Applying Modes

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Applying modes

How to find modes in any key, anywhere on the fretboard

1. Drill the sandwich exercise using major scales 2. Drill the sandwich exercise using lydian scales (#4) 3. Drill the sandwich exercise using mixolydian scales (b7) 4. Drill the sandwich exercise using Aeolian scale (b3,b6,b7)

5. Drill the sandwich exercise using Dorian scales (Aeolian with nat.6th) 6. Drill the sandwich exercise using Phrygian scales (Aeolian with b2) 7. Drill the sandwich exercise using Locrian scales (Phrygian with b5) 8. Use the CAGED system to find any mode anywhere in any key

How to apply modes to improvise diatonically

Using the chart above at 4. use the appropriate mode to improvise over the sequence to ‘I will Survive!’

Am7 (A Aeolian) | Dm7 (D Dorian) | G7 (G Mixolydian) | CMaj7 (C Ionian) | FMaj7 (F Lydian) | Bm7b5 (B Locrian) | Em7 (E Phrygian) | E7b9 E7 (E Mixolydian) :||

Note that the Non-diatonic chords E7b9 and E7 take the mixolydian mode. This is because they are dominant chords (Natural 3rd, but b7) and the mixolydian mode is the only one with this combination of intervals).

This is a great song to practice modes over as it includes all seven modes.

How to apply modes to improvise non-diatonically

Regardless of context try using:

Mixolydian mode over any dominant chord (7ths, 9ths 11ths, 13ths etc.)

Ionian or Lydian over any Major chord (6ths, 6/9, Maj7, Maj9, Maj11, Maj13 etc..) Dorian, Phrygian or Aeolian over any Minor chord (m6,m7,m9,m11,m13 etc..) Locrian mode over any half diminished chord (m7b5, m9b5).

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Watermelon Man

F7 (F Mixolydian) | | | | Bb7 (Bb Mixolydian) | | F7 (F Mixolydian) | | C7 (C Mixolydian) | Bb7 (Bb Mixolydian) | C7 (C Mixolydian) | Bb7 (Bb Mixolydian) | C7 (C Mixolydian) | Bb7 (Bb Mixolydian) | F7 (F Mixolydian) | :|| Posted by Kinshuk Chandra at 8:48 AM 0 comments

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Modes aligned with chords from diatonic series

No.

Mode

Chord

Mode formula

Chord formula

1 C Ionian

CMaj7

(same) 1,3,5,7

2 D Dorian

Dmin7

b3,b7 1,b3,5,b7

3 E Phrygian

Emin7

b2,b3,b6.b7 1,b3,5,b7

4 F Lydian

FMaj7

#4 1,3,5,7

5 G Mixolydian

G7

b7 1,3,5,b7

6 A Aeolian

Amin7

b3,b6,b7 1,b3,5,b7

7 B Locrian

Bm7b5

b2,b3,b5,b6.b7 1,b3,b5,b7

Posted by Kinshuk Chandra at 8:43 AM 0 comments

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First we divide the modes according to whether they are major or minor.

Then we compare the major modes to the major scale and the minor modes to the natural minor scale.

Major modes (by definition modes with a natural 3rd)

Mode 1 = IONIAN = same as major scale Mode 4 = LYDIAN = major scale with #4 Mode 5 = MIXOLYDIAN = major scale with b7

Minor modes (modes with flatted 3rds)

Compared to Natural Minor Scale (b3,b6,b7)

Mode 2 = DORIAN = natural minor scale with natural 6th Mode 3 = PHRYGIAN = natural minor scale with b2 Mode 6 = AEOLIAN = same as natural minor scale Mode 7 = LOCRIAN = natural minor scale with b2 and b5 Posted by Kinshuk Chandra at 8:42 AM 0 comments

Mode formulas

This gives us a bunch of formulas which we can apply to create modes starting on any note, but learning the formulas off by heart is still a pretty daunting task.

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So let’s make it easy!

