Transcripts
1. The Magic Of Mixolydian: Introduction & Welcome: Hey guys Chris, super here and
I'm very excited to launch my latest Skillshare course
based on the Mixolydian mode. So here what we're
gonna be talking about is the Mixolydian mode to one octave will also learn it as a three-note per string
pattern across the fretboard. We'll also be talking about the modal characteristic
note being the flat seven, and how that relates to arpeggios and custom
pentatonics as well. Another thing that's cool about this lesson is that you'll learn some Mixolydian
licks and how to heat the Mixolydian mode in context and hopefully plant some seeds for you guys to compose some Mixolydian
licks of your own. If you're excited to
pick up the guitar, and let's place the Mixolydian.
2. The Magic Of Mixolydian Part 1 - Finding The Mixolydian Sound: Hi Chris, super. Thanks for joining me for
another modal lesson. Today we're gonna
be talking about the magic of Mixolydian. We're going to be delving into the deeper characteristics
of the mode, as well as talking
about how to use the diatonic chord
structure to find the most pointedly
Mixolydian codes and create chord progressions that really accentuate the mode. We're also going to talk, be talking about how to solve it properly and Mixolydian
using diatonic scales, pentatonic arpeggios, and a couple of tips
and tricks as well. Okay, so let's have
a quick crash course on what exactly Mixolydian is. It's the fifth of the
seven diatonic modes. In the case of today,
we're gonna be talking about E Mixolydian. We're going to relate everything
back to a Mixolydian, which is the fifth mode of
actually a Ionian or a major. And sometimes we'll
refer to that a major as the parent key. It's essentially a major
scale with a flat seven. So that flat seventh is gonna be the characteristic note that
makes Mixolydian so special. It's often used in ****
rock and bland music, but you'll also find it in
sort of classic rock as well. You also hear any Celtic music
that Jolie Hubbert sound. And you'll also hear an
Indian music as well. So it's quite a versatile mode. I think one of the
most important things you can do to
understand this mode better is to hear it in context in a few songs off
the top of my head. Think of sweet child of
mine by Guns and Roses. Nothing but a good
time by poison on skinny bought by poison.
They love that mode. Highway to **** by AC, DC is a good one. And Sympathy for the Devil by Rolling Stones, Ripper,
Mixolydian track. Okay, so early you might have heard me say that Mixolydian is essentially a major
scale with a flat seventh. So what I wanna do is I wanna do a regular major scale
in the key of a. And then we're going to
add in that flat seventh, just so you can hear
the difference between a Mixolydian and
a straight major. So I'm going to start from
seven of the fifth string. I'm going to play seven to nine. And then I'm gonna play
679 on the fourth string. And then 689 on
the third string. That's an E major scale. Let's do that again, but I just want to
name the notes now are going E, F sharp, G sharp, a, B, C-sharp, D-sharp. Okay, so that's
an E major scale. So let's have a look
at a Mixolydian. So all I'm gonna do, 1234567. I'm going to take
that seventh note and flatten it a semitone. So that's gonna give us this
will do the frets first, 79 on the fifth, 679 on the fourth, 679 on the third. So that's my flattened
seventh right there. Let's go through
those names again. F sharp, G sharp, a, B, C-sharp, D natural this time. And then the a at the end. So it's all about just
having that full time before the octave
or the semitone between the sixth,
seventh note there. That's what's gonna make
Mixolydian special. So I'm gonna play both of
those scales back-to-back, a major and a Mixolydian. And even if we compare it
to something like a Lydian, for example, a Lydian ulcer has a major seven
in there as well. So the main thing that's making Mixolydian stand out
is that flat seventh. And when we're
soloing and the mode, that's one of the things that we want to be really poignantly accenting to get
the full flavors and the Mixolydian sound.
3. The Magic Of Mixolydian Part 2 The Mixolydian diatonic chord structure: Okay, So chords are really, really important
way of establishing a mood and a mode sound. Now if we think
about the fact that a Mixolydian is parent
Kate is a major. What we can do is
we can take all of the diatonic chords
from a major, but reorder them to start
from the five chord, which will be a in this case. So that we're centering it
around that five chord, which is really going to
bring out the five mode being a Mixolydian. So when we start from there, we'll go through
all of the chords and then we'll talk about
some ways that we can compose and put together some very Mixolydian E
sounding chord progressions. You might have heard
me mentioned that a Mixolydian is the
fifth mode of a major, or a major is the parent key. So what we're gonna do is
we're gonna take all of the chords of a major, but we're going to start from a which is the fifth degree. Now if we make a sort
of like a home-base, we're gonna get more
of a Mixolydian sand at about chord progression. So let's go through it slowly. I'm going to start
from a major other. That's gonna be a five chord, and that's made up
of a G sharp and B. F-sharp minor will be a
sixth chord in this context. And I'm going to be playing
an F and a and a C-sharp and G-sharp minor
seven flat five. This is a pretty repugnant
code as you can here. I've got a G sharp, a B, a D, and an F sharp in there. Then I go to my one
code which is a, a C sharp and a B minor, which is going to
be at two chord. And that's made up of
B, D, and F sharp. And then the next
thing I'm going to have a sharp minor chord, which will be a three chord, which is made up of
C-sharp and G-sharp. And then finally
I've got D, D major, which is going to
be my four chord, which is made up of
D, F sharp, and a. Altogether again, we're
going to have this, we'll do that again with
some tabs, actually. A major, F-sharp minor, G sharp minor seven flat five
major minor, C-sharp Minor. Okay, so now that
we've got all of the chords from a major, and we can sort of flip those around to get it more
Mixolydian e sound. I just want to show you a very simple way to put together some chord
progressions. So I'm just going to
use is f five chord, four chord, one chord because that's that parent key.
