Hey guys,
First post didn’t go through, so trying this again.
I thought I’d share a little trick I used when I wanted to start to move away from the tried and trusted minor pentatonic scale for improvising.
Modes can be a challenging concept to grasp. I ended up not knowing where to use them, how to use them. I’ll take for account that you’ve read about them, watched some lessons or something, and know a bit about them.
So, you’ve been fooling around with the minor pentatonic for a while, you can slay some killer blues and hard rock licks. You know (at least) the first “box” shape.
First off, let’s look at the degrees of the minor pentatonic scale:
-Tone (1)
-Minor 3rd (bIII)
-Perfect 4th (IV)
-Perfect 5th (V)
-Minor 7th (bVII)
What makes this pentatonic minor you ask? Well, the minor 3rd. Guess what else has a minor 3rd? All the modes that are considered minor (let’s forget about Locrian for now, with it’s pesky flat V). Starting to see where I’m going with this?
Let’s look at the degrees of the first “minor” mode, Dorian: I-II-bIII-IV-V-VI-bVII
Well golly gee, the minor pentatonic is in there, with two additional notes, the 2nd and the 6th! Slap on a minor backing track and play that minor pentatonic as you would, but start adding the 2nd and 6th. Get a feel for where they belong in your licks. Can you bend them? Can you slide to them? Can you slide from them? Can you land on them at the end of a lick?
Now do the same with the Phrygian mode: I-bII-bIII-IV-V-bVI-bVIII. The bII and bVI sound pretty cool, right?
Let’s do Aeolian, also referred to as the natural minor scale: I-II-bIII-IV-V-bVI-bVII. Lots of fun to be had with this mode too.
Now here’s a kicker: you can do the same thing with the “major” modes! Just start off with your major pentatonic scale, then add the notes as you did with the minor modes:
Ionian (major scale) : I-II-III-IV-V-VI-VII
Lydian : I-II-III-AugIV-V-VI-VII (For the augmented 4th, take your perfect 4th and move it up a half-step)
Mixolydian : I-II-III-IV-V-VI-bVII
Now, all this being said, you will have to learn your 7 modes in the 3-note-per-string patterns. Why? Because they all link together, and once you know them, you will be shredding those licks all across the fretboard with ease.
A little disclaimer: I don’t think this is the only way you should learn the modes. It was my way of getting the feel of them, and figuring out what note should go where. If it helps you, great! If not, sorry for the wall of text
Cheers
First post didn’t go through, so trying this again.
I thought I’d share a little trick I used when I wanted to start to move away from the tried and trusted minor pentatonic scale for improvising.
Modes can be a challenging concept to grasp. I ended up not knowing where to use them, how to use them. I’ll take for account that you’ve read about them, watched some lessons or something, and know a bit about them.
So, you’ve been fooling around with the minor pentatonic for a while, you can slay some killer blues and hard rock licks. You know (at least) the first “box” shape.
First off, let’s look at the degrees of the minor pentatonic scale:
-Tone (1)
-Minor 3rd (bIII)
-Perfect 4th (IV)
-Perfect 5th (V)
-Minor 7th (bVII)
What makes this pentatonic minor you ask? Well, the minor 3rd. Guess what else has a minor 3rd? All the modes that are considered minor (let’s forget about Locrian for now, with it’s pesky flat V). Starting to see where I’m going with this?
Let’s look at the degrees of the first “minor” mode, Dorian: I-II-bIII-IV-V-VI-bVII
Well golly gee, the minor pentatonic is in there, with two additional notes, the 2nd and the 6th! Slap on a minor backing track and play that minor pentatonic as you would, but start adding the 2nd and 6th. Get a feel for where they belong in your licks. Can you bend them? Can you slide to them? Can you slide from them? Can you land on them at the end of a lick?
Now do the same with the Phrygian mode: I-bII-bIII-IV-V-bVI-bVIII. The bII and bVI sound pretty cool, right?
Let’s do Aeolian, also referred to as the natural minor scale: I-II-bIII-IV-V-bVI-bVII. Lots of fun to be had with this mode too.
Now here’s a kicker: you can do the same thing with the “major” modes! Just start off with your major pentatonic scale, then add the notes as you did with the minor modes:
Ionian (major scale) : I-II-III-IV-V-VI-VII
Lydian : I-II-III-AugIV-V-VI-VII (For the augmented 4th, take your perfect 4th and move it up a half-step)
Mixolydian : I-II-III-IV-V-VI-bVII
Now, all this being said, you will have to learn your 7 modes in the 3-note-per-string patterns. Why? Because they all link together, and once you know them, you will be shredding those licks all across the fretboard with ease.
A little disclaimer: I don’t think this is the only way you should learn the modes. It was my way of getting the feel of them, and figuring out what note should go where. If it helps you, great! If not, sorry for the wall of text
Cheers
