1998wdt |
CONCEPTS REVIEW: See figure 092601-4 and follow along or refer to often: We will be using this chart allot in this lesson section. MODES: Modes are created by a "slide rule" effect. The "slide rule" is made up of Major scale note steps, each step being the root note for a different mode. The Major scale note step sequence is the template (an unchanging note step sequence) that is used to provide the note step sequence of any other relative scale and/or chord (mode) desired. Most musicians don't realize it and it's most important and profound to realize; That the common Major, Major 7, minor, minor 7 and diminished chords all use the very same Major scale note step sequence .but each of those different kind of scales are made by simply starting (root note) on a different step on the Major scale. In other words, a minor7 scale has the very same notes as it's relative Major scale, but is made by starting on the 2nd note of that Major scale. Likewise, a (dominant) 7th scale also uses it's relative Major7 scale notes, but starts on the 5th note instead of the 1 note ! ! ! I previously showed that C chord and Amin7 chord are the same harmoniously; And that's because the Amin7 scale, from which the Amin7 chord is made, is simply derived from the notes of a C Major scale, but starting on the note A as root instead of the note C. To be perfectly precise, C6 and Amin7 are actually the same identical notes. The template of the Major scale note steps didn't change one bit, but only the sequence of steps played were different because we started on A instead of C. Refer again to figure 092601-4. Lets look at this closer: Moving up or down 1 fret on a guitar is moving a half step. Moving up or down 2 frets on a guitar is moving a whole step. Starting on note C and moving up 1 fret gets C# or Db (same thing). Now that we reviewed what a whole and half step is: Starting on note C of C Major scale, the steps from one note to the next up the scale are C - D = WHOLE STEP; D - E = WHOLE STEP; E - F = half step; F - G = WHOLE STEP; G - A = WHOLE STEP; A - B = WHOLE STEP; B - C = half step. EVERY MAJOR SCALE HAS THAT SAME SEQUENCE. AND EVERY MINOR CHORD HAS THAT SAME SEQUENCE TOO .BUT JUST STARTS ON ONE OF THE MINOR STEPS. The minor root steps on the Major scale are steps 2, 3, 6 and 7; And now you know where I, IV, V chord change for most Popular songs come from there ain't no minors in there! Major scale step sequence again = 1 W 2 W 3 h 4 W 5 W 6 W 7 h 8/1. Most knowledgeable Musicians memorize it as W W h W W W h. YOU MUST MEMORIZE THIS SEQUENCE UNTIL YOU KNOW IT IN AND OUT THOROUGHLY. Refer again to figure 092601-4: The Major scale step sequence is the template for the slide rule effect we're learning about. Learning how to draw this template out in some form on paper is part of knowing it in and out thoroughly; A must. Click HERE to see a version I use. The way the template is lined up, we can see that C note is C Major scale root (note 1) and see all the notes on one line and steps on the other. But look at what happens when we use D note as root / 1 note; The sequence of steps is not longer W W h W W W h; It is W h W W W h W. That is the sequence for D minor 7; 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 1 (the Dorian mode minor 7 scale, D Dorian in this case). You work it out. If you don't know why it makes D minor 7, then you need to stop now and review my lesson on Basic Theory. If you didn't know modes before, you're fixing to learn them quickly and simply; .and now you know that a minor 7 is the Dorian mode; No mystery, it's just that simple; Dorian mode is a minor 7 scale; That's it; Nothing more to it! (And I'll bet you've heard a bunch of musicians say modes are too mysterious and complicated). We also see that if A note was root on the CMaj7 slide, we would get a step sequence of W h W W h W W which is Amin7b6; 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8/1; (the Aolean minor chord, A Aolean in this case). No mystery, it's just that simple; Aolean mode is a minor 7 b6 scale; That's it; Nothing more to it! Now you know what the Dorian and Aolean modes are. (And I'll bet you've heard a bunch of musicians say modes are too mysterious and complicated). And that really is all there is to modes; Just names for the common scales to help remember which step of the Major scale they are built from and what kind of scale they are