Enforcer A Visual Approach To The Major Modes SI Lesson
Contents |
About the Author
My name's Can Karakuzulu, I am a 26 years old guy from Istanbul, Turkey and I've been playing electric guitar for nine beautiful years. I partly share Kris' story about being recently serious about electric guitar and I assure you GMC is the best place to do this. I am one of the chosen intermediate mentors from our MTP program.
Introduction
Hey there people,
Welcome to my 3rd S.I Lesson and Second Video Lesson titled "A Visual Approach to the Major Modes".
In this lesson, I want to show you an approach to the major modes that I find useful. The story behind this is related to a mistake I made a few years back in time, which proved to be very fortunate.
You see, I am self taught and I used internet since I started to play electric guitar, back then I didn't have a internet connection at home, so I was going to a local internet cafe to download lessons and print them, to be studied later at home. In one of those days, I was really sick of myself being a total ignorant of music theory, so I found a free lesson on the net and I printed it. And by mistake, in place of a simple music theory lesson I downloaded a major mods lesson. It took my two years to understand that major scale is actually the ionian scale and the natural minor scale was the aeolian But in this early years, this mistake greately improved my understanding of scales and thus, I discovered a visual approach to the mod playing in electric guitar.
About Fingering Forms
My approach is based on three notes per string mechanic, therefore we will use three forms below:
Form 1: Fingering: 1-3-4 (index-ring-pinky)
e||----------------------------------5-7-8--
B||----------------------------5-7-8--------
G||---------------------5-7-8---------------
D||---------------5-7-8---------------------
A||--------5-7-8----------------------------
E||-5-7-8-----------------------------------
Form 2: Fingering: 1-2-4 (index-middle-pinky)
e||----------------------------------5-6-8--
B||----------------------------5-6-8--------
G||---------------------5-6-8---------------
D||---------------5-6-8---------------------
A||--------5-6-8----------------------------
E||-5-6-8-----------------------------------
Form 3: Fingering: 1-2-4 wide (index-middle-pinky)
e||----------------------------------5-7-9--
B||----------------------------5-7-9--------
G||---------------------5-7-9---------------
D||---------------5-7-9---------------------
A||--------5-7-9----------------------------
E||-5-7-9-----------------------------------
Exercise for Getting Comfortable with Fingering Forms
It is imperative that you are comfortable with these three forms, and not only in legato but also in alternate picking. So, turn on your metronome, set to a low speed and try playing this not only in ascending way but also in descending and in reverse too. An exemple exercice might be the following:
Exercise for Form 1:
Exercise Tabs:
e||---------------------------------------------------------------5-7-8-8-7-5--
B||---------------------------------------------------5-7-8-8-7-5--------------
G||---------------------------------------5-7-8-8-7-5--------------------------
D||---------------------------5-7-8-8-7-5--------------------------------------
A||--------------5-7-8-8-7-5---------------------------------------------------
E||-5-7-8-8-7-5----------------------------------------------------------------
e||-5-7-8-8-7-5----------------------------------------------------------------
B||--------------5-7-8-8-7-5---------------------------------------------------
G||---------------------------5-7-8-8-7-5--------------------------------------
D||---------------------------------------5-7-8-8-7-5--------------------------
A||---------------------------------------------------5-7-8-8-7-5--------------
E||---------------------------------------------------------------5-7-8-8-7-5--
Some Theory Behind the Major Modes
Although it is perfectly explained in Andrew's Theory Board (great lessons there Andy ), I want to talk briefly about major modes.
You see, we have here the good old major scale, and for the ease of understanding I will use the key C (or just to save myself typing lots of b's and #'s)
C D E F G A B C
Some of you already know (and all of you should!!!) that a major scale is not about the notes but about the intervals between notes, that we have to have a pattern of intervals, which when applied starting from a selected note gives us its major scales. Lets extract that pattern:
It must be understood that on the fretboard, wherever you start to execute that pattern of intervals you are playing the major scale of the starting note. Like:
From E:
Please note that my hand motion is identical. I just change my starting point.
Lets get back to our track, what about major modes? What are they? As obvious as it sounds, major modes are derived from the major scale. When applied to C major:
Mode 1 is C D E F G A B C it means the major scale itself and its also called the IONIAN mode.
Mode 2 is D E F G A B C D , also named DORIAN,
Mode 3 is E F G A B C D E , also named PHRYGIAN
Mode 4 is F G A B C D E F , also named LYDIAN
Mode 5 is G A B C D E F G , also named MIXOLYDIAN
Mode 6 is A B C D E F G A , also named AEOLIAN and guys this is the NATURAL MINOR scale
Mode 7 is B C D E F G A B , also named LOCRIAN
Please note that these notes are the modular scales derived from C major only, thus notes are irrevelant to the modes.
If we extract the intervals, we'll see that each mode, has its own interval sequence between the notes.
