7 Modes For 7 Days
I was very fortunate to learn the modes of the major scale early on in my guitar training, and without really wanting to. At the time I was just looking for some decent online lessons to take a break from the tried technique of using physical books.
But the lessons I found had in them a very easy to grasp way to explain how to play these exotic sounds. In less than 2 months I had cemented this knowledge in my head for good.
In the many years after that I've been surprised to find out how many guitar players struggle with this subject. Even advanced players with impeccable technique can have a hard time understanding how to play modes.
--> Guitar Scale Modes Explained
I was very fortunate to learn the modes of the major scale early on in my guitar training, and without really wanting to. At the time I was just looking for some decent online lessons to take a break from the tried technique of using physical books.
But the lessons I found had in them a very easy to grasp way to explain how to play these exotic sounds. In less than 2 months I had cemented this knowledge in my head for good.
In the many years after that I've been surprised to find out how many guitar players struggle with this subject. Even advanced players with impeccable technique can have a hard time understanding how to play modes.
--> Guitar Scale Modes Explained
Wikipedia defines musical modes as: 'a classification system of musical tonalities'. Try to get used to the notion that the word mode means that, a classification system, not a musical scale.
From this perspective all musical scales are modes, they are 'a way of arranging' a particular group of notes. What give modes, and all scales for that matter, their characteristic sound is the tonality implied by their roots.
The 7 names used for the modes major scale is just a way to ‘classify’ them by tonality.
--> 3 Areas Of Struggle With Modes
--Major Key Harmony. Even though all scales have modes, what most of us play are the modes of the major scale.
--Tonal Center. If given a group of chords, to be able to tell in which chord the progression falls on.
--Major Scale vs Modes. Knowing why the B Phrygian mode has the same notes as D Mixolydian.
--> The Major Scale As A Formula
We all western musicians have 12 musical notes at our disposal:
C - C# - D - D# - E - F -F# - G - G# - A - A# - B
This is called The Chromatic Scale.
No matter what scale you might be playing there's an overwhelming chance that the notes will be among these 12!
The distance between any 2 notes in this scale is called a -->Semitone.
The distance from a note to the one after next is called a -->Whole tone.
The major scale is a formula of arranging 7 notes in ascending order among our 12 choices, it is as simple as elementary math. Pick any note, follow the formula and you'll end up with the 7 notes in the major key of the first note.
The major scale formula is:
1st or Root - Whole tone - Whole tone - Semitone - Whole tone - Whole tone - Whole tone - Semitone
Let's pick a note, C for the sake of simplicity.
C (whole) D (whole) E (semi) F (whole) G (whole) A (whole) B (semi) C
C - D - E - F - G - A - B
See, it's no coincidence!
--> The Ionian Mode
Here it’s a good place to point out that the notes of the major scale arranged from its root represent what is known as the first of the 7 modes, the Ionian.
This is to say that playing any melody or chord progression based on the root of a major scale, like C - C - F - G for example, which based on the root of the C major scale, is the equivalent of saying that your playing in C Ionian.
--> Learn to Build the Chords of the Major Scale
Even though there might be some theoretical background behind some of the most popular chord progressions, for me coming up with interesting chord progressions on the guitar is more of an art form.
Nonetheless I think it helps to have a basic understanding of the theory behind chords and how they can be formed from the major scale. This way you can better see what chords fit any given chord progression.
--> The Major & Minor Chord Formulas (1-3-5 | 1-3b-5)
Any given major chord can be formed by choosing the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of the major scale in the key of the chord you're looking for.
If we want to know the notes of the C major chord, all we have to do is check the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of the C major scale:
-->C - E - G
The minor chord can be explained by making the 3rd note flat. This means that the notes of the C minor chord for example are:
-->C - Eb - G
--> Harmonizing the Major Scale
As you can see from the major and minor chord formulas, these chords are formed by stacking thirds from the major scale.
By doing this to every note in the major scale you should get these triads:
--> C - E - G
--> D - F - A
--> E - G - B
--> F - A - C
--> G - B - D
--> A - C - E
--> B - D - F
--> How do you know what chords are these?
For this the best technique is to compare the notes of each triad to the major scale starting in the note of its root. In the case of C - E - G we already know this is a C major chord
With D - F - A we should compare these notes to the major scale starting in the note of the root, so let's build a major scale from our 12 choices (the chromatic scale) starting in D:
D - D# - E - F - F# - G - G# - A - A# - B - C - C#
-->D - E - F# - G - A - B - C#
If we compare the notes D - F - A to this scale we notice that we have the 1st, the 3rd degree flat and the 5th, if you remember this is the formula of the minor chord, what we have here is a D minor chord.
If you do the same for all 7 notes you can find that the major scale can be played with this succession of chords:
_Maj - _Min - _Min - _Maj - _Maj - _Min - _Dim