MODES AND MODAL CHORD PROGRESSIONSAlright guys first things first. Download the picture and put it on your desktop. This is a chart for you to refer to. When I tell you we are gonna be working in D lydian you can quickly refer to it and know which triads you can use to write chord progressions and compare it to other scales as well. I'll go into this more shortly. Keep checking back as I am gonna elaborate on scales, triads and modes and how we are gonna use them to make music. Should be fun.
So both Kazareeno and Jer have asked me why do they need to learn triads. Rather than tell you why I am gonna show you why. I gave everybody a question this morning and you all did a good job answering them. I am gonna use the information that YOU GUYS gave me and we are gonna create a chord progression to collaborate on. Jer said he would mix everybody's take, including my own. Before I get started I want you guys to look at the picture in this thread of the diatonic keys, the one that I want you to download and put on your desktop for future reference.
You will notice that across the top I have the modes listed with a corresponding roman numeral underneath. This chart will allow you to find the notes found in any key/mode as well as the corresponding triads that are built from the notes in the key/mode. For more detail on how triads are built from the scales refer back to Andrew's lesson. He has already taken the time to do this and explains it better than me. For our purposes here is what I want you to know.
Ionian=Major scale=
Major Scale of COMPARISON Aeolian=Minor scale=
Minor Scale of COMPARISONWhen I refer to the Key of D minor I am really referring to the D Aeolian mode and when I am referring to the Key of D major I am really referring to the D Ionian mode. If you want to know what notes are found in the D minor scale then go across the top of the chart to Aeolian and down until you find D then the notes running across in that same row are the notes found in D minor. This will work for any mode in any Key. Now you have all this information easily accessible.
When you want to know what triads are in the key of D minor find the D Aeolian key and any note that is in a column with a lower case roman numeral is the root of a minor triad and any note that is in a column with an upper case roman numeral is the root of a major triad.
For simplicity this is what I want you to know.
Ionian, Lydian and Mixolydian= Major Modes
Aeolian, Dorian and Phrygian= Minor modes
Locrian=Diminished (we aren't gonna worry about this mode yet)
Notice from your chart that the Ionian, Lydian and Mixolydian modes have Major triads associated with them and the Aeolian, Dorian and Phrygian modes have Minor triads associated with them. This is the reason I want you from now on to think of each mode as either a Major mode or a Minor mode.
So now that we know the names of the modes and if they are Major or Minor we need to figure out how to use them in our playing.
To do this we need to know the
SCALE OF COMPARISON FOR BOTH MAJOR AND MINOR MODES.
As I stated up earlier it is as follows:
Ionian=Major scale=
Major Scale of COMPARISON Aeolian=Minor scale=
Minor Scale of COMPARISONSo what I would like to do rather than going into a big theoretical discussion is show you how to use the modes. For the next 2 or 3 months we are gonna focus on one mode. Since I am a big Vai and Satch fan, and I'm in charge
, I'm gonna pick my favorite mode.....
THE LYDIAN MODE.So our assingment for the month of march is to
COMPOSE in the key of D Lydian. I am gonna pick the chord progression for this month and set some parameters that I want you to work on in your takes. I'll go into this more later. For now we need to figure out how to create a chord progression in the Key of D Lydian. Here is the thought process I use and I want you to refer back to it when I ask you guys to come up with chord progressions for us to jam over.
So I need to figure out a D Lydian chord progression. Here are the questions and answers that need to be going through you mind when doing this for
ANY mode!!
1) Is D Lydian a Major or Minor Mode?
MAJOR2) What is the Major scale/mode of comparison for D Lydian?
D MAJOR/IONIAN3)What are the notes and triads found in D Lydian?
Dmaj-Emaj-F#min-G#dim-Amaj-Bmin-C#min4)What are the notes and triads found in the scale of comparison D Ionian?
Dmaj-Emin-F#min-Gmaj-Amaj-Bmin-C#dim
5) What notes are found in D Lydian but not it's scale of comparison?
G#6) What triads are found in D Lydian but not it's scale of Comparison?
Emaj-G#dim-C#minNOTICE THAT EVERY TRIAD THAT IS FOUND IN D LYDIAN BUT NOT D IONIAN ALSO CONTAINS THE NOTE FOUND IN D LYDIAN BUT NOT D IONIAN.....G#. G# APPEARS IN EVERY ONE OF THE DIFFERENT TRIADS AS EITHER THE ROOT, THIRD OR FIFTH.So...In order to come up with a chord progression that sounds like D lydian and not D Ionian I need to emphasize the chords found in D Lydian and not its scale of comparison...D Ionian. So in the case of D lydian we can use a chord progression using D maj and then try and work in E maj, C# min as well. We can use other chords as well but by using some chords found in D Lydian and not D Ionian it will give us a Lydian feel rather than an Ionian feel.
The Chord progression I am going to use is D-D-E-E. Think Satch's "Flying in a blue dream".
Read this post a couple of times guys as I am going to edit it to make if flow better if needs be. I am gonna do a separate post and give you parameters for doing your takes and show you how to solo over this progression. Jer is gonna make us a backing track and I'll post it in this thread when it is done. Thanks Jer!!
Any questions about this stuff should be posted in your threads. Thanks.