so you can easily understand the relationships at any given time. And the techniques of this course simply enterprise upon modes to make scale and chord substitution easy also. Now it's gonna start getting really cool ! See figure 092601-4 AND figure 102001-1. Look what happens if we slide the Major scale template to where the 2 note in the Major scale lines up with C note. KAZONKERZOOS looky looky here now we know how to make C Dorian (Cmin7) the same way we made Dmin7 (Dorian). Yea, yea, I know using the 6th note G as root would give us Gmin7 / G Aolean just like we got A Aolean before. Told ya ..this stuff is E-Z Folks, and gets easier with just a bit of woodshedding ! But you know what's even cooler? YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO PLAY Gmin7b6 (AOLEAN) SCALE OR EVEN Cmin7 (DORIAN) SCALE TO PLAY EITHER ONE DEAD ON ! .ALL YA GOT TO DO IS GO DOWN AND PLAY bVII MAJOR SCALE SINCE THAT'S WHERE THE 1 NOTE FOR THE MAJOR SCALE WENT ON THE TEMPLATE WHEN WE DECIDED TO USE THE 2 NOTE FOR ROOT (IImin7) ! THEY'RE ALL THE SAME NOTES FOLKS. BbMajor scale is the same notes as Cmin7 / C Dorian and Gmin7b6 / G Aolean ! Now, going back to the first template position before we slid it down: Now we can clearly see that to play Dmin7 / D Dorian, OR Amin7b6 / A Aolean, ALL WE GOT TO DO IS PLAY C MAJOR SCALE ! Now take a break and have your strumming buddy play Amin chord while you get used to jamming along with CMaj7 scale notes. After you get the hang of that, or for variety, have your strumming buddy play a simple composition of Amin - Dmin - Emin chords while you jam away with CMaj7 scale notes. --------------------------------------------------- See chart 102001-1. Right off we can see that if we know how to play 1 single simple Major 7 scale, we know how to play Dorian and Aolean mode for ANY chord and in ANY key simply by memorizing how the slide rule template works and where to place THE MAJ7 ROOT to get Dorian and Aolean; Line the 2 up with the root note you want to be Dorian BUT PLAY MAJOR AT THE 1 NOTE AS ROOT; and for Aolean, line the 6 note up with the root note you want to be Aolean BUT PLAY THE MAJOR SCALE AT THE 1 ROOT; RIGHT? If you don't get the picture easily so far, go back to where the template figure was introduced FFFFF ANCHOR LINK BACK FOR WEBSITE VERSION to here 5 times. See ya when you get back. It's just GOT to start getting complicated .RIGHT? BULLBUTTER! it gets easier. First let's learn another mode. GET READY .. GET SET .. THE MAJOR 7 SCALE IS THE IONIAN MODE. Whew, .that was real hard. No mystery, it's just that simple; Ionian mode is a Major 7 scale; That's it; Nothing more to it! (And I'll bet you've heard a bunch of musicians say modes are too mysterious and complicated). So what does what we've learned so far mean in practical terms? The songs Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Old McDonald Had a Farm, are songs with two and three chords respectively and written in Ionian .and the melody remains Ionian scale throughout all chords of both songs; Hum them or play them to yourself and, yes, they're just notes of the Major scale throughout the song; So we say those 2 songs are written in Ionian; and if we want to rock out on them (yee ghads) then we would rock away with a Maj7 / Ionian scale using the key of the song as root. Ain't it hard, Chilluns? Quick side-note: If we can jam Ionian for any other mode of that scale, then it stands to reason they are all interchangeable and any one can be played for the other AS LONG AS YOU KNOW WHERE YOU'RE AT; In other words, you can't be jamming D7 over a C Ionian scale; You have to know that D is a minor 7 over a C Maj scale. Ever wonder why so many Guitarists have a tough time jamming a harmonious lead to Lynard Skynard's Sweet Home Alabama and a few Pickers don't???? The reason is most Pickers don't stop to think that the 3 chords of the song define the song in the key of G and they think the song is in the key of D. The ONLY way a D scale would be harmonious is if it were Mixolydian (dom7) which would then be harmonious to the key of G. Either way you look at it, the melody to the song is G Ionian or D Mixolydian .or even neater, is also all the other modes derived from G Ionian; So a well versed Picker could run all up and down the neck touching upon the appropriate scales of each mode as long as he knows how to do it .AND IT AIN'T THAT DIFFICULT. The