Blues Scales for Saxophone.
We saw here how a jazz sound is created by note clashes and resolving into correct notes, and the same is true with the Blues Scale.
The G Blues scale
The blues scale has the same clashes of notes, creating the characteristic sound of the blues. The above example is in G, based on the notes in the G7 chord. As you can see by the arrows, there are notes that clash, and notes that do not, but the overall sound is pleasing as we go up the scale.
Using it in your improvisation
Once confident with a selection of basic blues licks, I give my students the blues scale to make up their own phrases in a similar fashion. Here is a blues phrase and see how it has been developed using the rhythm but the notes have changed.