Transcripts
1. Welcome!: Hi, My name is Jacob. I'm a musician and
a music teacher. Thank you so much for looking at this course on soloing
through the modes. This course is broken
into three sections. First, we'll look at what a mode is and how it relates
to a parent key. Then we'll look at
individual modes and their unique
characteristics will get you comfortable
with each of them. And then finally, in
the third section, we'll look at combining
those modes into one master shape that unlocks
the fret board for you. Be sure to check the course
files so you can download the 20-page book that goes
along with this class. You can play through each of the modes and get
more information about the characteristics of
each one where they overlap. And some helpful
theory information. By the end of this course, we hope you'll be comfortable soloing around and
knowing what notes you should play and what notes might not be the best for
this situation. But all in all, you'll become a better soloist on your guitar. And we'll see you soon.
2. How Modes Work: Modes vs Keys: Now the most important
thing we can understand is what a mode is and how it relates
to a key or scale. The best way I can explain it is actually like a coat rack. If your key or scale
is the coat rack, than modes are the hangers hanging off in different places. So as an example, let's say your coat rack
is the key of C. Now, every key that
you're in will have seven individual
notes or tones in it. And each of those notes
can be built into a mode. Now, every single mode
is going to run through the letters of the whole Keith and notes of the whole key. But they're going to start and
end from different places. So mode number one will
start at C In our example, and it will run through
the notes of the key until it hits the next C. Mode. Number two, we'll start
at the next letter up, so that would be d.
And it's going to still run through every
single letter of the scale, starting over and
continuing on through C until it hits the next D. Now, mode number three
will start at E, and it will do the same
thing until it hits the next E. And it goes like this for
each of the seven modes. So you'll notice that mode
number one actually has the exact same layout
as the parent key. And each of the modes builds
on each letter of the key. Now, the reason that this
is important is that every mode has its very unique individual
characteristic and sound. See, there are different
spaces between notes in a key. And so when you start shapes
from different places, how those spaces land is
different for every mode. So for example,
if the first mode borrows from the key
and has a whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, and so on. When you start from
the second note, those distances are going
to be in different places. You might have a whole
step than a half step, and then a whole step
and it's all different. The next one might have the half-step first
and then a whole step. The important thing is to
understand each of these modes, characteristics, how they sound, where they fit in
the parent scale, and when it's best to use them. That's a brief definition of modes and how
they fit to scales. We're going to look further into each one and the distance between notes individually as
we look through the modes.
3. The Ionian Mode - Our Primary Major Mode: The first mode we're
going to look at, it's called the Ionian mode. And it starts from the first
note of our parent key. Just like chords can
be major or minor, modes can also be major
modes or minor modes. In fact, modes are where
we borrow the notes from to create our
major and minor chords. Now the Ionian mode
is a major mode. And so when you play major
chords like G or D or a or E, actually borrowing from G, Ionian, d Ionian, and a Ionian. You understand? I'm going to show
you the Ionian shape and what it sounds like. And then we're going to
talk about the spaces, the intervals between the notes. But first, just know that
these modes are movable. You can play Ionian from
any starting point. But for this class, we're going to use the key of G, which starts on the third
fret of our guitar. So I'm going to start my Ionian right there
from the third fret. When you do it with
my middle finger. Here's what the
Ionian sounds like. Now, like we mentioned in the
house scales work lesson. Each note has a space
between it that's either a half-step or
a whole step apart. And so for the Ionian, the steps are actually the
same as the parent key. Since it's synonymous
with the parent key. Here are the steps
for the Ionian. In-between the notes. We go whole, whole half, whole, whole, whole half. And then that repeats
for the second octave. What that means is
we could also play this mode up the
neck of the guitar, sticking to one string. We go whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole half. In the attached book, you can also see the
modes around the Ionian. Now, this is so important when we come to combining
modes and soloing them. So we can see transition
notes between the modes. For now, it's just
something to keep in mind. We're not going to use it
until we learn the next mode, above or below the Ionian. We've got our first major mode. Now, the best way to
practice is to get comfortable with the
shape moving up and down. And then I like to
play a little bit of connect the dots
and see if I can find any shapes in there that
might make a good melody. Play around with
the Ionian mode. Or maybe you can find some
backing tracks on YouTube that you can play this mode over to make a little bit of a solo. And in the next lesson, we're going to look
at the second mode.
