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GMC Forum _ THEORY _ Understanding Modes
Posted by: zoom Oct 17 2012, 09:05 AM
Thought I'd share this from Dave Weiner. It's really good.
If you don't know Dave plays in Steve Vai's band. great player.
Posted by: wollace03 Oct 17 2012, 02:30 PM
thanx for the video.
I discovered the "lick of the week" series of dave weiner and the videos are very useful for me...
Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Oct 17 2012, 03:24 PM
Thanks for sharing! Yeah, I have Dave's solo album and I really recommend it. I bought it directly by his website.
This video is very useful to do a quick look at the modes, how they sound and how to practice them to incorporate their sound into our minds... I like his approach on this one because he bases on practising creating musical ideas... so you are practising and creating music at the same time.
Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 17 2012, 09:44 PM
He really is a MONSTER player. I"m surprised more folks don't know about him. But Vai does cast a pretty long shadow 
If you don't know Dave plays in Steve Vai's band. great player.
Posted by: Alex Feather Oct 18 2012, 06:40 AM
Thanks for sharing! It was very useful!
Posted by: AK Rich Oct 18 2012, 06:13 PM
That was a very cool video Zoom thanks for sharing man I first heard it explained by Joe Satriani and it was like a huge moment of revelation for me
Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Oct 18 2012, 08:15 PM
I first heard it explained by Joe Satriani and it was like a huge moment of revelation for meCool one! I also learnt this Pitch Axis method by Joe.
Posted by: gregc1 Oct 18 2012, 09:53 PM
My knowledge of Modes is pretty basic but it does allow me to effectively play fairly comfortably in any mode. Although again, it is very basic. I haven't wrapped my head around which notes are accented across all of the modes and my playing tends to sound more like running through scales than a melodic masterpiece.
I basically just know 5 universal shapes, I guess 5 shapes of the major scale. And where to play them depending on the key and the mode I want to be in. I would love to be able to dig in deeper and get a real understanding of things. To me that's where the most powerful melodies come from.
Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Oct 19 2012, 05:51 AM
I basically just know 5 universal shapes, I guess 5 shapes of the major scale. And where to play them depending on the key and the mode I want to be in. I would love to be able to dig in deeper and get a real understanding of things. To me that's where the most powerful melodies come from.
So you should use Satriani's approach to get the best from the modes!
Posted by: gregc1 Oct 19 2012, 01:59 PM
Thanks Gab! That's actually a really good video. He describes me perfectly in that 'the scale dictates what I play rather than me taking ownership of the scale'.
Posted by: wollace03 Oct 19 2012, 03:22 PM
great link!!
the whole professor shred series is worth watching....
concerning modes: I gave up on understanding the modes in full a long time ago... so I know about the concept und I use them when the chords change underneth a solo but I never thought of a progression as lydian or dorian or so....
Posted by: DeGroot Oct 19 2012, 05:41 PM
This is great stuff! I watched them all. I was never too familiar with modes or knowing in terms of what I was actually playing before. It is starting to sink in a little at a time and I can see it will be beneficial to my own playing. At least I know now that I tend to use a lot of Mixolydian.
Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Oct 19 2012, 08:42 PM
That's the key! I enjoy this Guthrie's video a lot... I have seen it many times and I always recommend it.
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Oct 20 2012, 07:02 AM
the whole professor shred series is worth watching....
concerning modes: I gave up on understanding the modes in full a long time ago... so I know about the concept und I use them when the chords change underneth a solo but I never thought of a progression as lydian or dorian or so....
God bless Guthrie for his wisdom! I always like to look at modes like that, rather than shapes.
Posted by: PosterBoy Oct 29 2012, 05:52 PM
I understand the modes, and can hear the difference of each when playing over a drone note or perhaps a 1 or 2 chord vamp.
BUT
and this is probably because every thing I play is pretty much very diatonic and either major (ionian based) or minor (aeolian based) chord progressions
When it comes to me composing something that maybe I want to compose a piece that sounds for example Lydian, I can't get my head around creating a 4 chord or whatever progression that changes chord every 2 bars, I understand the IV chord should be the chord to focus on and resolve to.
Am I missing something do I need to add chords with extensions on them to help get that Lydian sound?
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Oct 30 2012, 11:17 PM
Hmmmm, I think that extending the number of bars for each chord could help a lot
For instance if we have Amajadd9 Bmajadd11 G#minor - this is a nice Lydian progression which can be treated from two perspectives:
- either emphasize the mode throughout, by playing D# here and there while changing chords each bar
- either holding each chord for a greater number of bars and then allowing yourself to experiment with the Lydian over the Amajadd99 and then shifting towards other modes on the other 2 chords? An approach which is most definitely a bit more jazzier but offers a lot of possibilities
What do ya think?
Cosmin
Posted by: PosterBoy Oct 31 2012, 07:53 AM
That makes sense, and why a modal approach has never seemed to work for most of the music I normally play.
I shall try your example later when I can get to a guitar.
Thanks
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Oct 31 2012, 08:54 AM
I shall try your example later when I can get to a guitar.
Thanks
The pleasure is all mine mate! You can also check out the link below, where there's a cornucopia of info on modes, so if you want to talk about some of them, please let me know
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?s=&showtopic=39243&view=findpost&p=564197
Posted by: PosterBoy Oct 31 2012, 10:35 AM
Thanks Cosmin
I always forget to look at the Video chat notes, tones of stuff there to help me
Posted by: zoom Oct 31 2012, 11:24 AM
This video is very useful to do a quick look at the modes, how they sound and how to practice them to incorporate their sound into our minds... I like his approach on this one because he bases on practising creating musical ideas... so you are practising and creating music at the same time.
Yeah Gab I really liked this because you can hear how these modes sound in a musical sense. I think if I can get my ears working better I'll end up a better player.
I would be surprised if there are any instructors here at GMC that don't have relative pitch.
I'm thinking that doing what Dave did at the end would be a good practice method for developing your ear and hearing modal playing. What do you think?
Question? If you hear a song do you go - ha yeah nice dorian solo? In other words because your ear is trained you hear this straight away?
Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Nov 1 2012, 08:49 AM
I always forget to look at the Video chat notes, tones of stuff there to help me
Nothing to it mate
Just let me know if ya get stuck and that's available for everyone 
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