Music Lesson: Exploring Modes and Chords

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Introduction to Scales and Chords

Okay, let's go to the first scale and play that.

Remember the Ionian?

• It was C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.

Good.

Now, if you want to build the chord that matches that:

• You play the first note, the third, the fifth, and the seventh.

I'm going to play the chord and I want you to play that first scale. That's it. See how they fit.

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Dorian Scale

Let's go to the Dorian and play the scale first:

• D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D.

Now, let's go ahead and play the root third.

• So I'm playing every other note, five and seven.

That gives us a D minor seven chord. All right, go ahead and play the Dorian while I play the D minor 7 chord.

See how that fits against it.

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Phrygian Scale

Okay, now let's do the Phrygian, that third scale, C scale from E to E.

• So this is E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E.

Good job.

I'll play the chord, the E minor 7. First off, let's find the E minor 7:

• Root, 3, 5, 7.

You notice, even though these are two different scales, they are going to have the same chord shape.

We do the diatonic chords. Now I'll play E minor 7 and you play the mode against it.

Good job.

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Lydian Scale

Okay, now let's go to the C scale from F to F.

That's still going to be there in the seventh position:

• This is F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F.

Now, let's run the chord, which is the first note (the root), skip a note (third), and five and seven.

That's the exact same chord that we started with.

• That's a major seven chord.

Run the scale and I'll play this F major 7 chord.

See how that fits.

And it's almost like a major scale.

But Lydian doesn't have a regular four; it's a raised four.

Because remember, we're just playing the C scale. We're just changing where we started:

• C, D, E, F, G, A, B.

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Mixolydian Scale

Now let's move up to the 10th fret, and we'll do the C scale from G to G.

• Okay, we've got G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

Now, let's break down the chord:

• Root, third, fifth, seventh.

Now why don't you play the scale while I play that chord?

• This is a G dominant 7th.

See how they fit.

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Aeolian Scale

Okay, now let's go to the 12th fret.

This is the C scale from A to A.

• This is called Aeolian.

That last one we played is called the Mixolydian mode.

This one is C Scale from A to A, it's Aeolian or natural minor.

Let's play that:

• A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A.

All right, so if I want to play the chord that matches it, it's:

• A, C, E, G.

So, we're back to a minor seven chord.

Play your scale and I'll play an A minor seven chord.

See how that fits good.

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Locrian Scale

Now, let's go to the last one before we start repeating.

This is the C scale from B to B.

• B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B.

Now that's the Locrian mode, and let's build the chord that comes out of this:

• This is B, skip a note, D, F, A.

Good, good.

That's a B minor 7 flat 5.

I'll play this chord.

• Yeah, you play the scale against it.

There you go, see how it fits.

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Review of Modes and Chords

Consequently, each of these modes is going to match one of the diatonic chords that I was talking about in the lesson about walking the tenths up the neck or also walking the four-note chords.

All these shapes are transposable just like a major scale.

If I wanted to do the modes down in G, let's do those real quick.

• G, G, A, B, C, D, E, F sharp, G.
• Good, let's go up here, we'll plug in our Dorian shape:
  • A, B, C, D, E, F sharp, G, A.
• Okay, now if I move up here to the B and plug in that shape.
  • This is Phrygian: B, C, D, E, F sharp, G, A, B.

Okay, here I am on the IV chord:

• C, D, E, F sharp, G, A, B, C.

The V chord is:

• D, E, F sharp, G, A, B, C, D.

Good.

The sixth chord would be that same shape:

• E, F sharp, G, A, B, C, D, E.

Now let's go up to the F sharp.

• We've got F sharp, G, A, B, C, D, E, F sharp.

Good, let's finish off here on the G:

• G, A, B, C, D, E, F sharp, G.

So essentially what that means is that anywhere I need to play those scales, if I need to play an E flat, I just find the notes out of the scale, I can plug those shapes in and it all fits there.

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Questions and Practice

Alright, Cody, do you have any questions about what we just covered?

So you're cool with the modes? You know how to use them now?

Excellent, excellent.

Cool. Well, I'll see you at your next lesson.

Why don't we play these together so that you can get a chance to really lock in on them as well.

I'm going to play eighth notes going up, playing the modes, and then I'm going to play quarter notes going down.

If you follow along and see the notes on the screen, you'll get this.

I'm playing the mode going up and the chord going down.

So you can see them locking together.

We'll do this in C and then we'll do this in G.

Everything's going to be at 60 beats per minute, so you've got plenty of time to think about what's happening here.

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Practice Scales Together

Here's the Ionian:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Good, let's do the Dorian:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Got it?