song Hit the Road Jack (and Don't You Come Back No More) is a minor key song with four chords; Imin, bVII, bVI, V; And the melody is pure Aolean (min7b6) supported by the chords themselves as they announce and pronounce the root notes 1, b7, b6, 5. If the song were played in the key of A minor, you could jam away all day long on C Major scale and sound like Carlos Santana with just a little wood shedding. Oh Heck, did I mention that Carlos writes and plays almost exclusively modal? So does Jeff Beck and many other musicians known for their harmonious playing; Aolean and Dorian almost exclusively. Know why? Hang on, this is real complicated: Those are the only two minor modes that the vast majority of Popular music is written in ! The remaining minor modes (Phrygian, min7b6b9 and Locrian, diminished, min7b6b9b5) are almost completely used as passing chords / passages in Popular music or in abstract Jazz. The songs Ghost Riders in the Sky and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen are also good studies of Aolean mode. When someone jams, vamps or writes (etc) in a minor key, it will almost always be in the Dorian or Aolean mode; And you've now learned why and learned both of them. The blues scale is Dorian that's a good start. Almost all blues melodies are Dorian, even when the chords are in a Major key. That's because Dorian plays over Major keys very well. It's Carlos Santanas favorite mode. Allot of blues are also played using Aolean (min7b6 ...the pure minor). Now for the real hard part: If Dorian and Aeolean make up the vast majority of Popular music, that only leaves Ionian (Maj7), Mixolydian (dom7) and Lydian (sus4) to deal with and only Lap Steel Pickers will have much interest in the sus4 for the cool Maj9 voices there! So that only leaves Maj7 and dom7 to go over and those are the ones most musicians know the best although most do not realize it. More on them a little later. Remember the "5 times" technique? Click HERE to go to the next section, STEEL GUITAR Applications. (Excellent study for Spanish Guitarists also). Click HERE to bypass the Steel Guitar lesson and go to the HOMEWORK page. |
CONCEPTS REVIEW: See figure 092601-4 and follow along or refer to often: We will be using this chart allot in this lesson section. MODES: Modes are created by a "slide rule" effect. The "slide rule" is made up of Major scale note steps, each step being the root note for a different mode. The Major scale note step sequence is the template (an unchanging note step sequence) that is used to provide the note step sequence of any other relative scale and/or chord (mode) desired. Most musicians don't realize it and it's most important and profound to realize; That the common Major, Major 7, minor, minor 7 and diminished chords all use the very same Major scale note step sequence .but each of those different kind of scales are made by simply starting (root note) on a different step on the Major scale. In other words, a minor7 scale has the very same notes as it's relative Major scale, but is made by starting on the 2nd note of that Major scale. Likewise, a (dominant) 7th scale also uses it's relative Major7 scale notes, but starts on the 5th note instead of the 1 note ! ! ! I previously showed that C chord and Amin7 chord are the same harmoniously; And that's because the Amin7 scale, from which the Amin7 chord is made, is simply derived from the notes of a C Major scale, but starting on the note A as root instead of the note C. To be perfectly precise, C6 and Amin7 are actually the same identical notes. The template of the Major scale note steps didn't change one bit, but only the sequence of steps played were different because we started on A instead of C. Refer again to figure 092601-4. Lets look at this closer: Moving up or down 1 fret on a guitar is moving a half step. Moving up or down 2 frets on a guitar is moving a whole step. Starting on note C and moving up 1 fret gets C# or Db (same thing). Now that we reviewed what a whole and half step is: Starting on note C of C Major scale, the steps from one note to the next up the scale are C - D = WHOLE STEP; D - E = WHOLE STEP; E - F = half step; F - G = WHOLE STEP; G - A = WHOLE STEP; A - B = WHOLE STEP; B - C = half step. EVERY MAJOR SCALE HAS THAT SAME SEQUENCE. AND EVERY MINOR CHORD HAS THAT SAME SEQUENCE TOO .BUT JUST STARTS ON ONE OF THE MINOR STEPS. The minor root steps on