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Rock / Blues Scales & Modes for Guitar:
Modes - an introduction
This article © 2011
A quick word before we start about two ways you can help yourself to become a better guitarist:
- Use guitar software - such as this one (go for the free trial download)
- Take guitar lessons - this guy's good (it's a 'learn guitar online' package)
Modes are essentially sequences of notes derived from a scale which can be used when playing guitar solos, when playing a riff, or when composing a piece of music. Every scale has a family of modes associated with it. Modes can add an interesting flavour to your guitar solos, and also to your compositional ideas as a guitarist. Being aware of modes and knowing how to use them can add greater fluency to your guitar playing.
Like scales, modes are simply patterns of notes. The reason they are thought of as 'modes' rather than 'scales' is because the modes of any one family are all derived from the same scale. If that explanation of modes is not clear to you, hopefully if you read through the following, the subject of modes will become clearer.
We'll use C major for our example as there are no sharps or flats, so it's a simpler place to begin when explaining modes.
The scale of C major consists of the following notes: C D E F G A B C
The distance in pitch between any two notes is called an interval.
The major scale always has the following pattern of intervals between the root note and each other note of the scale: major 2nd - major 3rd - perfect 4th - perfect 5th - major 6th - major 7th - octave. It is this fixed pattern of intervals that defines a scale as being a major scale, in any key.
This means that if you play the notes shown above from the scale of C major:
the interval between C and D is a major 2nd
the interval between C and E is a major 3rd
the interval between C and F is a perfect 4th
the interval between C and G is a perfect 5th
the interval between C and A is a major 6th
the interval between C and B is a major 7th
the interval between C and C is an octave
When a piece of music is in the key of C major, that means it has the tonality of being in that key. The note C sounds like the root note.
However, it is possible to take any one of the other notes from the scale of C major, and regard that note as the root note. Instead of the tonality being C major, with C being the root note, any of the other notes can be thought of and used as a root note, and the notes from the scale of C major can then be played over that new root note.
For example, if you were to play only the notes from the C major scale, but play them with, say, D as the root note, then you would be playing a mode of the C major scale, and, specifically, the mode called Dorian mode. Dorian mode is based on the second note of the major scale.
You can hear what D Dorian mode sounds like by playing the notes of C major, but beginning and ending on the note D, instead of C, as shown below:
The notes which you are playing from the above example will sound like they are in a minor key, not a major key. But the important point to understand is that you are not playing a scale of D minor. You are playing D Dorian mode. All of the notes are still from within the scale of C major. The difference is that you are using the D note as the root note, instead of C.
The notes of D Dorian mode are exactly the same as the notes of the scale of C major: C D E F G A B C. We have not gone outside of the scale of C major at all.
But with D as the root note, the intervals will all be different, because we are now measuring the intervals between the new root note of D, and every other note of the mode:
the interval between D and E is a major 2nd
the interval between D and F is a minor 3rd
the interval between D and G is a perfect 4th
the interval between D and A is a perfect 5th
the interval between D and B is a major 6th
the interval between D and C is a minor 7th
the interval between D and D is an octave
This sequence of intervals is what defines Dorian mode.
If you know the natural minor scale, then you will recognise that the intervals of D Dorian mode are almost identical to D natural minor, but with one exception: the 6th is a major 6th. In the natural minor scale, the 6th is minor. The scale of D natural minor would have a B flat as the 6th note, not a B natural. But in D Dorian mode, you are playing a B natural. It is this major 6th interval that gives Dorian mode its unique feel and sound.
Just as it is possible to take the notes of the C major scale, but play them over a D as the root note, and thereby be playing a mode derived from C major (specifically, Dorian mode), it is also possible to take any of the other notes of the C major scale, and use them as the root note. The modes formed are as follows:
D as root note: Dorian mode (minor mode)
E as root note: Phrygian mode (minor mode)
F as root note: Lydian mode (major mode)
G as root note: Mixolydian mode (major mode)
A as root note: Aeolian mode (aka the natural minor scale) (minor mode)
B as root note: Locrian mode (diminished mode)
C as root note: Ionian mode (aka the major scale) (major mode)
Ionian mode is just another name for the major scale, it's exactly the same as the major scale. Aeolian mode is exactly the same as the natural minor scale.
Try playing up and down a scale of C major, but starting and ending on each of the notes of C major in turn, in other words, from D to D, E to E, F to F, etc. This will enable you to hear what each of the modes of C major sound like.
Here's a page from this website featuring an instrumental track with a guitar solo in Dorian mode.
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This article © 2011. Permission has not been given for it to be reproduced anywhere else. All rights reserved.
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