Example- Modes derived from C major, but analysed against major scales of each root:

No. Name

Mnemonic

Notes

Home scale

Compar-ison

1 C Ionian mode

In

CDEFGABC

CDEFGABC same

2 D Dorian mode

Dorset

DEFGABCD

DEF#GABC#D b3,b7

3 E Phrygian mode

People

EFGABCDE

EF#G#ABC#D#E b2,b3,b6.b7

4 F Lydian mode

Live

FGABCDEF

FGABbCDEF #4

5 G Mixolydian mode

Mostly

GABCDEFG

GABCDEF#G b7

6 A Aeolian mode

Along

ABCDEFGA

ABC#DEF#G#A b3,b6,b7

7 B Locrian mode

Lanes

BCDEFGAB

BC#D#EF#G#A#B b2,b3,b5,b6.b7

Derivation of modes

Example- Modes derived from C major:

Number Name

Mnemonic

Notes

1 C Ionian mode

In

CDEFGABC

2 D Dorian mode

Dorset

DEFGABCD

3 E Phrygian mode

People

EFGABCDE

4 F Lydian mode

Live

FGABCDEF

5 G Mixolydian mode

Mostly

GABCDEFG

6 A Aeolian mode

Along

ABCDEFGA

7 B Locrian mode

Lanes

BCDEFGAB

So remember In Dorset People Live Mostly Along Lanes.

This view of modes is useful, but limited in application, especially when dealing with modes of more

complex key signatures.

For example, in order to work out the key signature of the Bb Phrygian scale one would have to ask

the question: ‘What is the key signature of the major scale that has Bb as it’s third note’. Brain

damage could result!

So we try this view instead::

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Harmonising the Major Scale

Description: How to use chords - a printer friendly explanation of harmonising the major scale to triads.

We have already studied diatonic chord theory

Taking the C major scale as an example:

The Roman numerals and generic names of each degree of the scale are constant for all keys. These are used, somewhat confusingly, to refer both to the notes on a major scale and to the chords built on those notes:

Here is the scale of D major harmonised. Notice that the key signature ensures the sequence of chord types remains the same, ie. I = major, II = minor, III = minor, IV = major, V = major, VI = minor, VII = diminished, VIII = major. This is true in all keys.

Labels: Guitar Scales, guitar theory, Major scale, modes Posts Relacionados

Thursday, March 4, 2010

What to know before start learning modes

Basic Theory Required

You need to understand how a major scale is constructed. We will be relating each Mode back to it's PMS to work out the characteristics of each mode, so this is really important.

You also need to know what sharps and flats are found in different keys. This helps you find your PMS and to work out the notes in any mode.

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You will also need to understand how chords are constructed and how they can be altered to make new chords. This is because modes are played over chords, and without understanding the harmony created by the chords you won't be able to use modes!

Practical Skills Required

You need to know AT LEAST position 1 of the Major Scale, but it will be a great help if you know all five positions. And not just play them up and down, but be able to use it / them. If you don't then I would strongly advise you spend your time getting to know your major scales well before you attempt to use and understand modes. You can learn 1 position

1 position for major scale is (for C scale)

Labels: Guitar Scales, modes Posts Relacionados

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Why we use modes??

So why do we need modes anyway? Isn't the major scale the same notes, so why would be want to learn new stuff? These were the biggest questions I had when I was learning Modes, and they are the questions that I would like to answer in this lesson...

In the last lesson we learnt about Diatonic Chords and the way that you can use Major Scale over any of the chords in the Diatonic Sequence for that key. So that is all good. But the Major Scale is a little bit "Orwellian" - all notes are equal, but some notes are more equal than others! ;) [this is a quote form George Orwell's fantastic book called "Animal Farm", if you have not read it them please check it out, it's fantastic!]. I can explain this to you but you also need to hear it too!

I'm going to give you an example using modes and chords that come from the C Major Scale.

You NEED to hear these examples and feel them for yourself so you need to get a mate to jam with or a looper pedal, or record yourself into something and then play it back. I highly recommend trying to find someone to learn this stuff with though, makes it way easier! Try and find yourself a "mode buddy" that you will study Modes with together, it will make the journey easier and a load more fun too!

Alternatively you could use this C Ionian track from my Really Useful Play Along Tracks. All those tracks will be very helpful through this course...

Lets start my talking about the C Major Scale played over a C Major Chord. That gives us C Ionian Mode (which I just call C Major, I think calling it C Ionian is a bit silly).

