Playing modes over a pedal tone is going to nail the sound of each mode down, but it can also be misleading in that you can wander around aimlessly within the mode and think you’re really “doing it”.
What you need, though, is to develop a sense of the strong and weak notes in each mode,…
What make the modes is where the music resolves… comes to rest… feels at home.
If you take a pool of notes – C D E F G A B – and make the C sound like home, you get the major scale or C Ionian mode (at this point think of mode as meaning way…
There are five interlocking patterns that are usually taught for the pentatonic scale. Each of those 5 patterns line up along side each other to cover the entire fingerboard with one scale.
A minor pentatonic = A C D E G
Anywhere you find those notes on the fingerboard, it’s the A minor pentatonic scale. If…
There are many good ways to practice modes.
Start in a major scale position and alter the notes in that position to get the modes:
Lydian – raise the 4th
Ionian – return the 4th to natural
Mixolydian – lower the 7th
Dorian – lower the 3rd and 7th
Aeolian – lower the 3rd, 6th and 7th
Phrygian – loser the…
Start forcing yourself to play notes out of step-wise sequence.
One way to do that is learn melodic patterns. Go through your scales and play 1 3 – 2 4 – 3 5 – 4 6 – 5 7 – 6 8 – 7 9 (thirds) or 1 4 – 2 5…
Notes all over the fingerboard (learning to read standard notation would be a good idea)
Major scale in all keys all over the fingerboard (key signatures, Circle of Fifths)
Intervals
Triad construction (major, minor, diminished)
Triad Inversions all over the fingerboard
Major key diatonic intervals
Major key triad harmony
7th chords and inversions
Major key 7th chord harmony
Relative major and minor (revisit key…
Scale harmony is breaking a scale up into various chords that all use notes from the scale.
Most progressions will be based on this breakdown of chords with an occasional variation here and there.
Then you have to learn all those chords up and down the fingerboard so you can…
Scales are an excellent way to develop your technique.
They are excellent for helping to develop your ears.
They form the basis for understanding how chords are constructed.
They form the basis for understanding how chord progressions and riffs are constructed.
They are the basic building block of music…
