How to Play Melodies on Jazz Saxophone

Playing melodies on the jazz saxophone sets you apart as a saxophone player. More than just a section in an orchestra, jazz saxophone melodies make the saxophone a solo instrument with a unique and familiar sound. Whether in jazz or blues, saxophone melody improvisation is what listeners like to hear.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Build on the scales you already know for jazz improvisation. This is a great way to start out since you're using scales and progressions you're already familiar with.

2. Use the scales to construct unique, interesting and melodic solos on your saxophone. The temptation is to run up and down on scales you already know and never deviate from the obvious. But the good soloist uses these as building blocks to create their own original sound.

3. Identify and stay away from what are universally considered wrong notes in jazz improvisation. Musicians may differ in their opinion of what is a wrong note. Some wrong notes are a 4th over any major chord, a major 3rd on a minor chord, a root note sustained over a major 7th and a major 7th on a minor 7th.

4. Practice the different scale styles and begin to add improvisation to them. Scale styles like bebop, pentatonic or whole tone can be easily converted into jazz improvisation.

5. Learn to listen and transcribe other saxophone solos. This is the best way to begin to hear melodies and how they are formed in their root scales.

Tips & Warnings

• Learning to play melodies and improvisations with the jazz saxophone is a fairly advanced technique for saxophone. Master the basics before moving into complex improvisations.