
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This hymn began in Latin as Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, built on the old O Antiphons sung in the last days before Christmas. John Mason Neale translated it into English in the 1850s, and Thomas Helmore set it to the melody most people know, which came from a fifteenth-century French source. Strictly speaking it is an Advent hymn, a song of waiting, though it is sung all through the season. I posted this tab on Christmas Day 2013.

Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

About Yo Ho, A Pirate’s Life For Me
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Yo Ho is the song the pirates sing on Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride, a rowdy, cheerful number that practically begs a crowd to shout along on the refrain. It is a fun one to bring out when people want something they recognize.

Saria's Song Lost Woods

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

About Saria’s Song Lost Woods
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Saria’s Song is the tune Link learns from his friend Saria in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and it is also the music that plays in the Lost Woods. Koji Kondo composed it, and its bouncy, looping melody is easy to recognize from the first bar. Thanks go to tessfallout, who tabbed this version for the 12-hole ocarina.

Lugia's Song

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

About Lugia’s Song
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Lugia’s Song comes from Pokemon: The Movie 2000, where it is the melody tied to the legendary Pokemon Lugia. It is a gentle, wistful tune, and it suits the ocarina’s soft voice. This tab was transcribed and sent in by tessfallout, and I am grateful for it.

Do As I'm Doing

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Do As I’m Doing
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Do As I’m Doing is a follow-the-leader song, made for a room full of kids with their eyes on one person up front. It is traditional, and it lives in classrooms and at camps far more than in songbooks.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
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This is a traditional English carol, old enough that its author is unknown, and the title is often misread. “Rest” here means keep, so the line wishes the gentlemen to stay merry, and the comma belongs after “merry.” Charles Dickens has Scrooge chase off a boy singing it in A Christmas Carol.

99 Bottles of Beer

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About 99 Bottles of Beer
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Ninety-nine verses is a long time to play anything, but this song was never about the melody. It belongs to the bus and the campfire, nobody owns it, and the same short tune carries every verse, so once you know it you know the whole thing.

This Little Light of Mine

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About This Little Light of Mine
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This Little Light of Mine runs on repetition. One short line comes back again and again, with only a few words changing, so by the second time through most people are already singing it without the page. That is a gift to anyone learning it on an instrument too.

Tom Dooley

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Tom Dooley
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Behind the easy, swinging chorus of Tom Dooley sits a true crime from Reconstruction-era North Carolina. The name in the song is a mountain pronunciation of Dula, the real man at the center of the case, and the ballad carried his story in oral tradition long before records did.

For thy Bounteous Blessings

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About For thy Bounteous Blessings
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For thy Bounteous Blessings was made to be sung as a round. That design keeps the melody short and plain, because each voice has to fit against the others when they come in, and the result is a catchy little tune you can memorize after a couple of passes.

Military Taps

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Military Taps
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Taps is the bugle call heard at the end of the day and at military funerals, arranged during the American Civil War in 1862 by Union General Daniel Butterfield with his bugler, Oliver Norton. I tabbed it when the scouts needed it for their ocarinas while practicing a flag ceremony, where it is played as the flag comes down.

Camptown Races

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Camptown Races
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Doo dah, doo dah. What does it mean? Nothing much, as far as anyone can tell. It is a nonsense refrain that Stephen Foster built into Camptown Races, published in 1850, a song about a long day of horse racing and a bet on a bobtail nag. The refrain stuck, and the tune has been a children’s favorite ever since.

Frere Jacques

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Frere Jacques
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Most children will recognize this one, in French or as Brother John. It is a traditional French nursery song and a round, so a second player can start the melody a phrase behind the first and the two lines fit together. Gustav Mahler borrowed it, slowed down into a minor key, for a funeral march in his First Symphony.

The Good the Bad the Ugly

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About The Good the Bad the Ugly
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Ennio Morricone wrote this theme for Sergio Leone’s 1966 western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and its howling opening call is instantly familiar even to people who have never seen the film. To me it means tombstones and tumbleweeds, the music that plays when two cowboys face off with six shooters. You get the idea.

Brahms Lullaby

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Brahms Lullaby
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Johannes Brahms wrote this lullaby in 1868 for his friend Bertha Faber, to mark the birth of her son. Its German title is Wiegenlied, it was published as his Opus 49, No. 4, and it has been sung over cradles ever since. Plenty of people know the tune without knowing it is by Brahms at all.

Silent Night

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Silent Night
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Silent Night was first sung on Christmas Eve in 1818, in the small church of St. Nicholas at Oberndorf, Austria. Joseph Mohr wrote the words and Franz Xaver Gruber set them to music. My wife asked me to tab this one, and it sounds beautiful on the 12-hole ocarina.