What you need to listen to is the way that each note of the C Major Scale sounds over the chord of C Major. So lets start with a C Major Chord backing (either your mate playing C, or a looper pedal, or a jam track) and play each note of the scale very slowly and listen to the effect that each note has when played over the chord. Make sure you are aware of the notes as you play, so maybe say the note name out loud as you play the scale (so say C, D, E, F, G etc as you play them). This will help you remember the good and bad notes.

Ok - you done that? so if you did it well you probably noticed that there are some notes that sound a lot better than others. You probably found that the notes C, E and G sound perfect with the chord. You will probably have found

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the notes D and A a little tense, but kinda nice too. And I hope that you found the notes F and B quite dissonant and kinda wrong sounding. The B is actually quite a cool note in the right circumstance but not one that you would commonly stop on... but the F :( that is a yucky sounding note to stop on. To pass through it sounds great, but to stop a melody line on the note F while a C chord is playing generally sounds pretty horrible.

The reason for that is that it is the 4th degree of the scale - and played over the chord the 4th often clashes with the 3rd of the chord, mainly because they are a semitone apart. Lets look at all the notes in the scale (mode) against the chord to make that very clear... CT means Chord Tone.

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

C Major C

D

E

F

G

A

B

C

ROOT

_CT

2nd

3rd

_CT

4th

_(yuk!)

5th

_CT

6th

7th

Now go and play the scale again and make sure that you are convinced that the CT notes are all real good and listen to how the 4th (F) sounds... Spend a bit of time with this if you really want to get this concept in your head. Learn to LISTEN not THINK. Your ears should be the judge of what sounds good, not your brain.

OK - hope you are still with me... so important point to remember:

All the notes of the scale are good, but some are better than others.

So now lets look at a mode - and we're going to look at playing a C Major scale over the 5th chord in the Key of C: which is G7. We would call this playing G Mixolydian, but that is not important now... we're just getting into why Modes are useful - worry about the names and all that later.

Now you need a G7 backing track (either your friend playing, or record your own G7, or use my G Mixolydian backing track) and you will again LISTEN to all the notes of the C Major scale being played over the G7 chord. So now you need to try it out (please actually do this - don't just read it) because that is the only way that you will really understand what I mean.

When you do that, you will discover that the notes that sound good over the G7 were very different from the notes that sounded good over the C... they are the same notes but each will have had a very different quality over this different chord.

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

G Mixolydian G

A

B

C

D

E

F

G7

ROOT

CT

2nd

3rd

CT

4th

(yuk!)

5th

CT

6th

b7th

CT

So if you listened well and played all the notes from the C Major scale over the G7 chord, you would have found that the Chord Tones (CT) G, B, D and F all sound great, A and E sound interesting, and C doesn't sound so good (it's the 4th clashing with the 3rd again). SO in this case the note C (which is the root note of the Parent Major Scale) is not a good note to play - and the note F (which did not sound so good over the C Major Chord) is great to play over a G7.

THIS IS WHY WE NEED MODES!

The notes from a C major scale can be played over a Cmaj7 chord and a G7 chord (if you understand basic diatonic theory you should be cool with this concept) but the RELATIONSHIP between the scale notes and the chords change. The quality of the note changes when the chords change.

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Another example... the III chord in the key of C is E minor. Play a C note over that and it sounds well horrible! Learning modes will help you play over chords, instead of thinking about keys. Which is very important when the keys change a lot, which happens a lot in jazz and modern blues.

Modes help us understand the relationships between scales and chords.

That is all it is. It's understanding why some notes from a scale will work well better over some chords than others. Now we are going to look more how to look at the modal theory (series and parallel) and then look at how you should practice them. Then we are going to look at each mode one at a time and look, practice and listen to what it sounds like and understand why and when we might use it.

I hope that gives you a better understanding of why we use modes. Posted by Kinshuk Chandra at 11:40 PM 0 comments

Labels: Guitar Scales, guitar theory, modes Posts Relacionados

Introduction to Modes

MODES ARE EASY, when you understand them! I personally had a difficult time with modes and spent many hours reading every book I could find on them, but all I got was more confused. Now I understand how they are used, they seem so simple... so what I want to do is to try and explain all the things that confused me, and hope that it helps you.

