Video Guitar Lesson 2-26-10 Building your modes in Parallel

[mark wein]

Here is lesson #2 in my new series on understanding your modes:

http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/entry.php?14-Looking-at-your-modes-from-a-different-angle.

Still nothing about applications, just how they are built and why they sound different from each other. In this lesson we are building them all from a common root and seeing what notes are altered in each scale to get each modes "sound".

Lesson #1 can be found here: http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/entry.php?13-A-Quick-and-Dirty-Lesson-on-Modes

Have fun and let mw know what you think of the new lessons and the new site...I'll be having either a new video lesson or an older blog "reload" into my new blog every day if you want to catch up on the older stuff

[Blaze]

Cool Stuff Mark..Everybody should watch these vids..

Any reasons for the mono sound ??

Thanks :AOK

[mark wein]

Cool Stuff Mark..Everybody should watch these vids..

Any reasons for the mono sound ??

Thanks :AOK

Thanks!

I've been using my recording interface for the audio and I keep forgetting that what works for my webcam lessons gets turning into one side for iMovie :thwap

[Blaze]

Thanks!

I've been using my recording interface for the audio and I keep forgetting that what works for my webcam lessons gets turning into one side for iMovie :thwap

I think most of us would like to see more of your playin on the neck..Framing maybe a bit too close..

[mark wein]

I think most of us would like to see more of your playin on the neck..Framing maybe a bit too close..

the strange thing is that I can see the whole thing while I was filming these two lessons and then when it ended up in iMovie it got cropped...I'll probably go back to doing the lessons with another video camera...I thought I could do a couple of quick ones this week partially to answer some questions on another forum....didn't work out exactly how I wanted them, though...at least there is the PDF to print and read....

[mainestratman]

Cool Stuff Mark..Everybody should watch these vids..


Maybe I shouldn't have watched them. Now I'm confused and wondering if I should even be playing guitar.... lol

Naw. Screw it. I'll keep playing and hitting whatever sounds good. That's worked all along for me. :-D

:dude

[Moander]

....I'll keep playing and hitting whatever sounds good. That's worked all along for me. :-D

:dude

After 30+ years of playing, through all the theory, scales and modes, thats where I'm back to :)

[Eric]

Hi Mark,

I just watched this lesson now. I think I understand what you're trying to do, demonstrating the application of these modes by showing what shifting the scale does to the scale intervals from the perspective of the tonic note (right??).

My questions on modes really spring from two things: 1) what you play them over and 2) what your root note should be considered. For example, I play in church as my main musical outlet. We have a lot of musical freedom, provided we have the chops to pull it off, so on some songs it will be a simple chord progression.

I never quite know if playing in modes other than ionian would require me shifting the tonal center but playing the exact same notes or whether it involves actual different notes in the scale you're using for leads or solos. For instance, say a song is in C and uses C-G-Dm-Am7-C: if I want a slightly dark sound like Dorian, do I play some combo of C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C but just do it in the context of D (e.g. D-E-F-G-A-B-C) or do I still keep it relative to C and just switch the intervals (e.g. C-D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb-C) or do I combine the two (e.g. D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb-C)? Or will I probably only be interested in playing in dorian if the song was written in dorian in the first place? It's these questions that confuse me the most and end with me reverting to C ionian intervals, starting and ending on whatever sounds good. I'm searching for more colors to use in the tonal palette, but I think I need to understand before I can use them effectively.

It seems like every single lesson on modes flips between either explaining the differences in intervals or showing how to derive the scales, but the lessons are never consistent in their key, so it's hard for someone like me to stay grounded -- like in lesson #1, you talk about how you use the C major scale as the basis for modes, and then pick a Dm7 chord, so then I'm not sure if you play D dorian, C dorian, C ionian, D ionian or what over that.

I've asked variations of this question about a million times on here and I'm sorry if it's unclear, but it's just my input into the speed bumps encountered in understanding modes. I'm sure you want your lessons to be as effective as possible, so hopefully my struggles are indicative of what others sometimes get hung up on.

[mark wein]

Hi Mark,

I just watched this lesson now. I think I understand what you're trying to do, demonstrating the application of these modes by showing what shifting the scale does to the scale intervals from the perspective of the tonic note (right??).

My questions on modes really spring from two things: 1) what you play them over and 2) what your root note should be considered. For example, I play in church as my main musical outlet. We have a lot of musical freedom, provided we have the chops to pull it off, so on some songs it will be a simple chord progression.

I never quite know if playing in modes other than ionian would require me shifting the tonal center but playing the exact same notes or whether it involves actual different notes in the scale you're using for leads or solos. For instance, say a song is in C and uses C-G-Dm-Am7-C: if I want a slightly dark sound like Dorian, do I play some combo of C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C but just do it in the context of D (e.g. D-E-F-G-A-B-C) or do I still keep it relative to C and just switch the intervals (e.g. C-D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb-C) or do I combine the two (e.g. D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb-C)? Or will I probably only be interested in playing in dorian if the song was written in dorian in the first place? It's these questions that confuse me the most and end with me reverting to C ionian intervals, starting and ending on whatever sounds good. I'm searching for more colors to use in the tonal palette, but I think I need to understand before I can use them effectively.

It seems like every single lesson on modes flips between either explaining the differences in intervals or showing how to derive the scales, but the lessons are never consistent in their key, so it's hard for someone like me to stay grounded -- like in lesson #1, you talk about how you use the C major scale as the basis for modes, and then pick a Dm7 chord, so then I'm not sure if you play D dorian, C dorian, C ionian, D ionian or what over that.

I've asked variations of this question about a million times on here and I'm sorry if it's unclear, but it's just my input into the speed bumps encountered in understanding modes. I'm sure you want your lessons to be as effective as possible, so hopefully my struggles are indicative of what others sometimes get hung up on.

Hi Eric!

One of the things about the subject of modes is that I think folks feel like they are more important than they really are for most rock and pop settings...check this out and see if it clears things up for you a little bit: http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/content.php?121-A-Quick-and-Dirty-Lesson-on-Modes

One thing to remember is that if you are playing over a "functioning" chord progression where you have chords all working together in a key and not staying "static" or unchanging for any appreciable length of time then just play in the key that works for those chords.

If you have a chord that lasts for several bars then playing the modal ideas over that chord will make more sense and you can use the modes for different "coloring" over the chord.

[Eric]

Hi Eric!

One of the things about the subject of modes is that I think folks feel like they are more important than they really are for most rock and pop settings...check this out and see if it clears things up for you a little bit: http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/content.php?121-A-Quick-and-Dirty-Lesson-on-Modes

One thing to remember is that if you are playing over a "functioning" chord progression where you have chords all working together in a key and not staying "static" or unchanging for any appreciable length of time then just play in the key that works for those chords.

If you have a chord that lasts for several bars then playing the modal ideas over that chord will make more sense and you can use the modes for different "coloring" over the chord.
I did see that in your first video. So you just tend to play in a given key and don't worry about modes most of the time if you have regular chord changes?

[mark wein]

I did see that in your first video. So you just tend to play in a given key and don't worry about modes most of the time if you have regular chord changes?
yeah...otherwise you spend too much time thinking about note choices and less about the actual melody...