I have noticed that a lot of guitar players have sketchy knowledge of the 7 musical modes. Sometimes you hear people say the " modes of the major scale". We are talking about the same thing - the seven musical modes.
The 7 modal scales have funky names. They are called Ionian mode, Dorian mode, Phrygian mode, Lydian mode, Mixolydian mode, Aeolian mode and Locrian mode. They got their names from the good ol' Greeks.
Hey, it is actually pretty easy! The fact is, all the 7 modes can be seen as using exactly the same notes. For example, let's look at the C Major scale. Starting from the root note going up to the octave, we have the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. This is the first mode, and it's called the Ionian mode. We can play all the modes by using the exact same notes:
When we look at the modes this way, it's not so complicated, is it? We see that all of the modes consist of exactly the same notes - in this case the notes of the C Major scale. The difference between these modes is where the tonal center is. Look at the D Dorian mode. You can view it as the C Major scale where the tonal center has been shifted to the D note, instead of the C note. Because of this shift, we now have a minor scale mode called the D Dorian mode. However, the notes are identical to the notes of the C Major scale.
This is a really cool thing! If you know the major scale shape all over the neck, you can play all the 7 modes of the scale by just moving this "scale shape".
For example, if you play C major over an F Major chord, you have F Lydian. Here are the different modes and how the C major scale relates:
In order to hear how these modes fit in over chords, try playing the modes over these chords:
Notice how you can play C Major over all of these chords? Awesome! I know some people who prefer to look at it as playing the major scale over a certain chord, but others may want to view it as a different mode. It doesn't really matter how you view it, as long as you know how it all fits together.
I hope this makes sense to you. Feel free to ask or comment if I was unclear!
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This isn't actually very useful without an understanding of how to effectively establish a tonal centre.
Comment added on February 29, 2008Great Stuff. Can we also get the SHAPES of each mode please.
Comment added on February 13, 2008dude your explanations so good man!! this reeli helps alot..thnx!
jus reading about the names before made ma head spin...haha
This is a good and simple explanation. Thanks. However, can you show scale shapes for each mode so we are starting on the root tone of the chord each time? Instead of playing the same frets each time?
Comment added on January 16, 2008Tim, there are many other scales, and I will cover a few more of those soon. This time I just wanted to clarify the 7 different modes and that they can all be viewed as the same major scale.
Comment added on September 14, 2007What about those other scales Ive seen in books (that dont explain a whole lot just as a example A super lydian or something like that (Idont remeber the exact name of the scale ) I think they are modes of some minor scale Any shedding of light would be appreciated Thanks , Tim
Comment added on September 14, 2007thanks master i see now
other world in my guitar!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks again
Great intro, thanks.
Check out TC's cartoon game of the modes:
http://www.guitarshredshow.com/carpet/
I can't beleive how long it has taken me to find an easy explanation about this. Thank You. Donation on it's way.
Comment added on August 18, 2007Wow! this is a really neat way to explain the modes. It really opened my eyes to what is happening with the modes. All I can say is thanks for unscrambling a lot of questions I had about this.
Comment added on August 17, 2007