We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet
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We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet is a hymn from the hymnbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sung there as thanks for a living prophet. I am not a member of that church myself. The song came to me as a recommendation, and I tabbed it out so it would be here for anyone who wants it.

I Stand All Amazed

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About I Stand All Amazed
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My wife requested this church song, and I like it too. The hymn comes from Charles H. Gabriel, an American gospel writer who supplied both the text and the music. It is a quiet, wondering hymn, and it asks for a steady hand.

On Top of Ol Smokey

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About On Top of Ol Smokey
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How many funny versions of this song do you know? Kids seem to collect them, and the joke ones often get sung more than the real words. The original is an American mountain folk song, a sad little warning about a false-hearted lover, and nobody knows who first made it up.

Roadkill Stew

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Roadkill Stew
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Scouts sometimes sing funny songs, and Roadkill Stew is one of the more gruesome ones. It is still funny. The tune is the same as Three Blind Mice, but the words are different, and the new words are the whole joke.

Three Blind Mice

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Three Blind Mice
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It is one of the more violent nursery rhymes I know of. Three Blind Mice is also one of the oldest: a version was printed by Thomas Ravenscroft in 1609, in a book called Deuteromelia. It began as a round, and it still works as one, so two or three players can start a phrase apart and the parts fit together.

Molly Malone

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Molly Malone
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A friend taught me this Irish folk song at a scout campout, and I still get a kick out of it every time I sing it. Molly is a Dublin fishmonger pushing her barrow and calling out her wares, and the city has taken her to heart: a bronze statue of her stands in the center of town.

Bingo

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Bingo
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Bingo is the song where a farmer’s dog gets his name spelled out, and each time through, one more letter drops away and a clap takes its place. It is simple, fun and cheery, and it is a traditional children’s song with no known author.

Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King
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Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King is a hymn with a sad, somber feel. It moves slowly, and that unhurried pace is a big part of why it is easy to play: there is time to set each finger before the next note arrives.

Nearer, My God, to Thee

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Nearer, My God, to Thee
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Sarah Flower Adams, an English poet, wrote the words in 1841, taking her theme from Jacob’s dream of a ladder reaching to heaven. In the United States the hymn is usually sung to Bethany, a tune Lowell Mason wrote for it. It is also the hymn survivors of the Titanic remembered the band playing as the ship sank.

Alouette

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Alouette
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Parlez-vous francais? I don’t, but your kids won’t care when you play this on the 12-hole ocarina. Alouette is a French-Canadian children’s song about a lark, with each verse naming another part of the bird, and it is widely thought to come from the fur-trade days, when a steady song could keep a canoe crew paddling in time. The French colonists ate horned larks as game birds, and the lark was the bird that woke everyone too early.

A Tisket a Tasket

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About A Tisket a Tasket
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I always want to sing “a tisket a tasket, I think I blew a gasket,” but that is not how it goes. The real rhyme is an old, anonymous children’s verse about a basket and a letter that gets lost along the way, and its bouncing, sing-song nonsense is what keeps it in people’s heads.

The ABC Song

Sat, 11 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About The ABC Song
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I think every nursery-age kid knows this one, and my daughter likes to sing along whenever it comes out. The ABC Song borrows its melody from Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, which comes in turn from the old French tune “Ah! vous dirai-je, maman,” so learning it hands you Twinkle as well.

Amazing Grace

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Amazing Grace
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John Newton, an English clergyman who had once worked in the Atlantic slave trade, wrote these words, and they appeared in the Olney Hymns collection. Most American congregations now sing them to the tune known as New Britain, though Amazing Grace has a few versions, and you will hear the melody bent and ornamented differently from one church to the next.

Kumbayah

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Kumbayah
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I used to make fun of this song when I was growing up, and I still do, even though I think the Boy Scouts of America are cool. It is an African American spiritual, and it has spent a long time as a campfire song, which is where most of us learned it and started teasing it.

Pirates of the Caribbean - Davy Jones

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean
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There are several cool songs in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, and this is the theme for Davy Jones, the captain of the Flying Dutchman. Hans Zimmer wrote it for Dead Man’s Chest, and in the film Jones plays it himself on a huge pipe organ aboard his ship. It is a slow, brooding waltz with a lot of longing in it.

We Three Kings of Orient

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About We Three Kings of Orient
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John Henry Hopkins Jr. wrote both words and music around 1857 for a Christmas pageant in New York City, and it became one of the first widely sung American carols. The verses follow the gifts the three travelers bring, and the minor-key opening gives way to a bright, swinging refrain.

