The Right Way To Learn Modes

author: warlordjoe92 date: 08/28/2012 category: scales

Alright, I've been seeing a lot of lessons on here about modes lately and they all give you the same bull, "To play Dorian mode all you rating: 8. / !otes: " have to do is play your G major scale starting and ending on an A"... That's not really right, that would still just be G major. Now listen, I'm not gonna take the time to ty e out all the mode sha es, atterns, bo!es, whatever you wanna "all them. If you haven't learned those already #even though they're just the major s"ale s read out over the entire fret board$ then go look at one of the other mode lessons on here and "ome ba"k to this later. Alright, here we go... %irst of all I'm gonna give you the names of all the modes. Ionian &orian 'hrygian (ydian )i!olydian Aeolian (o"rian Now, I'm gonna give two lists. The first will be the way most lessons tell you to lay the modes. The se"ond will be my way whi"h will give you the notes in ea"h of them using G major as the arent s"ale # arent s"ale just means the lain old major s"ale you are using to derive the other modes from$. )ost lessons give you G Ionian, A &orian, * 'hrygian, et". *ut these aren't the modes they're just sha es, be"ause you're still using the e!a"t same notes in every one of those. In other words, you're just laying G major all over the ne"k. THE WRONG WAY G Ionian (Major) (G,A,B,C,D,E,F#,G) (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1) A Dorian (minor) (A,B,C,D,E,F#,G,A) (2,3,4,5,6,7,1,2) B Phry ian (minor) (B,C,D,E,F#,G,A,B) (3,4,5,6,7,1,2,3) C !y"ian (Major) (C,D,E,F#,G,A,B,C) (4,5,6,7,1,2,3,4) D Mi#o$y"ian (Major) (D,E,F#,G,A,B,C,D) (5,6,7,1,2,3,4,5) E A%o$ian (minor) (E,F#,G,A,B,C,D,E) (6,7,1,2,3,4,5,6) F# !o&rian ("imini'h%") (F#,G,A,B,C,D,E,F#) (7,1,2,3,4,5,6,7) +ee what I mean, -very one of these has the e!a"t same notes, be"ause they are all the e!a"t same s"ale. (et me "larify something real .ui"k before I make my version of this list... The list of modes I just gave you is not really wrong er se, it's just that most guitarists see that and think something like "So if I have a chord progression of G major, A minor, and E minor and I wanna play modally over it, I would play G ionan, A dorian, and E Aeolian ". That's what's wrong with, and what I hate, about all the other lessons I've seen, they lead eo le to believe that modes are just a fan"y way to refer to "hunks of the major s"ale. HERE'S WHAT MAKES MODES DIFFERENT G Ionian (Major) (G,A,B,C,D,E,F#,G) (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1) G Dorian (minor) (G,A,B(,C,D,E,F,G) (1,2,(3,4,5,6,(7,1) G Phry ian (minor) (G,A(,B(,C,D,E(,F,G) (1,(2,(3,4,5,(6,(7,1) G !y"ian (Major) (G,A,B,C#,D,E,F#,G) (1,2,3,#4,5,6,7,1) G Mi#o$y"ian (Major) (G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G) (1,2,3,4,5,6,(7,1) G A%o$ian (minor) (G,A,B(,C,D,E(,F,G) (1,2,(3,4,5,(6,(7,1) G !o&rian ("imini'h%") (G,A(,B(,C,D(,E(,F,G) (1,(2,(3,4,(5,(6,(7,1) This is how you should see modes. Noti"e how if you base them all off G the differen"es between them be"ome very a arent. Now for the easy art. I'm now going to tell you how to use them... (et's say for e!am le, you have the same "hord rogression as earlier #G), Am, and -m$ just three sim le triads.

Now, you "ould always just lay it safe and noodle around with the G major s"ale for the entire rogression, or you "ould lay your newly learned modes/ (et me show you "hord by "hord. %or the G) "hord, you "ould use any major mode #with G as the toni" of "ourse$. +o, you "ould lay G Ionian, G (ydian, G )i!olydian, or even some strange "ombination of the three over your G) "hord. %or the Am "hord, you "ould use any minor mode #this time using A as your toni"$. +o, you "ould lay A &orian, A 'hrygian, A Aeolian, or "ombine the three in various ways over your Am "hord. The -m "hord would work e!a"tly like the Am did, e!"e t you would use - &orian, 'hrygian, and Aeolian instead of A. If your wondering about (o"rian, it goes with diminished "hords and that's it, so if we had an %0 diminished "hord in our rogression than you would just lay %0 (o"rian. It gets better/ If your just using ower "hords #whi"h aren't defined as major or minor$ you "an use any of the major or minor modes you want/ 1owever, the more intri"ate the "hords you use #using 2ths, 3ths, et".$ the less o tions you have on what modes you use, be"ause you have to make sure the notes of the "hord mat"h with the notes of the mode. %or instan"e, if you layed a G) "hord with a flat 2th, then you would need to lay G mi!olydian would be your most likely "hoi"e of mode be"ause it is )ajor and has a flat 2th. Get it, 4ell, this is all I "an think of to try to e! lain modes... It's kinda hard to e! lain without being able to sit in front of someone with a guitar and just show them haha. I ho e this hel s anyone out there "onfused about modes and why you should learn them.