Originally Posted by: axe2the one thing i liked about that video,was you can lay out all the modes of the mj scale,without knowing the intervals.

Hey there Axe! I watched that tutorial. The thing that gets me with modes, and explaining modes, is that it doesn't take long for it to start seemingly like this super-complicated subject with scale degrees, key signatures, circle-of-5ths all that stuff... it just doesn't have to be that complicated at all.

I agree with Christopher whole-heartedly, and noticed you did too. Being able to hear the mode is really important. If you can't hear the mode in your head, then you're just playing a pattern, rather than actually hearing a note, and then anticipating the next note.

What I didn't like about the "Modes 101" video, was that right out of the gate, he made what I consider a big mistake by not counting out the intervals from root to root. This may seem hard to understand why its important, but I'll try to explain it as straight forward as I can.

If we look at the major scale interval pattern where W = a whole step (two frets) and H = a half step (one fret) the major scale can be described as, starting from the root note:

W W H W W W H

So if we use C major as an example, the notes are (I know you know this):

C (then a whole step) D (then a whole step) E (then a half step) F (then a whole step) G (then a whole step) A (then a whole step) B (then a half step to get back to) C

Ok, simple enough. But the real "tool" here is knowing the interval for the major scale. From memory.. "whole-whole-half, whole-whole-whole-half". If you can remember that, you can play the major scale starting on ANY note on the fretboard... just simply pick the root note, and then work your way through the interval sequence.

The guy in the video doesn't write out the whole and half steps... instead, he's focused on the notes. This method really shows its weakness when he tries to explain the mixolydian scale. If you look at 13:30 of the video, he's pointing to the last note of the G mixolydian scale, F, and pointing to the top of the page where he's written out the notes of the C major scale, specifically, A, and B, the last two notes. What he's trying to explain is that the only difference between major and mixolydian is that the 7th degree is flattened, in other words, you would play the major scale but when you reached the 7th note, you'd play it one fret down from usual.

Thing is, to understand this, you have extrapolate that A to B are the 6th and 7th notes, or "degrees" of the C major scale, which we're using as a template to define all the modes, and that the interval from A to B is a whole step, while, jumping back to G mixolydian, the last two notes are E to F, which is a half step, which therefore means the 7th of mixolydian is flattened... does that make sense? :eek: I mean, I can barely understand it myself and I wrote it!

Its far simpler to start with the mixolydian interval sequence, from root to root:

W W H W W H W

You don't even have to memorize the sequence... you could just write it down on a piece of paper and keep it with you as you play guitar. Now, using the interval sequence, you can play mixolydian mode starting on any note. Just pick the root note, and follow the sequence, working on just one string. This will allow you to get the sound of any mode in any key. You just need to know:

-the key (the root note you want to start on)
-the interval sequence of the mode
-a root note base to define the mode *you need to have something, a bass line, droning an open string, a keyboard, whatever... but something playing the root note to give the mode context. Without it, the mode probably won't stand out to you that much. For example, you can play the C major scale emphasizing the root note C all you want, but if the bass player plays A, and the keyboardist plays an A minor chord along with you, its going to sound like you're playing A minor. It'll just sound weird that you're not resolving to A, but it won't sound like C major, I guarantee it.

Now, there's a huge amount of depth that you can get into playing across the fretboard... looking at chord progressions that complement specific modes or modal changes within a song, targeting chord tones, all that kind of stuff. But what comes first is just getting to know the sound of a mode.

I love playing to backing tracks. I can put on a heavy rock sounding backing track where the D minor pentatonic scale sounds really good over it. Then, just knowing the interval sequence of a given mode, for example, phrygian, I can experiment... first just playing phrygian over the entire piece, so I get a feel how the different notes relate to the backing track. Then, with the sound of the mode still in my ears, I can switch back to the D minor pentatonic scale, goof around, and see where I can throw in some phrygian licks...

Its a lot fun, and what I like is that I'm focused on hearing the mode rather than working out a pattern on the fretboard... I do start with memorizing the interval sequence on one string, but after that, I'll transpose those intervals to other strings and other areas of the fretboard. I'll make plenty of mistakes, but as long as I can hear when I playing the notes of mode, I feel its good practice. Pretty quickly you start to get an intuitive sense for where those notes are, and you make less mistakes. For me at least, its a far more enjoyable way of engaging in modes than just going though a pattern.

As Christopher said quite some time ago "if you can hear it, you can play it".

Just a footnote... I do go back and look at the notes, intervals and patterns more carefully... I'm always trying to improve my understanding of theory. But the above method of using the interval sequence gets me playing the mode right away, which I find very helpful.