Why should you learn guitar modes?
Well with the release of my new E-Book on the subject, this week’s blog post is a general overview of each musical mode. And, how they can help add colour to your playing. Sure the idea of learning a bunch of new guitar scales might not be thrilling, but trust me on this one, it’s worth it.
Expanding your tonal palette with modal scales is useful when you have a little more of an understanding of them. Hopefully, this blog post will give you a grounding on the modes and how they fit in your guitar playing.
What are musical modes?
There are 7 modes in music, and each one comes with it’s own modal scale. And each one has a name.
- Ionian
- Dorian
- Phrygian
- Lydian
- Mixolydian
- Aeolian
- Locrian
Each mode possesses a certain melodic characteristic. They’re split in to three major modes (Ionian, Lydian Mixolydian) and four minor modes (Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian, Locrian). You’ll likely already know Ionian and Aeolian as these are more commonly known as the Major and Natural Minor Scales respectively.
Guitar modes are useful to use when soloing over a certain chord progression, or as part of your songwriting. If you’ve been stuck using the basic major, minor and pentatonic scale shapes, musical modes could really benefit your playing!
The parent scale method
Each scale is derived from a degree of the major scale. So if Ionian is the 1st degree, then Dorian is the 2nd and so on. To know what notes to use in a certain modal scale, for example A Mixolydian, we need to know the parent scale. Knowing that Mixolydian is the 5th mode, means we need to work backwards to find the 1st mode, which gives us D Ionian.
This helps us to determine the structure of A Mixolydian. We know that we’re using the same notes as the D Major Scale, but to ensure we’re colouring the scale appropriately, we start from A to get Mixolydian. Ensuring you’re hot on your key signatures would help with this as well. Using the circle of fifths is a great tool when writing and playing in musical modes.
Using the circle of fifths
Using the circle of fifths to help understand what notes are available to you in a major scale. Remembering what notes are available to you in C Major, for example – C, D, E, F, G, A, B – can also quickly help us to establish the notes in a particular mode. Sticking with Mixolydian, which is a major scale and has a lowered 7th degree, we can assume the C Mixolydian uses these notes – C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb. If you wanted to figure out the parent scale, we can work back to F Ionian.
Get guitar modes. Get colourful.
Musical modes are an absolute must if you want to break out of the box of your usual vanilla guitar scales. The more you play through them, the more you’ll start to recognise each modal scale and how it sounds. There’s a lot more out there when it comes to expanding what you can convey emotively with your guitar and modes are a perfect grounding to give your playing some new found vibrancy.
You can get your FREE copy of my brand new e-book on each mode by clicking right here. And if you’re in need of more guidance on how to apply modes, or anything else guitar, then don’t forget to claim a free lesson!