Let's do the Phrygian:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Alright, now remember you're going to stay in the same place to do the Lydian.

Here we go:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Okay, now we're going to move up to the Mixolydian:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Okay, now let's do the Aeolian.

• It's the same as the natural minor that you learned earlier. Same shape.

We're just calling it by a different name because we're looking at it from the point of view of being one of the modes and one of the diatonic chords.

Here we go:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Alright, we'll finish off with the Locrian.

• Here we go:
• 1, 2, 3, 4.

And of course up here is that repeat of the major.

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Practicing Transitions

Now one of the ways you should practice this is by moving from one to the next.

So what I'm going to do now is play the G modes, going all the way up the neck and I'm not going to stop in between them.

This gives you a different perspective.

This may take a little while and you may have to work with the loops a little bit to get this down.

What you have to do is think ahead as you move from one mode to the next:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Now, there are some shortcuts that you can use to help remember this stuff.

Remember we were talking in the previous lesson on diatonic harmony about the fact that the 1, 4, and the 5 are the only real major chords in this progression of the diatonic harmony.

Each of those will start with the second finger.

Everything else, the 2, 3, 6, and 7 is some kind of a minor chord. Those will all start with the first finger.

Just a little something to keep things straight.

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Applying Modes in Tunes

Okay, now let's take all those modes that we've learned and we'll apply them to the first of two tunes.

This one is called Why Not and it's in the style of a Miles Davis tune called So What.

It's going to use two of the modes we've studied:

• They're going to be a Dorian mode in the key of D, and then I'm going to move up and play a Dorian mode in the key of E flat.

This is what's called a plateau modality progression, because I'm in one key for eight bars, kind of on the plateau.

And then I move up and I'm playing in the E flat Dorian.

Now, we're going to be working with a walking line with this, because this is a jazz swing style of modal tune.

There are two things I'm going to use in my walking line, and then there's also a thing I'm going to use in soloing on both tunes.

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Walking Line Techniques

Let's go over those.

First off, in the Walking Line, I'm just going to play the mode up and down.

The second thing I'm going to do is play the mode in thirds, which is a numerical sequence.

If we go through and lay out the numbers to each of these scale steps, we get this:

• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

Okay, now if I take that and run thirds, it's:

• 1, 3, 2, 4, 3, 5, 4, 6, 5, 7, 6, 8.

And back down:

• 8, 6, 7, 5, 6, 4, 5, 3, 4, 2, 3, 1.

Let me play through these, the scale and the scale in thirds with a swing feel:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Now here's the thirds, so I can take that same pattern and do it in E flat:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Alright, now I can also take those thirds, and if I want to use that as a solo idea, I have to kind of change the way that I'm approaching this rhythmically.

Because if you notice, if I'm playing this bass line, it's all smooth and all in connection with that ride cymbal.

I can take those same notes and even do the same sequence, but if I start doing some of the syncopations that we were working on with those jazz licks a few lessons back, it'll totally change the feel of it.

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Syncopation Exercise

Here's a syncopation through the Dorian.

This is in D minor, 80 beats per minute:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

All of a sudden it doesn't sound like a bass line because I'm away from that quarter note pulse that I have to do is when I'm creating a walking line.

So that's something that you can do with any of the sequences if you wish to kind of break up the pattern.

There's another sequence I'm using both in this tune and in the next tune.

And it is a four note sequence.

Once again, if we go and look at that D Dorian and think about it in terms of scale degrees:

• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

This is a four note pattern:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Now I move back to 2:

• 2, 3, 4, 5.

Now I move back to 3:

• 3, 4, 5, 6.

Now I move back to 4:

• 4, 5, 6, 7.

And I finish off with five to the octave:

• 5, 6, 7, octave.

Now this one's a little busy for a walking line.

You can do it, it sounds great, but to tell you the truth, I kind of prefer it as a swing eighth note line:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Now you can take that, you can do your syncopations with it.

• And it makes it even more interesting sounding.

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Practical Application of Sequences

Okay, I'm going to play a bass line to Why Not?

And then the second pass through, I'm going to play a solo.

Why?

• Zero is arranged with eight bars of D minor 7 and eight bars of E flat minor 7.

That is the tune. So the first eight bars doing this, the second eight bars, that's my grid right there.

Now, when you play with a band, you can use my sequences for an idea, but I really want you, when it's time to jam with a band, to try to come up with your own ideas on this one.

This is really where we're starting to get into the meat of improvisation.

Remember, you've got two safety nets:

• This one and this one.

One, two, one, two, three, El solo.