Result back to the a. So I can just do something
really simple like this. Mixolydian settings
sends a decent amount like Sympathy for
the Devil actually. But I can take that exact
same code formula, 5415. Again, I can put that
in a different key. So let's say I decide to
put that into a Mixolydian. Now if we keep in mind, a Mixolydian is gonna be
the fifth of D-major. I'm going to have my five chord. G is my full day, is my one, is my five. So that will turn home
to a as a five chord. And that's going to get
more of a Mixolydian sound. Very happy, good
times and uplifting. So the most important thing
you guys can do is go away. It doesn't matter
what key you're in. And have a fiddle with a couple of Mixolydian chord
progressions. Just make sure that
we're making five, our starting point and the point that we
want to resolve two.
4. The Magic Of Mixolydian Part 3 Mixolydian Soloing Options: Okay, So whenever I'm
soloing in the mouth, Let's say Mixolydian
in particular, I want to know three
things before I even touched the fretboard
and start playing notes. I want to know what
my three notes per string diatonic shape will be. Also want to know what kind
of pentatonics I can use. And I also want to
know what kind of arpeggios I'll have
at my disposal. Okay, so let's have a look
at a soloing options. I want to start
off by looking at a three notes per string, E Mixolydian diatonic scale. So let's slow that down. I'm going to stop for 12th
fret of the sixth string. I'm gonna play 121416, the same on the fifth,
the same on the fourth. So we're gonna have that 1214163 times in a row in
the same shape. The one I jumped to
the third string, I'm going to play 131416. When I jumped to
the second string, I'm gonna play 141517. And then the last
string, I play 141617. So altogether, cool. Now, obviously with most of us, the minor pentatonic box shape. A good old friend when we're soloing or the way composing, or whether we're doing
something improvise the minor pentatonic has
really, really good. So for Mixolydian, the
rules of finding a relative major and minor are exactly the same as if we're in irony, just irregular major key. So I'm going to
find the root node and go back three
semitones, 123. And then I can play in C-sharp minor pentatonic,
which is this. Let's go through that slowly. I'm going 912 on the 6th. I'm going to play 911 on
the next three strings. And then I'm going to play 912 on the second and the first. If you want to as well,
you can always add in those cheeky little accidental, the outside noise, which sounds
quite delicious as well. So now I want to talk
about doing arpeggios that are really going to
accent the Mixolydian e sound. So the pointing thing
we're looking for is the flat 71 way to
accent a flat seven, then to do some
dominant arpeggios. So there's a couple
of shapes Today's that I really love to use. The first one is this. You'll notice that I'm ending on a day instead of
ending on the a, because that's the
dominant seventh bit. So what I wanna do is
I want to start off by playing seven to four
on the first string, five of the second 574 again, but on the third string, I'm going to play six
of the fourth string, and then 75 on the fifth. Altogether. I can also play exactly the same notes in a
different position, but it has a bit of
a different effect. So what I have here is ten to
seven on the first string. And then I'm going to
play nine of the second, third In slide that
back to seven. And then I want to play
nine of the Fourth, 11 of the fifth 75th. It's pretty straight
triad sand at the end. One other one that I
really like to use is a six string version, and I like to make it a
little bit slowly as well, so you can sort of play around
a little bit more robotic, but I like to have
that slide in there just to add a little
bit of sass and vibe. So what I was doing
there, starting from the root node a from
12th, the sixth string. Then I'm going to
play 1114 on the 5th, and then slide from 12
to 14 on the fourth. From that point, I'm going
to play 1316 on the third. And to finish it off, I play
15 of the second string, and then 1216 on the first. So what we've got now is we have a three-note pestering diatonic, a C-sharp minor
pentatonic option. And we also have three different kinds
of dominant arpeggio. But one thing that
I think is really, really good to get a
poignantly Mixolydian sound is to use what I call the
Mixolydian pentatonic. So what I have essentially
done is taken the 13457 of the Mixolydian scale and turn that into a
pentatonic of my iron. So all we're really doing, let's say if we take
the a minor pentatonic, which is made up of AG ABD, All we do is ten, all of those G
naturals into J shops. And we end up with this
really cool scale. Let's go through that slightly. I'm going to start off by playing 1612 on
the first string. In 15 to 12 on the second. Enforcing. That's where we're getting that really