MODES ARE THE SAME AS THE MAJOR SCALE, but have a different tonal centre. What does that mean, and why is it important? Well to understand that you need to understand a bit about Diatonic Chord Sequences, which will be covered in a lesson by itself. What you need to understand for now is that all the modes have the same notes as a major scale, but you would play it over a chord other than the root. huh? If play a G Major Scale over an A minor chord, you would be playing the A Dorian Mode. Don't try and understand that just yet, just grasp that idea. Using the modes is as easy as playing the Major Scale, just the tonal centre (or chord that you are playing over) does not have the same tonal centre as the Major Scale.

So lets get to grips with a few terms that you will need to understand first:

Diatonic Chord Sequence - This explains the chords found in a key. For example: The diatonic chord sequence in the key of C is, C, Dmin, Emin, F, G, Amin, Bdim. More in this in couple of lessons time.

Tonal Centre - This is the foundation of the harmony, usually the chord that the mode will be played over. This will

also help define what I call the "Home Notes" which are the notes that you can settle on and sound good. It's really important that you get to grips with this idea and I will give you some examples of how to use this later.

Parent Major Scale (PMS) - This is my term for the Major scale that a Mode comes from. The notes of the mode

and the PMS will be the same but the tonal centre will be different. For example, I might write B Dorian mode (PMS: A Major) which will mean that the PMS of B Dorian is the A Major Scale.

Home Notes - These notes will help you define the tonal centre and are usually the chord tones of the Tonal

Centre.

Series - Looking at the series of modes that come from one Major Scale. For example, the modes that all come

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Parallel - Looking at all the modes that have the same tonal centre. For example, The modes that have the tonal

centre of C (but different PMS) would be C Ionian, C Dorian, C Phrygian, etc. Posted by Kinshuk Chandra at 9:50 PM 0 comments

Labels: Guitar Scales, Major scale, modes Posts Relacionados

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Finding a Chord in a key (Diatonic Chord Sequence)

What chords are in what key, and why? This lesson assumes basic knowledge of the Circle of 5ths.

Part 1: Basic Triads.

Each diatonic scale has 7 different notes, which gives way to 7 possible triads for each key in music. A triad is the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a scale played simultaneously to form a chord.

All chords are formed based on their respective major diatonic scale. A C chord is built on a C major scale, a D chord is built on a D major scale, etc.

When these triads are formed from each degree of the scale we get a series of chords, called the diatonic chord sequence.

There are 7 chords for each key, which correspond to the 7 notes in each key's scale. Some chords can be in more than one key - for example, a D major chord can be in the keys D, A, or G.

Even more is revealed when you look at diatonic quadad (4 note chords) sequence. You should know the formations of Major 7, minor 7, Dominant 7 and min7b5 chords.

I'll use the key of C as an example:

The key of C includes the notes C D E F G A B C.

Each note of the scale corresponds to a scale degree as shown:

Note: C D E F G A B C Degree: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

You can form 7 basic chords (triads) from the notes in the key of C. Each different note is the root of a different chord.

We know that triad formation is: Major triad: 1 3 5

Minor triad: 1 b3 5 Diminished triad: 1 b3 b5

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Quadad formation

Major 7th: 1 3 5 7 - Abbreviation: maj7 Minor 7th: 1 b3 5 b7 - Abbreviation: min7 Dominant 7th: 1 3 5 b7 - Abbreviation: 7, dom7 Minor/Major 7th: 1 b3 5 7 - Abbreviation: min/maj7

Your first chord will be a C chord, because C is the first scale degree. Now, since this is a C chord, it will be based on the C major diatonic scale. Take scale degrees 1 3 5 as shown below:

C scale

Note: C D E F G A B C Degree: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

This gives you notes C, E, and G. Since all 3 of those notes are in the key of C, you do not have to modify them to fit, and you have a major triad (1 3 5). So your first chord is C major. Similarily quadad is CEGB.

The second chord will be a D chord, because D is the 2nd scale degree. It's based on the D scale, which is D E F# G A B C# D. Now, take 1 3 5 of D scale:

D scale

Note: D E F# G A B C# D Degree: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

This gives notes D F# A. This presents a problem - F# is not in the key of C! In order to keep this chord in key, we have to flat the F# (lower it by 1/2 step) down to F natural. This gives D F A, which is scale degrees 1 b3 5 of the D major scale. 1 b3 5 is the formula for a minor triad. Therefore, your second chord is D minor.