It's real interesting because if I start playing around with the rhythm, these simple little sequences that I'm playing start sounding very, very complicated.

But the reality is I'm just thinking that scale in the thirds and that four-note sequence.

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Transitioning to Improvisation

Okay, now I want you to go over to the club and jam with a band.

Now, rather than trying to play my own line through this, you can study it, that's fine.

But I want you to try to make up your own.

Remember, listen to Brian's ride cymbal and your safety zones are those two scales:

• D minor 7 and E flat minor 7.

Have fun.

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Exploring Different Modal Tunes

Alright, now we're going to take all of those modes and do some different musical things with them.

The first tune we're going to do is what I would call a plato modal tune.

This is called Why Not?

It's really only two chords:

• D minor 7, E flat minor 7.

And I'm going to walk on the Dorian mode on both of those.

The first time through, the second time through I'll do a bit of a solo.

You notice I'll just totally stay within the scale.

So here we go.

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Guided Practice

Now, it's your turn.

• S.A. alright, now I'd like for you to try playing along with the band.

Use the modes; you can play either my line or, even more important, make up one of your own.

Have fun.

Alright, now we're going to take that Why Not bassline and the progression and we'll go ahead and solo and do a walking line through it.

Once again in Dorian mode.

• A little quicker.

Here we go.

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Encouragement and Final Practice

Okay, now it's your turn.

Remember, you can either play what I played or you can make up your own line.

Have fun.

Alright. Did you have fun with that?

It's actually not as hard as you think if you stay within those scale grids.

I'm sure you had a good time with that.

It's pretty easy.

Remember, if you're improvising and you hit a funky note, all you got to do is slide up one fret or down one fret and you're at one.

That sounds better.

So it really does not matter if you missed something at this point.

Just like I said, if you hit a note and you're going, “Oh, that doesn't sound too good,” slide up one fret or slide down one fret.

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Diatonic Modal Solo

Okay, this last tune that we're going to do with the modal improv, I've gone ahead and written out a solo for.

And you can see that this is what is called a diatonic modal solo because the chords that we're going to be playing over are:

• E minor, F sharp minor, G major, B minor, and A7.

Now that is the 2 chord, the 3 chord, the 4 chord, the 6 chord, and the 5 chord of 1 chord in one scale series, D.

So you can run all your modes in the key of D. Those are all going to be options.

This one uses the power chords from back in Stanley's Secret.

It also uses some slapping.

So we're combining everything that we've done from some previous lessons.

This one's in the style of a very, very famous Stanley Clark tune and it's called Back to School.

I'll play it through very, very slowly and then we'll do it at two other tempos.

You can follow along on the screen.

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Tempo Changes for Practice

Okay, let's play this at quarter note equals 60:

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

Sa sa okay, let's play that at mid-tempo 80.

Here we go.

• 1, 2, 3, 4.

D. Okay, one more time.

This is going to actually be almost the slow tempo of the band.

This is 100 beats per minute:

• 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Sa.

Well, there's your guided tour of Back to School.

Now let's take it over to the club and jam with the band.

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Conclusion and Stretching

Okay, now we're going to do another type of modal tune.

This one is one where we're taking a progression that's in a diatonic modal series, and we're going to play one scale through it.

This is in the style of one of my favorite bass players, Stanley Clark.

Here it goes.

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Final Thoughts

Alright, now it's your turn.

• S.A. alright, let's try that one a little bit quicker.

Hold onto your hats; this one's got a little bit of zip to it.

Alright, guys. Nice, nice.

Now it's your turn.

You might want to practice this one for a little bit before you try it at this tempo.

Have fun.

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Cool Down

Okay, now what I'm going to do as far as the cool down at this point is I'm going to go ahead and stretch overhead.

Place your fingers and stretch. Go as far as you can up to the ceiling.

Stretch it out.

Stretch out your back.

There you go. This is good.

If you've been sitting in one place for a long time, say, for instance, teaching a bass lesson, something I know very, very well certainly by now.

Okay, just stretch it out. Stretch it out.

• Elongate. Elongate.

Okay, now we're going to let go.

Alright, now, what we just did with modes is a good way to start to look at improvising and making up your own solos.

Once again, I want you to come back to this chapter as you practice and as you grow as a player.

Try playing along again, and don't play my solos.

Make up your own, because that's what it's all about anyway.

In the next lesson, we'll be adding to our vocabulary of improvisation.

We've been working with modes, and what we're going to do is add major and minor pentatonic scales, and we'll look at tunes in the style of Weather Report and the great Texas guitarist Eric Johnson.

I'll see you over there.