the Major scale are steps 2, 3, 6 and 7; And now you know where I, IV, V chord change for most Popular songs come from there ain't no minors in there! Major scale step sequence again = 1 W 2 W 3 h 4 W 5 W 6 W 7 h 8/1. Most knowledgeable Musicians memorize it as W W h W W W h. YOU MUST MEMORIZE THIS SEQUENCE UNTIL YOU KNOW IT IN AND OUT THOROUGHLY. Refer again to figure 092601-4: The Major scale step sequence is the template for the slide rule effect we're learning about. Learning how to draw this template out in some form on paper is part of knowing it in and out thoroughly; A must. Click HERE to see a version I use. The way the template is lined up, we can see that C note is C Major scale root (note 1) and see all the notes on one line and steps on the other. But look at what happens when we use D note as root / 1 note; The sequence of steps is not longer W W h W W W h; It is W h W W W h W. That is the sequence for D minor 7; 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 1 (the Dorian mode minor 7 scale, D Dorian in this case). You work it out. If you don't know why it makes D minor 7, then you need to stop now and review my lesson on Basic Theory. If you didn't know modes before, you're fixing to learn them quickly and simply; .and now you know that a minor 7 is the Dorian mode; No mystery, it's just that simple; Dorian mode is a minor 7 scale; That's it; Nothing more to it! (And I'll bet you've heard a bunch of musicians say modes are too mysterious and complicated). We also see that if A note was root on the CMaj7 slide, we would get a step sequence of W h W W h W W which is Amin7b6; 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 8/1; (the Aolean minor chord, A Aolean in this case). No mystery, it's just that simple; Aolean mode is a minor 7 b6 scale; That's it; Nothing more to it! Now you know what the Dorian and Aolean modes are. (And I'll bet you've heard a bunch of musicians say modes are too mysterious and complicated). And that really is all there is to modes; Just names for the common scales to help remember which step of the Major scale they are built from and what kind of scale they are so you can easily understand the relationships at any given time. And the techniques of this course simply enterprise upon modes to make scale and chord substitution easy also. Now it's gonna start getting really cool ! See figure 092601-4 AND figure 102001-1. Look what happens if we slide the Major scale template to where the 2 note in the Major scale lines up with C note. KAZONKERZOOS looky looky here now we know how to make C Dorian (Cmin7) the same way we made Dmin7 (Dorian). Yea, yea, I know using the 6th note G as root would give us Gmin7 / G Aolean just like we got A Aolean before. Told ya ..this stuff is E-Z Folks, and gets easier with just a bit of woodshedding ! But you know what's even cooler? YOU DON'T HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO PLAY Gmin7b6 (AOLEAN) SCALE OR EVEN Cmin7 (DORIAN) SCALE TO PLAY EITHER ONE DEAD ON ! .ALL YA GOT TO DO IS GO DOWN AND PLAY bVII MAJOR SCALE SINCE THAT'S WHERE THE 1 NOTE FOR THE MAJOR SCALE WENT ON THE TEMPLATE WHEN WE DECIDED TO USE THE 2 NOTE FOR ROOT (IImin7) ! THEY'RE ALL THE SAME NOTES FOLKS. BbMajor scale is the same notes as Cmin7 / C Dorian and Gmin7b6 / G Aolean ! Now, going back to the first template position before we slid it down: Now we can clearly see that to play Dmin7 / D Dorian, OR Amin7b6 / A Aolean, ALL WE GOT TO DO IS PLAY C MAJOR SCALE ! Now take a break and have your strumming buddy play Amin chord while you get used to jamming along with CMaj7 scale notes. After you get the hang of that, or for variety, have your strumming buddy play a simple composition of Amin - Dmin - Emin chords while you jam away with CMaj7 scale notes. --------------------------------------------------- See chart 102001-1. Right off we can see that if we know how to play 1 single simple Major 7 scale, we know how to play Dorian and Aolean mode for ANY chord and in ANY key simply by memorizing how the slide rule template works and where to place THE MAJ7 ROOT to get Dorian and Aolean; Line the 2 up with the root note you want to be Dorian BUT PLAY MAJOR AT THE 1 NOTE AS ROOT; and for Aolean, line the 6 note up with the root note you want to be Aolean BUT PLAY THE MAJOR SCALE AT THE 1 ROOT; RIGHT? If you don't get the picture easily so far, go back to where the template figure