Hi folks, i'm going back to basics in an attempt to dial in years of mis-learned and forgotten theory!
I think i understand most of the basic theory, my question is more aboout the approach to learning/memorizing them with respect to the guitar.
For example, i think i've got my major scale shapes fairly well dialled in, so for a given root note, i can find the appropriate scale shapes but i'd like to start progressing a bit further - modes for example.
So my question(s) is:
- Do you learn the shapes and change the root note? So if i'm playing in G Dorian, i play the F Major scale shapes but change the position of the root note in the shapes to be G?
- Do you learn entirely different shapes for each mode? For example as implied by this article: https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/jazz-guitar-corner-learn-all-seven-major-modes-easy-way
- Am i missing the point here?
I guess what i'm getting at is, everythings based on the major scale, so do we learn the major scale to death and learn to adapt it:
- change the root note - gives us the modes/natural minor
- know the intervals - allows us to drop the 4th/7th for pentatonic and flatten the 3rd for blues
Or do most people just learn these things as seperate entities?
Thanks!
Comments
Then think of dorian/aeolian as the minor pentatonic but adjust the 6th. Both have a 2nd.
Also important to jam to a backing track to get the sound of the notes you play against some harmony. That way the note has value within a harmonic framework.
So you would recommend i focus on making sure i know which interval is where in each shape?
Thanks for your reply - very helpful
And on top of the intervals, at any given moment, do you also know which actual note you are playing or moving to?
one pattern, 7 staring points.
i’d do it in this order:
C major penta and C minor penta
C major (ionian) scale
C minor (aeolian) scale
then the other 2 major modes - C lydian and C mixolydian
then the other 2 minor modes - C dorian and C Phrygian
Then C melodic minor (if you’re a jazzer or classical) and C harmonic minor and C phrygian dominant.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Phrygian b3 b6 b7
Lydian #4.
Mix. b7
Aeo. b2 b3. b6 b7
Loc b2 b3b b5 b6 b7
So flatten all sharps of the major scales c to b except for f which has a b flat so you sharpen it.
In my teens I started on the scales road, but then jumped to note colours. A lot of the music I encountered was either major or minor, and if not then used other notes for effect rather than as part of some alien scale. Some of those other notes were even non-scalar.
I started with the minor (Aeolian) scale, somehow bypassing the pentatonic. Then the Dorian, discovering difference that the b6 makes. Then the major and Mixolydian. I find that Dorian and Mixolydian sit well together, particularly where a lot of blues playing uses microtonal bends between the minor and major thirds. The first of the blue notes. The two remaining scale notes, b5 and b9, I learned by the feel and colour they add to the major and minor scales.
So, to answer @Amblik’s question. My personal answer is 3. In my world view modes are a useful academic theory that’s easy to teach and assess by examination. But it’s only that. I’d much rather learn the major and minor scales for one particular key. It doesn’t matter which key. It doesn’t matter which minor scale. Once you’ve done that you can move it around the fret board to different keys. Then learn what effect the “other” notes have.
I advocate starting with a pitch axis approach- group the major and minor modes separately.
Learn Lydian, Mixolydian as variations of the major scale.
Learn Dorian, Phrygian and Locrian as variations of the Natural Minor or Aeolian.
Then learn them as modes of C major and take them through the flat and sharp keys, at least to 3 sharps and flats, but ideally all of them.
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