4. The Dorian Mode: Our second mode is going
to be the Dorian mode. Now, since each mode starts from the next letter in
a scale or key, It's important to remember
that each mode also then starts from the second
note of the previous mode. And let me say that again. Each new mode we
look at is going to start from the second note
of the previous mode. So if you're comfortable
with Ionian now, we know that the second
note in the practice key of G is right there. So we start our Dorian mode from this note, the fifth fret. Now, remember, our
practice key is the key of G. We can start our modes anywhere
on the neck we want. If I, for example, started Ionian from
the seventh fret, then my second note would
be here on the ninth fret, and that's where I
would start my Dorian. You can start the scales
from anywhere on the neck, but you have to
make sure that they relate to each other
in the same way. The Dorian starts from the
second note of the Ionian. So we're in our key of G on
that third fret for Ionian. Now let's take a look at Dorian starting from the fifth fret. Dorian is one of
our minor modes. It's got more of a
minor sound to it. We'll also talk
about the intervals, the spaces between the notes
when we play that Dorian. We have whole half, whole, whole, whole, half, whole. Now one of the most
important things to see when we look between the ionian Dorian is
where they overlap. We're going to reference
these later as our transition notes
and we're going to use them to solo fluidly
in-between the scales. The overlap is very important. And in the next lesson
we're going to look at the third mode and how it
overlaps with the Dorian. Building our shape
across the neck.
5. The Phrygian Mode: Our third mode, starting from
the third tone in our key, is called the Phrygian mode. Now, this is another minor mode. So it's still got more of
that psalm or sound to it. I remember the
Dorian started from the second note of the Ionian. And likewise the Phrygian starts from the second
note of the Dorian. So we're starting low
and we're building our shape up the
neck of the guitar. So Dorian started
on the fifth fret, and the next note was
on the seventh fret. And so that's the
starting point. Our Phrygian. Here is what the
Phrygian mode sounds like. Now for the intervals of
the Phrygian, we go half, whole, whole, whole, half, whole, whole to the octave. Next we have another
major scale, the Lydian. Now, if you're blazing through and learning
these quickly, I want you to pause here and practice with these
three modes a little bit. Notice again the overlap from
the Dorian to the Ionian. Now the Phrygian to the Dorian. Want you to find a backing track or play on your own as well. And just play connect the dots and find some shapes in there, some cool musical sentences
that you can solo around. We're getting a little
bit of play space on the neck to make some
cool shapes and sounds. And the next one,
we're going to expand that space with
another major mode.
6. The Lydian Mode: Our next mode is a major mode. It's got that happy
sound to it again. This is the Lydian mode. Starts from the second
note of the Phrygian. And so you'll notice
since the second note of the phrygian is only
a half step away. This is our starting
point for the Lydian. We don't have to move
our hand very much. Here's what the
mode sounds like. Now if you're thinking to
yourself that this one seems really similar to the Ionian. You're not wrong. In fact, a lot of these modes can be compared to one another
with very minor changes. For example, the Lydian
mode we're looking at now is exactly the same
as the Ionian, with the only difference that our fourth note is moved
up by a half-step. All of the modes have
these similarities and changes that we can
relate one to the other. And so that can be
helpful to learn and to know as well where here we're learning the shapes and how to transition between
them for solos. But I encourage you
to go look at how the modes relate to one another and what changes
from one mode to the next. Now we will talk about
the intervals between the notes for the Lydian mode, our fourth and major mode. Whole, whole, whole
half, whole, whole half. Just like the other modes, find herself a backing track
to practice this over. You can look up Lydian
in the key of G, and we'll be playing it
from the eighth fret. Or if you want to try Lydian
from a different key, you can pick any key
that you'd like. And remember that Lydian is
the fourth tone of that key. So if you're playing
Lydian in the key of C, you would go see Ionian, d, Dorian, e, Phrygian. And then F would be your Lydian.
