Don't try to power through this, or read it while you're in class or at work. To solidify this lesson, you will need an instrument handy. Do not take that as an empty warning... it will REALLY help.
First thing for you to do is just breathe... just chill and relax, because this is an enormously simple concept, that is only complicated because people insist on according Modes with some awesome complexity, and because they have long Greek names... it's not nearly as complicated as it sounds, PARTICULARLY when dealing with the modes of the major scale (which is, 9 times out of 10, what people are referring to).
Your next task: Memorize this confusing, odd series of figures, that you've probably never seen before... ready? Here goes:
C, D, E, F, G, A, B
It's like Seseme Street. Toddlers can do this. Those are the 7 notes of the C major scale. Now, if you use a little bit of logic, you see that you can start this scale on any one of those notes... for instance,
F, G, A, B, C, D, E or A, B, C, D, E, F, G
That means you have 7 different ways to play the same group of notes, in order. Are these 7 ways really different? No. They're the same notes. They can ALL (any of the 7 groupings of these notes) be referred to as C Ionian, A Natural Minor, E Phrygian, etc.
The naming conventions are meaningless when you're playing and making music. They're only meaningful when you're trying to categorize sound.
Here's the only tricky part. This is the part you will want to memorize, if you're concerned about knowing the mode names. Memorize these in order:
Come up with a convenient way to memorize them. I just worked on saying the names quickly, in a row, like a tongue twister. That was good enough for me.
Now, take a step back, if you know your C Major scale, you should have 7 patterns to play it from, whether they're the 3 note per string GIT type thing, or the jazz / Berklee type patterns, or even the Holdsworth 4 note per string patterns. That's something you need to memorize, beyond the modes. When you have any group of related patterns for C Major, to play across and up and down the neck, you will notice that from each of the 7 patterns, you are, of course starting on a different note. Those notes are: C, D, E, F, G, A, B just like above.
Those patterns are what most people refer to as modes. It's not technically accurate, but it serves its purpose. The inaccuracy comes from thinking that "because I'm playing the shape that I have memorized starting on A, I am playing Aeolian." The mode you're actually play, if you are playing in key with music, is dictated by the chord progression you play on. You don't need to know the chords, starting out. You just have to be in key, and you are there.
DO NOT TRY TO READ STRAIGHT THROUGH THIS MAIL WITHOUT YOUR GUITAR. Pause and play what I recommend as you go, so that you can hear what I'm talking about, otherwise you'll remain confused.
Let's take a look at how this works. What I want you to do is choose a C Major scale pattern starting on C, and play the scale across the neck (across string-wise, not fret-wise). Because you're starting on the root, and because the major scale is a very familiar sound to all westerners, you will hear the "happy" major sound. What you're going to challenge yourself to do next, is to hear the Bluesy or Jazzy Dorian sound, and the almost Egyptian Phrygian sound. There are 2 ways to facilitate this.
1). Record (on guitar or keyboard, or use the Java app at WholeNote.com) the note "C" and sustain it, for about 20 seconds. You can pick it a couple times when the note decays... technique is unimportant here, this is ear training. When you've done this, play the C Major scale over that C note.
Don't do anything technical.
Just play the notes, smoothly, and easily so that you can listen and not have to scramble to figure out what you're doing. Next, do the same thing, recording the note and STILL play the C Major scale. You'll notice that when you play the D during the course of playing the scale, it will "resolve", whereas the C won't sound as stable over the background note.
Do the same thing for E, F, G, A, and B. You should be able to hear the varying tonalities clearly during this exercise.
Since you don't necessarily want to have to record each individual note every time, another great way to hear your modes is:
2). Play each of the 7 patterns that you use to get yourself from the bottom of the neck to the top of the neck (fret-wise). For instance, if you start on the F at the 1st fret, and play the notes of C Major there (F, G, A, B, C, D, E, thus making the Lydian mode), I want you to double each F. So you would play "F, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, F) and pause on the first of each pair of F's.