So for IONIAN intervals are : 1 - 1 - 1/2 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1/2
DORIAN : 1 - 1/2 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1/2 - 1
PHRYGIAN : 1/2 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1/2 - 1 - 1
LYDIAN : 1 - 1 - 1 - 1/2 - 1 - 1 - 1/2
MIXOLYDIAN : 1 - 1 - 1/2 - 1 - 1 - 1/2 - 1
AEOLIAN(NATURAL MINOR) : 1 - 1/2 - 1 - 1 - 1/2 - 1 - 1
LOCRIAN : 1/2 - 1 - 1 - 1/2 - 1 - 1 - 1
-This is becoming more of a theory lesson and my head is about to explode! :)
No, it is quite easy actually, and this will be very clear when we apply it in the next step
Application
As mentioned in the first step we have three forms, lets write the intervals of these forms
Form 1: 1 - 3 - 4 pattern
Intervals: (1) (1/2)
Form 2: 1 - 2 - 4 pattern
Intervals: (1/2) (1)
Form 3: 1 - 2 - 4 wide pattern
Intervals: (1) (1)
So we must be able to cover the whole major mode intervals by using only these three forms... Yes, this is a great idea!
So A IONIAN can be played as follows:
e||-----------------------------------------
B||-----------------------------------------
G||-----------------------------------------
D||---------------6-7----------------------- (form 2 incomplete)
A||--------5-7-9---------------------------- (form 3)
E||-5-7-9----------------------------------- (form 3)
This is A IONIAN because we started by the 5th fret on the lower E string, and that particular note is A.
if we go all the way down the neck:
A Ionian all the way down the neck:
e||-------------------------------------7-9-10 (form 1)
B||-----------------------------7-9-10-------- (form 1)
G||----------------------6-7-9---------------- (form 2)
D||---------------6-7-9----------------------- (form 2)
A||--------5-7-9------------------------------ (form 3)
E||-5-7-9------------------------------------- (form 3)
Sure for this to be a true A Ionian scale we must end it at any A it may be the 10th fret at B string or we continue to 17th fret at high E string as I did later in the video.
Actually when soloing we dont need to play whole scale runs, all we need is only a pattern of notes, so this form approach helps us to draw a line between inside scale notes and out of scale ones.
Then we can extract all the others, but I made it already for you:
A Dorian:
e||-------------------------------------7-8-10 (form 2)
B||-----------------------------7-8-10-------- (form 2)
G||----------------------5-7-9---------------- (form 3)
D||---------------5-7-9----------------------- (form 3)
A||--------5-7-9------------------------------ (form 3)
E||-5-7-8------------------------------------- (form 1)
A Phrygian:
e||-------------------------------------6-8-10 (form 3)
B||-----------------------------6-8-10-------- (form 3)
G||----------------------5-7-9---------------- (form 3)
D||---------------5-7-8----------------------- (form 1)
A||--------5-7-8------------------------------ (form 1)
E||-5-6-8------------------------------------- (form 2)
A Lydian:
e||-------------------------------------7-9-11 (form 3)
B||-----------------------------7-9-10-------- (form 1)
G||----------------------6-8-9---------------- (form 1)
D||---------------6-7-9----------------------- (form 2)
A||--------6-7-9------------------------------ (form 2)
E||-5-7-9------------------------------------- (form 3)
A Mixolydian:
e||-------------------------------------7-9-10 (form 1)
B||-----------------------------7-8-10-------- (form 2)
G||----------------------6-7-9---------------- (form 2)
D||---------------5-7-9----------------------- (form 3)
A||--------5-7-9------------------------------ (form 3)
E||-5-7-9------------------------------------- (form 3)
A Aeolian(A natural minor):
e||-------------------------------------7-8-10 (form 2)
B||-----------------------------6-8-10-------- (form 3)
G||----------------------5-7-9---------------- (form 3)
D||---------------5-7-9----------------------- (form 3)
A||--------5-7-8------------------------------ (form 1)
E||-5-7-8------------------------------------- (form 1)
A Locrian:
e||-------------------------------------6-8-10 (form 3)
B||-----------------------------6-8-10-------- (form 3)
G||----------------------5-7-8---------------- (form 1)
D||---------------5-7-8----------------------- (form 1)
A||--------5-6-8------------------------------ (form 2)
E||-5-6-8------------------------------------- (form 2)
The great thing about guitar is that, you can change the first note wherever you want, without changing the motion pattern you are always playing the same mode. And you'll notice that if you decide to start to play on the lower string you actually play another mode using the same forms. Lets take the locrian pattern:
A Locrian:
e||-------------------------------------6-8-10 (form 3)
B||-----------------------------6-8-10-------- (form 3)
G||----------------------5-7-8---------------- (form 1)
D||---------------5-7-8----------------------- (form 1)
A||--------5-6-8------------------------------ (form 2)
E||-5-6-8------------------------------------- (form 2)
While playing this pattern, we are actually playing a D Phrygian starting from the A string, a G Aeolian starting from the D string a C Dorian starting from the G string and F Ionian starting from the B string.
Conclussion
At the end you must always keep in mind that, modes are not about notes, they are about intervals. And also as B string is half note flat in relation to others, it shifts our forms one fret higher.
I hope you find my way of learning the major modes useful, they are very handy to create diferent feels on a solo, and by memorizing them you can use them to make very cool sounding speed runs. See you in my next S.I Lesson...