7. The Mixolydian Mode: Now we're going to look
at our fifth mode, which is the Mixolydian. It's another major mode. And it starts from the
second tone of the Lydian, which in the key of G, as we're practicing in, will be the 10th
fret on your guitar. We're getting really
high up there now. Here's the sound and shape
of the Mixolydian mode. Now here are the intervals
for the Mixolydian mode. Whole, whole, half, whole,
whole, half, whole. Again, you may notice
similarities to the Ionian.
8. The Aeolian Mode: Our next mode is the
primary minor mode. Now, what I mean by that is that the other minor modes
relate to this one. And all of our minor chords
are pulled from this mode. This is the sixth mode
called the eolian. Now, we're going to start
this one again from the second note of
the Mixolydian. And that's going
to be on the 12th. Fret the double dots on
your guitar in the key of G. So we're gonna be really
high up on the neck now, but here's what the
mode sounds like. Now we're going to
look at the intervals between the notes for
the Aeolian mode. Whole half, whole, whole,
half, whole, whole. If I could tell you only
two modes to learn, it would be the first
one, the Ionian, our primary major mode, and this the 61 eolian, our primary minor mode. Those are in my opinion, the two most important, since it's what our
chords major and minor take notes from
to be constructed. Now, we only have one more mode to learn in the next class. Then we can start looking at
how to use transition notes, turn them into one master
shape and solo around them.
9. The Locrian Mode: We're onto our last mode, which is called the Locrian. Now, this starts and ends from the seventh tone of our
master scale, our coat rack. Now, the Locrian is
another minor mode. And so here's what
it sounds like. And you'll notice by now we're really high up the neck, right? We'll be starting this from the second note of the eolian, which ends up being the
14th fret of your guitar. Also remember though,
that your strings hit an octave by the time they
get to the 12th fret. So we have the option to play
this from the 14th threat, or to come down and hit the
octave on the second fret right below where we started
this whole mode business. Now, for the sake of continuity, I'm going to keep moving
up and I'm going to play this from the 14th fret. So here's what the
Locrian mode sounds like. Now we'll go through the
intervals between the notes. Half, whole, whole, half,
whole, whole, whole. Now you'll notice, let me
move this octave down. Same mode, same notes. I'm just jumping
down the octave. You'll notice that the next mode up is going to be
back to our Ionian. So here's our Locrian. Then we start the Ionian from the second note of the Locrian and we've
come full circle. Those are the seven modes. Now it's time to look at some shapes and
transition notes to string those together into one master shape across
the neck of our guitar.
10. Relating Modes: Something I've talked
about a couple of times as we've been
learning our modes, is that we can relate
them to one another. Like Lydian to Ionian just
had a sharp fourth note, or Mixolydian to Ionian just
had a flat seventh note. Understanding the
relations between the shapes of the modes is huge. And so let's just take
a couple of minutes to look at how we can relate them and how they change from one
mode to the next. Now, we're going
to split the modes into major and minor modes. If you remember looking
through our Ionian, Lydian, Mixolydian were major. So that's our first mode, our fourth mode and
our fifth mode. The rest of the modes, 2367, which is Dorian, Phrygian, eolian, and Locrian. Those are minor shapes. And so it's easy to see the relations when we separate them between
major and minor. Now we're going to relate the
major modes to the Ionian, which we already know is
our archetype major mode. We're going to relate the
minor modes to the eolian, which is our primary minor mode. Now, we'll start with the
ones we already named. Lydian is just an Ionian four is just a one with a sharp four. That's the primary difference, is that when you number
them and count them, 1234, right there, we're
going to make it sharp. And our Ionian becomes a Lydian. Now Mixolydian, our fifth mode. All we're doing is
playing an Ionian, but we are taking the seventh
note and making it flat. Now let's take a look
at our second mode Dorian and relate
it to the Aeolian. Dorian is actually
just like the eolian. But we raise the sixth note. So it's just an eolian
with a raised sixth. Phrygian is also
exactly like eolian, but with a flattened two. So we can play up
and down eolian. And then we could play
up and down eolian, just moving the two down a half-step and it
would be a Phrygian. Now finally, Locrian is
just like an eolian, but we changed two things. It's got a flat
and a flat seven. So we're changing, we're
moving down two of the nodes. If we play in eolian, and we lower that too, and we lower that seven when we play through by just half-step, we've got a Locrian mode. So these are how the modes
are relating to one another. In another way, some
people work through it. And even the way that
I like to do it is to relate each mode to the Ionian. For example, eolian. Our primary minor mode, is an Ionian with
a flattened 367. But a lot of people like to categorize them by major and minor and leave
them like that. So I think it's helpful
to go look at how each of the modes relates to Ionian. It's a little bit different, but here it's really
simple to split the major minor and relate them to the primary major and
primary minor modes.