Quadad has notes DF#AC#....so we have to flatten 3rd and 5th note....So it is 1 b3 5 b7...This gives us minor 7th chord....

Our 5th chord is a G chord - let's find the 7th. Note: G A B C D E F# G

Degree: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

Our notes are G B D F#. F# (7th) must be flatted to an F natural (b7). Our scale degrees are 1 3 5 b7, which is the formula for a dominant 7th chord. Our 5th chord is G7!

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D# E F# G# A# B. Now, take 1 3 5 of this scale:

B scale

Note: B C# D# E F# G# A# B Degree: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

This gives notes B D# F#. D# (3) and F# (5) are not in the key of C, and must be flatted to D (b3) and F (b5), respectively. This gives us scale degrees 1 b3 b5, which is the formula for a diminished triad.

Based on these examples, you can figure out the rest of the chords. However, they always follow a pattern: 1 - major 2 - minor 3 - minor 4 - major 5 - major 6 - minor 7 - diminished In other way

Major … Minor(2)….Major(2)….minor…Diminished(Note alternate maj n minor n end with d) By applying this pattern, you can quickly figure out that the chords in the key of C are: Cmaj Dmin Emin Fmaj Gmaj Amin Bdim

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All the notes contained in the above chords will be in the key of C.

Shared notes are numbered

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

C

1 3 5

dm

2 4

em

3 5

F

1

4 G

2

5 am

1 3

Bdim 2 4

Notes in the chord

C - E - G C Major Chord (I)

D - F - A D minor Chord (ii)

E - G - B E minor Chord (iii)

F - A - C F Major Chord (IV)

G - B - D G Major Chord (V)

A - C - E A minor Chord (vi)

B - D - F B diminished Chord (viiº)

This pattern works for any of the keys in the Circle of 5ths. It does not, however, cover any scales that are not the major scale (such as the harmonic minor scale, for example. That has its own pattern of chords).

Chord progressions for various Keys

Using the same method you can figure out the other chords. They also follow a pattern. That pattern goes as follows: 1 - maj7 2 - min7 3 - min7 4 - maj7 5 - dom7 6 - min7 7 - min7(b5)

And, as you may have guessed by now, the chords in the key of C are: Cmaj7

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Dmin7 Emin7 Fmaj7

G7 OR Gdom7 (they are the same chord) Amin7

Bmin7(b5)

Summary

Lets look at the diatonic chords as Triads and Quadads...

Degree

Triad Notes Chord

Quadad Notes

Chord

I

C E G =

C

C E G B =

C Maj 7

II

D F A =

D min

D F A C =

D min 7

III

E G B =

E min

E G B D =

E min 7

IV

F A C =

F

F A C E =

F Maj 7

V

G B D =

G

G B D F =

G 7

VI

A C E =

A min

A C E G =

A min 7

VII

B D F =

B dim

B F D A =

B min 7 b5

I hope you know that to improvise over any of the above chords (in any order) you can play the C Major Scale. Be sure to notice that the order of the chords will stay the same in every key. So you can place this chord sequence on the notes of any major scale. Please check this out yourself and try it on a few different keys, maybe Key of E and Key of Bb. Check that the notes for each chord add up to the chords shown in the sequences below. This will help you memorise the Diatonic Sequences and also help solidify your understanding of chord construction. Both are essential to understand modes.

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

Triads

Major

minor

Major

minor

dim

Quadads Maj 7

min 7

Maj 7

7 min 7

min7 b5

Before you even think about modes you need to be good at playing over these chords in any order, and your ear needs to be tuned into hearing when you are on a good note and when you are on a bad note. Pick a key, write out the diatonic chords in that key and then record them and practice doing solos over them. Or get a jam buddy, get him to play any random chords from a chosen key (he MUST stay only playing chords in that chosen key) and then you solo over it. Then swap over and give him a turn at soloing. Of course this will help you with your barre chords too!

Generally a good note will be a chord tones of any note you are playing over. The bad ones will be the notes in between. Get your ears to recognise the good notes. There is theory behind it of course, and we will explain all that, but most importantly is that your ear can hear the difference between the good and bad notes.