Do that on every one of the scales from the C Major patterns.
Next, for instance would be G. G -> F in the notes of the C Major scale makes the G Mixolydian pattern.
In the C Major scale, that's the 7 notes, and those are the 7 mode names. What you can infer from that is "When you make a scale starting on the second note of any key of the Major Scale, the resulting scale is called a 'Dorian' scale." If the notes in the major scale you make are G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, the second note is A, so the scale would be "A Dorian."
You only have to learn your patterns on the neck once, and then you can just slide them over to the required frets to change keys. For example, if you slide all of your C Major patterns up a whole step (2 frets) you're playing D Major, or any of its modes.
A Description of Modes of the MAJOR SCALE specifically:
Ionian: Happy, major tonality. Very straight forward sounding. Is sometimes called "Major" or "Natural Major" and is sometimes referred to chordally (in the key of C Major) with C (when you see a chord called C, and it has no other markings, like "-7" or "Major6" etc, you can infer that it's C Major), C Major, CMaj, CMaj7, C(triangle... I can't draw a triangle in this interface)
Dorian: Bluesy and Jazzy. Sounds great when you mix it with the Blues scale or with pentatonics. Works over Minor chords. It's always called Dorian, when it's called anything. Don't get hung up on the names though... they mean nothing musically. Again, they have no importance to a musician who is presently PLAYING MUSIC. Only to categorize sound like "That groove that Petrucci played has an awesome Dorian sounding run there." Chordally, (in the key of C Major) referred to by D-, D Minor, Dmin, D-7, etc. It works with several other more advanced voicings as well.
Phrygian: A little bit eastern sounding. One of the popular Japanese scales can be derived from the Phrygain mode, by subtracting the 3rd and the 7th degree (in the key of C Major, the E Phrygian mode, EFGABCD, G is the 3rd, and D is the 7th. The Japanese scale I'm referring to is, therefore, EFABC.) Used over minor chords.
Lydian: The "dreamy" kind of major scale. Steve Vai and Joe Satriani base a LOT, a TON, of their music on this scale. Works with major chords, major7th chords, and major7#11 chords (and many other advanced voices... I don't need a theory nerd attack!) This is one of the more useful sounds that can come from the modes. I think I have posted a couple tunes on Guitar War that are very Lydian oriented.
Mixolydian: Jazzy sounding. This scale works well with Blues and Jazz stuff... it's the Dominant (5th degree... CDEFG, G = 5th in C Major, and the scale built from C Major, starting on G, is called Mixolydian) sounding scale because it's got the notes of a G major chord, but it has a flatted,or minor 7th degree, which makes that particular sound we refer to as dominant. Works over Dominant chords (G7, Gdom7, G13 etc).
Aeolian: The Minor scale. This is the most common scale in metal music. It's called the Natural Minor scale, by some. It's referred to as the relative minor of the scale it's derived from. For instance, CDEFGAB, A Minor is the Relative Minor of C Major. It basically just means that A Minor (Aeolian) is a minor scale that has the same notes as the major scale, C Major (Ionian). Works over Minor chords, minor7th chords, etc. Dark sounding scale, very useful.
Locrian: The weirdest sounding, and least common of the major scale modes. This is where the (half) diminished scale/arpeggio comes from. If you've been on the site long enough to hear Ribbit and/or Mozart Enjoys a Donut, I used the diminished arpeggio on both of these tunes. Very dark and evil sounding, but not as common to dwell on as some other scales, because the 7th degree of the major scale has a tendency to want to resolve back up to the 1st degree (when you play B in the C Major scale, it feels like it wants to go to the next C). Useful with Diminished chords and half diminished 7th chords.
Now, don't bog yourself down with this stuff. Just learn it so that you understand it, and move along.
This was posted originally for Guitar War School. Suffered some "modifications under the consentiment of the author" (MUCA!!!...... hehe =) )
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