11. Transition Notes: Now it's time to look
at transition notes. How do we move from one mode to the next when we're soloing? And a big part of understanding
that as being able to see the overlap in
that master shape. For mode two mode, we know that each
new modes starts on the second note of
the previous mode. We can see that there's a line of overlap between
each of the shapes. And these are going to be your
primary transition notes. Not only is this a great way to blend them all
together in a solo, but using these notes
to transition is also a great way to
practice the modes. For example, if I was
practicing my Ionian, but I wanted to find a way to transition up to the Dorian. Well, I can look at
what those modes have in common and use those notes to move
into and shift my hand to the next
mode position. So maybe just for the
sake of practice, I could play Ionian up
to a certain portion, and then slide my hand and finish with the Dorian and do the same thing
on the way down. Well, I've just
used the strings as my transitioning space
into the next mode. As you practice that more
than it's going to happen more naturally when you're
soloing on the fly.
12. Finding Shapes: This is all good and well. But how do we turn rehearsing modes into actually
soloing with modes? The biggest thing is finding
shapes in these modes. Now, we don't want
to just work up and down a mode like a
rehearsing musician. I like to play a
little bit of connect the dots to find some
shapes in these modes. And simple is better,
less, is more. Start with a simple shape, give it some rhythm and
then you can build on that. For example, maybe
I just want to stay in this little box in Ionian. Super simple. Jake, an idea that you like. And then build off of it, add notes below it and above it shapes our everything. Then we can start adding
some inflections, little slides in our modes, maybe some bends to
get to the next note. I'll come up to eolian and start looking at
some of the slides. Maybe maybe some of the Ben's can help us out here. You can also use hammer ons and pull offs really creatively. And combining these
techniques with finding shapes and using transition
notes between the modes. Well, now we're
really starting to get comfortable soloing
around the neck. And so my biggest piece of advice when it
comes to turning rehearsing modes into
actually soloing with a mode, is to find shapes that you like, maybe two or three shapes
in every single mode. And work off of those
in different ways. And then really get
comfortable with those transition notes so
that your solos are nice and fluid instead of kind of choppy and jumping around
and not quite sure, maybe from one
shape to the next. Transition notes smooth
transitions between shapes, you know, well is going to
unlock the whole neck for you.
13. Final Project: We've come to the end of
the learning portion and into the project portion. And I'm really excited to hear what you guys
have come up with. So this is pretty loose. I just want you to take one of these ideas and maybe
especially something that we talked about from turning these rehearsing modes
into an actual solo. I want you to come
up with something, whether it'd be a shape or a transition between modes
that you really like. But I'd love to see some
sort of little riff or motif or musical thought
that you've come up with. I think the shapes are gonna
be huge for this project. Build off a shape and
share it with us, whether it's an audio
file or even tabs. However you find it
easiest to share. I can't wait to hear it.
14. Congratulations!: And you've done it. You're at the end of the course. I hope you found
something helpful here, whether you got just more comfortable with
the mode shapes. Whether you found a better
understanding of what modes were and how they
related to scales. Or maybe you knew the modes
and you just found something helpful with how to turn
them into an actual column, whatever it was, I hope it was helpful and
you enjoyed it. I am always on here for questions
down in the discussion, you should find the book, the workbook in
the projects tab. If you're having
trouble finding it, it may actually be
easier to find on a computer rather
than a cell phone. But thank you so much for taking the course and walking
through this with me. I can't wait to
hear from you guys.
Jacob Lamb, Musician, photographer and videographer