was introduced FFFFF ANCHOR LINK BACK FOR WEBSITE VERSION to here 5 times. See ya when you get back. It's just GOT to start getting complicated .RIGHT? BULLBUTTER! it gets easier. First let's learn another mode. GET READY .. GET SET .. THE MAJOR 7 SCALE IS THE IONIAN MODE. Whew, .that was real hard. No mystery, it's just that simple; Ionian mode is a Major 7 scale; That's it; Nothing more to it! (And I'll bet you've heard a bunch of musicians say modes are too mysterious and complicated). So what does what we've learned so far mean in practical terms? The songs Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Old McDonald Had a Farm, are songs with two and three chords respectively and written in Ionian .and the melody remains Ionian scale throughout all chords of both songs; Hum them or play them to yourself and, yes, they're just notes of the Major scale throughout the song; So we say those 2 songs are written in Ionian; and if we want to rock out on them (yee ghads) then we would rock away with a Maj7 / Ionian scale using the key of the song as root. Ain't it hard, Chilluns? Quick side-note: If we can jam Ionian for any other mode of that scale, then it stands to reason they are all interchangeable and any one can be played for the other AS LONG AS YOU KNOW WHERE YOU'RE AT; In other words, you can't be jamming D7 over a C Ionian scale; You have to know that D is a minor 7 over a C Maj scale. Ever wonder why so many Guitarists have a tough time jamming a harmonious lead to Lynard Skynard's Sweet Home Alabama and a few Pickers don't???? The reason is most Pickers don't stop to think that the 3 chords of the song define the song in the key of G and they think the song is in the key of D. The ONLY way a D scale would be harmonious is if it were Mixolydian (dom7) which would then be harmonious to the key of G. Either way you look at it, the melody to the song is G Ionian or D Mixolydian .or even neater, is also all the other modes derived from G Ionian; So a well versed Picker could run all up and down the neck touching upon the appropriate scales of each mode as long as he knows how to do it .AND IT AIN'T THAT DIFFICULT. The song Hit the Road Jack (and Don't You Come Back No More) is a minor key song with four chords; Imin, bVII, bVI, V; And the melody is pure Aolean (min7b6) supported by the chords themselves as they announce and pronounce the root notes 1, b7, b6, 5. If the song were played in the key of A minor, you could jam away all day long on C Major scale and sound like Carlos Santana with just a little wood shedding. Oh Heck, did I mention that Carlos writes and plays almost exclusively modal? So does Jeff Beck and many other musicians known for their harmonious playing; Aolean and Dorian almost exclusively. Know why? Hang on, this is real complicated: Those are the only two minor modes that the vast majority of Popular music is written in ! The remaining minor modes (Phrygian, min7b6b9 and Locrian, diminished, min7b6b9b5) are almost completely used as passing chords / passages in Popular music or in abstract Jazz. The songs Ghost Riders in the Sky and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen are also good studies of Aolean mode. When someone jams, vamps or writes (etc) in a minor key, it will almost always be in the Dorian or Aolean mode; And you've now learned why and learned both of them. The blues scale is Dorian that's a good start. Almost all blues melodies are Dorian, even when the chords are in a Major key. That's because Dorian plays over Major keys very well. It's Carlos Santanas favorite mode. Allot of blues are also played using Aolean (min7b6 ...the pure minor). Now for the real hard part: If Dorian and Aeolean make up the vast majority of Popular music, that only leaves Ionian (Maj7), Mixolydian (dom7) and Lydian (sus4) to deal with and only Lap Steel Pickers will have much interest in the sus4 for the cool Maj9 voices there! So that only leaves Maj7 and dom7 to go over and those are the ones most musicians know the best although most do not realize it. More on them a little later. Remember the "5 times" technique? Click HERE to go to the next section, STEEL GUITAR Applications. (Excellent study for Spanish Guitarists also). Click HERE to bypass the Steel Guitar lesson and go to the HOMEWORK page. |
I 6 |
IImin7 |
IVMaj9 |
VMaj9 |
Lesson 6. CONCEPTS Review. |
Lesson 6. CONCEPTS Review. |
IV7 |
1998wdt |