You Are My Sunshine

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About You Are My Sunshine
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This one went up by special request. The song was first recorded in 1939 and is credited to Jimmie Davis and Charles Mitchell. Most people only know the cheerful chorus, but the verses are sung by someone whose sweetheart has left, and they are a good deal sadder.

Choose the Right

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Choose the Right
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Choose the Right is one of the first Primary songs children learn at church, and its whole message fits inside those three words. I tabbed it so the music could be played on the 12-hole ocarina as well as sung.

I am a Child of God

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About I am a Child of God
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I am a Child of God began as a Primary song for children, and the church’s 1985 hymnbook includes it as well, so whole congregations sing it, not only the children. If you want to hear the melody before you play it, the church’s own music player has it too.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Itsy Bitsy Spider
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Nothing is more enjoyable than singing songs with your 4 year old. Well, a few things are, but playing Itsy Bitsy Spider on the ocarina while your children sing along is pretty fun. Little ones tend to want it again the moment it ends, which is a fine excuse to practice.

Little Drummer Boy

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Little Drummer Boy
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The Little Drummer Boy started out as “Carol of the Drum,” written by the American composer Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. Later recordings gave it the title most people know today. It is one of my favorite Christmas melodies, and it sounds great on a 12-hole ocarina.

Nephi's Courage

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Nephi’s Courage
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Nephi’s Courage is a Book of Mormon Primary song built on one steady idea, that the Lord always provides a way. It is a simple, catchy tune with a great message, and the tab includes the chorus along with the verses.

A Child's Prayer

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About A Child’s Prayer
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A Child’s Prayer is a Primary song, written for children by Janice Kapp Perry. It asks whether Heavenly Father really hears a child’s prayers, then answers with a gentle reassurance, and it carries a good message about prayer that suits young singers and grown-ups alike.

Ghost Chickens in the Sky

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Ghost Chickens in the Sky
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Ghost Chickens in the Sky is a Boy Scout campfire parody of Ghost Riders in the Sky, the cowboy song Stan Jones wrote in 1948 and Johnny Cash later recorded. The scouts keep the haunting western melody and put chickens in the sky instead, which is exactly as silly as it sounds around a fire.

Elder Scrolls Morrowind

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Elder Scrolls Morrowind
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Morrowind, the 2002 entry in Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls series, is a huge computer role-playing world, and Jeremy Soule’s score gives it an eerie, wide-open mood. Its soundtrack is not really an ocarina soundtrack, but it comes close enough in spirit. This is the main theme, Nerevar Rising, and it sounds great on the 12-hole ocarina.

Hedwig's Theme

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Hedwig’s Theme
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John Williams wrote Hedwig’s Theme for the first Harry Potter film in 2001, and its twinkling opening on the celesta became the sound of the whole series. It sounds fantastic on a 12-hole ocarina, and it is one of the cooler melodies you can play that is still fairly easy.

Majora's Mask – Song of Healing

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About the Song of Healing
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The Zelda series has several melodies written for the ocarina, and this is one of the best loved. In Majora’s Mask, the Happy Mask Salesman teaches Link the Song of Healing, and playing it soothes troubled spirits and leaves their memories behind in a mask. It is a slow, gentle tune that sounds sad and kind at once.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
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My daughter loves to sing along when I play this one. It works well for that because the words sit right under the notes in the tab, so whoever is singing and whoever is playing can stay together line by line.

Zelda's Lullaby

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Zelda’s Lullaby
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The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time made the ocarina famous with game players, and Zelda’s Lullaby is one of the songs heard in it. It is a simple melody to play, only two lines and sixteen notes in this tab.

Follow the Prophet

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Follow the Prophet
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Follow the Prophet is a Primary song from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and its verses each take up a prophet from the Old Testament. It was one of the first church songs I learned. It has a catchy tune, and I think it sounds great on the 12-hole ocarina.

Scarborough Fair

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About Scarborough Fair
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This is one of my favorite ren fair, medieval-sounding songs on the 12-hole ocarina, and it may be the song that got me to like the instrument in the first place. The tone is lively, but the melody underneath is sad, and the ocarina’s soft voice brings out both at once.

I am Trying to Be Like Jesus

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

About I Am Trying to Be Like Jesus
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This is the song I learned to tab on. Working out I Am Trying to Be Like Jesus note by note, with the music player on lds.org for reference, taught me the method I went on to use for most of the other tabs on this site. It is also simply a good song to have running through my head. Janice Kapp Perry wrote it, and it is sung in Primary.

Blues Scales