Modes

Aggh, the great and ominous aspect of music. If you pick up a copy of GuitarWorld magazine, you might hear that word getting tossed around, but did the idea ever strike you to learn about them? Well you are here after all.

Modes are a great asset to your understanding of music and to your spontaneous playing ability and creativity. To top it all off you get to throw around cool words like "phrygian" and "locrian" and make everybody else feel dumb. Just make sure you can walk the walk before you start talkin the talk.

Part I - WTF is a mode?

First off...you've read the scales lesson. No? Get your ass back there and read through it! "But I already know my scales!" you say. Well if you know what the relationship between natural minor and major is you may as well stay. If not, go hit the books.

So as you may recall, I referred to natural minor and major as the "aeolian" and "ionian" modes respectively. I also explained that they are inversions of each other. Hopefully you understand that, because we're about to do it again. Five times, actually. Each one of the terrifying and fearful modes is just another inversion of the major scale. Invert me twice you get Ionian. Invert me thrice you get Phrygian. It goes down as follows. To make sense of this chart, start in A minor or C major (depending on whichb size you choose) and work your way through the scale.

Just to help you sound things out, here are all of your modes played as inversions of the most common A minor 6-string zone, starting with A Aeolian:

 A Aeolian (natural minor)
|-----------------|-------------5--|-5---------------|-----------------|
|-----------------|-------5-6-8----|---8-6-5---------|-----------------|
|-----------------|---5-7----------|---------7-5-----|-----------------|
|-------------5-7-|-9--------------|-------------9-7-|-5---------------|
|-------5-7-8-----|----------------|-----------------|---8-7-5---------|
|-5-7-8-----------|----------------|-----------------|---------8-7-5---|


 B Locrian
|-----------------|-----------5-7--|-7-5-------------|----------------|
|-----------------|-----5-6-8------|-----8-6-5-------|----------------|
|-----------------|-5-7------------|-----------7-5---|----------------|
|-----------5-7-9-|----------------|---------------9-|-7-5------------|
|-----5-7-8-------|----------------|-----------------|-----8-7-5------|
|-7-8-------------|----------------|-----------------|-----------8-7--|


 C Ionian (major)
|-----------------|---------5-7-8--|-8-7-5-----------|----------------|
|-----------------|---5-6-8--------|-------8-6-5-----|----------------|
|---------------5-|-7--------------|-------------7-5-|----------------|
|---------5-7-9---|----------------|-----------------|-9-7-5----------|
|---5-7-8---------|----------------|-----------------|-------8-7-5----|
|-8---------------|----------------|-----------------|-------------8--|


 D Dorian
|-----------------|-------5-7-8-10--|-10-8-7-5---------|----------------|
|-----------------|-5-6-8-----------|----------8-6-5---|----------------|
|-------------5-7-|-----------------|----------------7-|-5--------------|
|-------5-7-9-----|-----------------|------------------|---9-7-5--------|
|-5-7-8-----------|-----------------|------------------|---------8-7-5--|
|-----------------|-----------------|------------------|----------------|


 E Phrygian
|-----------------|-----5-7-8-10-12--|-12-10-8-7-5-------|----------------|
|---------------5-|-6-8--------------|-------------8-6-5-|----------------|
|-----------5-7---|------------------|-------------------|-7-5------------|
|-----5-7-9-------|------------------|-------------------|-----9-7-5------|
|-7-8-------------|------------------|-------------------|-----------8-7--|
|-----------------|------------------|-------------------|----------------|


 F Lydian
|-----------------|---5-7-8-10-12-13--|-13-12-10-8-7-5-----|----------------|
|-------------5-6-|-8-----------------|----------------8-6-|-5--------------|
|---------5-7-----|-------------------|--------------------|---7-5----------|
|---5-7-9---------|-------------------|--------------------|-------9-7-5----|
|-8---------------|-------------------|--------------------|-------------8--|
|-----------------|-------------------|--------------------|----------------|


 G Mixolydian
|-----------------|-5-7-8-10-12-13-15--|-15-13-12-10-8-7-5---|----------------|
|-----------5-6-8-|--------------------|-------------------8-|-6-5------------|
|-------5-7-------|--------------------|---------------------|-----7-5--------|
|-5-7-9-----------|--------------------|---------------------|---------9-7-5--|
|-----------------|--------------------|---------------------|----------------|
|-----------------|--------------------|---------------------|----------------|

Play through these quickly. If you've never dealt with modes alot of these will sound seriously funky or perhaps flat-out wrong, but it's that way for a reason. Each mode has one note out of place, or as a teacher of mine once put it, a "whacky mode note." These are both what make it difficult to memorize these (if you're used to hearing straight-up natural minor and major), and what make these great assets to introduce a bit of bite to your music. In fact, one of the best ways to go about memorizing what modes sound like is to identify the "whacky mode note" in each case and then play each one as a one-note variant of a scale you already know like the back of your hand. For example, Lydian has a raised fourth. If you play through it and stop on the fourth scale degree, something will probably feel out of place. Thus if you're in the key of G major and somebody tells you "I want to hear some G Lydian in your solo," all you have to do is play around with popping your fourths up a half-step.

Part II - Modes in Context

There is a common source of confusion about modes, however. Perhaps, as a result of my bungled and clumsy attempt to impart knowledge, you too are confused. Here's the knot it understanding: many people think that each mode is tied to a certain root note. For example, ionian always starts on C and aeolian always starts on A. WRONG. This is very very very i-can't-stress-enough-how-very-incorrect-this-is wrong. In fact, if this were the case, all of the fun we get to have thanks to modes would dissapear.

Instead of assigning each mode an inherent root note, we can do one of two things. First, you can assume that you are using the mode diatonically in the key you are in at the moment (lost you? read the lesson on diatonic stuff). That is to say if you are in A minor, just to stay consistent, and somebody says "play some Phrygian" you should be bustin out on a Phrygian scale that starts on E. Our other option is to specify what we are treating as the root note for any mode named. For example, if you're playing Locrian starting on B, you would say "B-Locrian." If you were playing Mixolydian from G, you'd say "yo dawg, I'm spinnin tunes from G-Mixolydian." Kapish?

Part III - Modal Melody

So what are modes good for? Are they just cool-sounding things that don't fit in anywhere? Thankfully not. Since this is, after all, directed at guitar players, I'll put this in the context of a melodic solo over a series of chord changes.

Suppose, for example, that your back-up band is playing a chord progression in D Major: I - IV - V. For those who haven't read the lesson on diatonic harmony, this means D Major, G Major, then A Major triads. This is a super generic chord progression that has been used just about everywhere in popular music in some way shape or form (most blues, and everything from AC/DC's "Shook Me All Night Long" to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," The Beatles' "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," and even Enrique Iglesias's "Hero"). So you're sitting there with your happy-go-lucky all-major chord progression, diddling out some melody from the D major scale when, lo and behold! The chord hamonizing you goes off and changes behind your back! You instinctively drag your D major scale pattern up to G but it just doesn't sound right. So you just sit there, playing D major on and on. Technically you can play over the root scale if the chord progression is diatonic, but let's face it folks. That's boring. It's fun for a while, but we had a century's worth of people before us to get that out of the way. You walk into a guitar store and all you hear are people wailing up and down the same pentatonic scale....again...and again...it's killer.

If you don't want to follow the crowd, this is what you do: MODES! Forcing a modal melody (playing a mode in a non-native situation) is an often used artistic tool, but you can go a step further. Seamless playing over changes using modes. Got your interest? Great, now run over to the Playing Over Changes lesson before your enthusiasm runs dry!