The Mixolydian Scale on Guitar

Mixolydian is the major scale with one note changed: the 7th drops a half step. In A, that means G instead of G#. That one note is the sound of A7, of the rock cadence and of most blues. Knowing where it fits, and where it clashes, is most of what you need to use it well.

Most lessons tell you A Mixolydian is the D major scale starting on A. That’s true, and it’s no use with a guitar in your hands. It tells you the notes. It doesn’t tell you what Mixolydian sounds like, when it fits, or why the same phrase works over one chord in a blues and sounds wrong over the next. This page does.

Hear it first

Let the open A string ring. Play this up the G string slowly and let each note hang over it.

One fret is the only difference. The G# at the 13th fret leans hard into the A above it, and that pull is what makes the major scale sound finished and a bit polite. The G at the 12th sits a whole step below the A and doesn’t lean on it. The major sound gets looser and rougher. That’s Mixolydian.

Four patterns, root to root

You’ll find plenty of five-box Mixolydian charts elsewhere. I don’t use them. A six-string box hides the root somewhere in the middle of a grid of dots. A one-octave pattern that runs from A to A keeps home at the bottom and the top, so you always know which note you’re on.

It also makes the G easy to find. In every pattern below, it’s the note right below the top A.

That’s all the fingering you need to start using Mixolydian. Find any A, play the pattern that starts there, and know where the G is.

Mixolydian in every key

The Mixolydian note is always the 7th, a whole step below the root, and the home chord is the dominant 7th on the root. The patterns above move to any key: put the root on the key note.

When to use Mixolydian, and when not to

You don’t need theory to know when Mixolydian fits. You need one note and a look at the chords. In A, the note is G for Mixolydian and G# for the major scale. In another key, check the table above for that key’s Mixolydian note.

• If any chord has a G in it, Mixolydian is your major scale.
• If any chord has a G# in it, Mixolydian clashes. Use the major scale over that chord.
• If none of the chords has either, it’s your choice.

In A, the chords that bring the G are A7, G and Em. The ones that rule Mixolydian out are E, E7 and C#m. These are the progressions where you’ll hear Mixolydian most:

It doesn’t have to be one or the other for a whole song. A, G, A, E is Mixolydian for three bars and major for the last, because E has a G# in it. You change one note when the chord changes.

The chord it lives on

Hold the 5th fret on the low E string and the 6th fret on the D and G strings. That’s a stripped-down Amaj7. Now drop the D string note one fret.

The first sounds like a ballad. The second sounds like the blues. The G is the 7th of A7, which is why Mixolydian is the scale that fits a dominant chord. In blues and rock, A7 isn’t a chord on its way somewhere else. It’s home, and Mixolydian is the scale that treats it that way.

The rock cadence

A, G, D, A is the most Mixolydian progression there is. In a major key, songs usually get home through the V chord, and its G# pulls up into the A. The rock cadence gets home through G instead, a whole step below. No G#, so no pull. It sounds looser and a bit defiant, which is why rock adopted it.

Look at the top note of the G chord: it’s G, the Mixolydian note, sitting where everyone can hear it.

The 3rd mix

Over A7, you’ve probably slid from C to C#. That’s the minor 3rd moving to the major 3rd, the sound of the blues and of half of rock and roll. The C isn’t in A Mixolydian, but most good players use both. The question is when the C works.

Over A7, the C has to go somewhere: slide it up, bend it up, or pass through it. Hold it and it fights the C# in the chord. Over D7, the C is home, because it’s in the chord, and now it’s the C# that clashes. The note you kept moving over A7 is the note you land on when the chord changes.

Common questions