Video Guitar Lesson 2-23-10 - A quick and dirty explanation of what modes are

It's my first new lesson of 2010, I think...also the first for my new blog..I have an all new site as of last week and there are a ton of cool stuff that I've been able to add including blogs for all of the forum members (and a bunch of guys have been writing some pretty cool stuff already), a file hosting section, a "Virtual Theater and chat room" where I can do live streaming video lessons and integration of my lesson site into the forums...I'm pretty excited about the new site and I hope you guys take a minute to poke around

I'm also "reloading" my old blog into the new site one entry a day so for the next few months if you want to follow along from the beginning you'll get three years worth of video lessons presented in a "lesson course" order so that the material builds on itself.

Here is today's lesson:

http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/entry.php?13-A-Quick-and-Dirty-Lesson-on-Modes


Have fun!

Mark

I found that one to be incredibly useful -- thanks a lot for posting this!

Eric said:

I found that one to be incredibly useful -- thanks a lot for posting this!

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Great! I'm glad you dig it...I have part 2 ready now...

That was good. Thanks Mark. That certainly helps make more sense of modes and how they sound and where to use them.

Spudman said:

That was good. Thanks Mark. That certainly helps make more sense of modes and how they sound and where to use them.

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cool!

to be honest I think they are over emphasized by most people...for most rock, pop and blues styles we really don't use them that much.

My next lesson I think is going to be about being able to sue your major and minor scales more effectively...I think that would me a much more useful lesson

For a guy who knows nothing of music theory, scales, etc., my little brain hit overload not long into that. But I'm going to check it out tomorrow when I'm not nodding off at the end of the day like I am now. And I'll have a guitar with me. 'Looking forward to it, thanks :AOK

otaypanky said:

For a guy who knows nothing of music theory, scales, etc., my little brain hit overload not long into that. But I'm going to check it out tomorrow when I'm not nodding off at the end of the day like I am now. And I'll have a guitar with me. 'Looking forward to it, thanks :AOK

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No prob! :AOK

How well do you know your Major and Minor scales? If you are shakey on them it might be a good idea to work that stuff up a little more before tackling this.....

mark wein said:

My next lesson I think is going to be about being able to sue your major and minor scales more effectively...I think that would me a much more useful lesson

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Maybe for the legally inclined.
There have been times that I've been tempted though.

Spudman said:

Maybe for the legally inclined.
There have been times that I've been tempted though.

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I really suck at typing. :thwap

mark wein said:

I really suck at typing. :thwap

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Maybe so...but since you are a bad *** guitar player all is forgiven.

Spudman said:

Maybe so...but since you are a bad *** guitar player all is forgiven.

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I think I love you.

This lesson is great as always. Not to be brown nosing, but I find your vid lessons, especially in connection with your Foundations book, to be extremely helpful. Now if I can only find enough time to really focus on it and work those foundations. :thwap

As you pointing out in the vid, until the foundations are laid, it is not as effective and helpful to spend much time worrying about what mode I should be in at a given time. Once I get the foundational stuff down better, a couple of the modes especially (along with chord tones) would be useful for finding some more palette beyond the basic minor pentatonic. :AOK

sunvalleylaw said:

This lesson is great as always. Not to be brown nosing, but I find your vid lessons, especially in connection with your Foundations book, to be extremely helpful. Now if I can only find enough time to really focus on it and work those foundations. :thwap

As you pointing out in the vid, until the foundations are laid, it is not as effective and helpful to spend much time worrying about what mode I should be in at a given time. Once I get the foundational stuff down better, a couple of the modes especially (along with chord tones) would be useful for finding some more palette beyond the basic minor pentatonic. :AOK

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I try and have all of the stuff make sense from one "point of view". There are tons of ways to look at the material and all could be considered valid but if you have something of a system then it should unfold a little easier for the student....

I found your take on modes to be quite balanced and accurate. In your jam track you were essentially playing a static or singular backing idea to the Dorian mode as you went through it. The point is well taken, the easiest way to explore a Modal sound is through a static Drone note of the root or a vamp that doesn't change much.

There is another way, though and that is to play chords that are diatonic to the Mode - One thing you brushed upon, but I will state it a bit differently, is it matters where the whole and half steps fall in relation to the root. For example a Major, is whole except 3-4 and 7-8. Well because the modes all have different occurences of half and whole steps, over the different degrees of their scales, they are uniquely different from Major Scales (notwithstanding Ionian)

So there are characteristic notes which make up that Mode, for example a Dorian is essentially the same as a Minor but with a Natural 6th degree (as opposed to the b6 in Natural Minor) Because of this note, a chord diatonic to the Mode itself, that contains the Nat 6th, will be Modal, or Dorian in context.

A couple of things you'd have to be aware of is note choices and their tonal gravity. Once you hit the I chord, it tends to "Hijack" the melody because of its volatility. But with careful thought and note choices, that resolve to the tonic of that Mode, you can do more than a drone or even a 2 chord vamp. Knowledge of extended chord voicings can put nearly every chord with say a B in a D Dorian Chord Progression within reach and make for some interesting tonal ideas. (Be careful of course of the C Major 7th ha ha in a Dorian progression)

Modal music is not only the thing we call the scale, but it is very closely related to the progression or drone that it is played against.

GA