How to play the blues on the saxophone

The saxophone is a versatile instrument that can play a variety of musical genres, but it shines in the blues. This article covers everything you need to know to master the blues.

Key points

• The blues consist of 12 bars of dominant chords
• Chord tones and the mixolydian scale is used to improvise over the blues
• When playing with other musicians make sure to transpose!

Structure of the blues

Each music that is in the blues is composed of 12 measures (or bars) of Dominant chords.

Let's take the blues in C for example:

The structure is the following:

C7	C7	C7	C7
F7	F7	C7	C7
G7	F7	C7	G7

and follows the blues chord progression:

I7	I7	I7	I7
IV7	IV7	I7	I7
V7	IV7	I7	V7

These "7" chords are called dominant chords and are crucial to master the blues.

Dominant chords

The chords used in the blues are called dominant chords. To create a dominant chord, start with a major chord and lower the 7th tone by a half step:

3 Steps	Example: C7	Example: G7
1. Take the major scale	C D E F G A B	G A B C D E F#
2. Build the major chord by taking the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th "notes"	C    E    G    B	G    B    D    F♯
3. Lower the 7th by a half-step	C    E    G    B♭	G    B    E    F

As a rule of thumb, if the chord's seventh note has a ♯ remove it, otherwise add a ♭.

Improvising over the blues

To learn to improvise over the blues, follow these three steps

1. Play the root of the chords
2. Play arpeggios over the chords
3. Play the mixolydian scale over the chords

1. Playing the root notes

Start by playing the root of each chord to memorize the chord changes.

Start at a slow tempo and gradually increase the speed.

2. Playing the root notes

Next, play the chord tones up and down, also called arpeggios.

Once you've got the hang of it, try changing the notes durations and order to create more melodic patterns.

You can find all the mixolydian scales, blues chords and patterns in the PDF below.

3. Playing the mixolydian

Only using chord tones to improvise sounds good, but it is very limiting. To extend you range, try using the mixolydian scale.

To form a Mixolydian scale, you take a major scale and lower the seventh note by a half step. For example, to create a G mixolydian scale, you would start with the C major scale:

and lower the seventh note by a half step (B → B♭ )

Similarly, the F major scale:

becomes the F mixolydian scale (E → E♭`):

And the G major scale:

becomes the G mixolydian scale (F♯ → F):

Practice each scale on its own, then practice switching between them... and you're good to go!

Happy playing!