nice major third on the third string that I want to play 14 to
12 and the fourth, then 141211 on the
fifth, and then 56. So it's the difference
between having this just turning all of
those G's and DJ shops. So four-fifths of the scale
are technically the same. Very nice sound. We can also do the same thing
from a different position. So the other one that I
really like to use is, let's say I take
the third position of a minor pentatonic. And then I just take all
of those J shops, sorry, all of those G-natural, and then shuffle them
over a semitone. I get this really cool
Mixolydian sending pentatonic. All I was doing
there was playing 5757 on the fifth and the
sixth and the fifth string. And then when I get
to this string, I'm gonna be playing
67 on the fourth. Then I'm going to play
for seven on the third. So this point that hasn't
been much of a change between the natural pentatonic
and the Mixolydian. Just that one note. Now when
I get to the second string, I'm going to play 59,
which is nice and exotic. And then I'm going
to play 17, sorry, 5710. To finish that off. Altogether, we're
going to have this. So you've got that
shape and this one. If you want to get a
pointedly Mixolydian sound. Okay, so one thing to keep in
mind is that when not just limited to the E Mixolydian three notes per string pattern, we can use anything that's
relative to our parent k, which is a Ionian. Any of the modes
that relate to it, a Ionian or a Mixolydian. We can use those all
across the fret board. We're also not just limited to the first position of the
C-sharp minor pentatonic. We can use all five positions that when we're talking about that dominant
seventh arpeggio, that really does have a
pointing Mixolydian sound. But if there are other codes
in the chord progression, we can use arpeggios that
follow those courts as well. So that's an important
thing to keep in mind when we're solving.
5. The Magic Of Mixolydian Part 4 Mixolydian Licks To Help You Get Creative: Okay, So in the last chapter we talked about as soloing options, we had a pretty robotic
three-note first string shape or pentatonic and some arpeggios and some of that other stuff. So what we're gonna do in this
section is we're going to turn all of those into
some more musical. And interestingly,
what I'm gonna do is I'm going to go
through six links. I'll explain the
premise of h. Of them are white and
slowly with some tab. And then I'll play
them again in contexts with some music just
so that you can hear what it sounds like
with some music behind it. The first example, LEC, uses the E Mixolydian
pentatonic box shape and descends in patterns
of five notes at a time. The second example, LEC, uses the third, fourth,
fifth, seventh, and firstNode of E
Mixolydian scale to crawl diagonally
across the fretboard. This kind of liquid
force position shifts and has a bouncy triplet feel. The third example, LEC uses
a three-note per string, E Mixolydian diatonic shape, but has seven notes per string and a heavy emphasis on
the legato technique. The seven-note
emphasis will have a strange rhythm and pulse, but it's fun to
listen to it due to it being less predictable. The fourth example
is illiquid uses in a dominant seventh arpeggio
are highlighting the flat seven of the Mixolydian
mode and drifts into a diatonic run that descends
in patterns of four. The fifth example is illiquid uses the third
position of the box shaped E Mixolydian
pentatonic then drifts into your standard
a major pentatonic box, which is also known as position two of the C-sharp
minor pentatonic. I've also included a few
hemorrhoids, pull offs, slides, and triplets to keep the timing and phrasing
of the lake interesting. The final example, lick
pedals on an a note and works through a melody based on nodes of the E Mixolydian scale. It also drifts into a typical
rock pentatonic around box position one of the
C-sharp minor pentatonic. Okay, so it's important for us to know that
everything we learned today in E Mixolydian can be moved into other
Mixolydian keys. And also I can't stress the importance enough
of them actually jamming along to backing tracks and jamming
with your friends. The best way for
you to understand the Mixolydian mode when you're playing this
for you guys to be playing along
with jam tracks. And hearing that dominant
seventh Really ring through and get those authentic
kind of Coke rocky, those Celtic Hubbard sounds to really hear that come
out of your plane. The other thing that
I think is really, really important is composition. Go away, try and write some
Mixolydian style roofs, mess around with some
chord progressions. But just remember with really
good at focusing on making that five chord at home-based and making
that shine through. So remember, we're looking for that major sound with a bit of that Celtic triumphant
**** rock to it. I hope you guys have
enjoyed this lesson. Hopefully catch you
guys all very soon.
Chris Zoupa, Guitar Teacher, Composer & Author
