Transcripts
1. Introduction: We learned the major scale, but how can we take
it even deeper? Time to learn the modes? [MUSIC] I'm Wesley Singerman, I'm a music producer and
guitarist and my career has led me to work and play alongside
artists such as Khelani, Travis Barker, Party Favor, Kendrick Lamar, Carly Rae
Jepsen, and many others. In this class, we'll be learning about the modes of
the major scale, the differences between them, and how we can use
them to come up with chords or solo over
certain progressions. The only thing you're
going to need for this class is your guitar. But if you want to use an app or any effects like
reverb or delay, that's fine by me. By the end of this
class, you should have a much better
understanding of what the modes are and
how they're used in modern day music. Let's
check it out. [MUSIC]
2. Getting Started: [MUSIC] Just like we can find chords within the major scale, there are actually many
different scales that we call modes that are found
within the scale as well. This class is focused
on just that. Modes of the major scale. Grab your guitar,
a pick, your Amp, and a quarter-inch cable,
and let's get into it.
3. Understanding Intervals: The major scale has seven modes. Just like the chords we found, each mode starts and ends on one of the
notes of the scale, and also represents the sound
of that particular chord, like major or minor, et cetera. We have our normal
major scale here. [MUSIC] Again, I'm playing
in the key of C. If I take these exact same notes and start on the second note
instead of the first. I'm starting on D and ending
on D. The same order of notes [MUSIC] all of a sudden sounds
completely different. This is actually a minor scale. [MUSIC] It's the exact
same notes that we played, but just because
we're thinking of the new root note instead, this note order actually changes and becomes
a minor scale. Now it's crazy how we can take the same seven notes but when we think about that
second scale degree as our new root note, it becomes a completely
different sound. But to really dig
into the modes, it's important to
understand intervals. I mentioned in one of
the previous classes, an interval is the distance
between two notes. Starting on C, if I play from C, just a half-step up, this interval is known
as a flat two, spooky. A natural two is when I just go up a whole
step here [MUSIC]. We're just moving one
note up in the scale. If I continue this next
interval from here, three frets up is a minor third, it has this sad
minor feel to it. We find minor thirds a lot and minor chords and also
in minor scales. If we move that
up one half-step, this C going to here, this E is a major third. We find these intervals a lot in major scales and also
in major chords. When I start from this note C, and go straight up
to the next string, this is what's known as a fourth or a perfect
fourth [MUSIC]. This next interval, when we
move up by another half step from C up to this F sharp, this interval here is
known as a flat fifth. Now historically back
in medieval times, this was known as The
Devil's Interval, and if you were to
put this interval into your compositions, you would actually be
executed, kind of crazy. It is a pretty dark
sounding interval and we move here
from C to this G, We have a perfect fifth. Now this is a really
nice stable interval. This is what a lot of times as guitarists call power cords,
when we have these [MUSIC]. From C up another half
step to this interval. This is what's
known as a flat 6. This is another spooky interval, we find this a lot in minor scales and if
we keep going again, we're going to have
from here to this. Now A, this is known as a major six or a natural six sometimes. This is also found in major
scales and some major courts. If we keep going, we're
going to have from C, going up two strings to this B flat that's
on the G string. This is known as a flat seven, or sometimes a minor seven. This again is found in a
lot of minor scales and a lot of minor chords such
as a minor seventh chord. If we move it up
one more half-step, this spooky sounding interval
is actually a major seven, which we can find in major
seven chords such as [MUSIC]. Even though on its own it sounds a little haunting and spooky, it's actually used mainly for major sounding chords
and we find the major seven in our major scale
leading us back to our octave. This interval here
is the octave. When I go from C to C, or from any note
to the same note, an octave up, that
is our octave. These are very
important to know. Just as we go into the modes, we're going to be talking
about intervals and how they affect the
sound of the scales. Continue to familiarize yourself with intervals before we dive further into the different
modes in the next lessons.
4. Mode: Ionian & Dorian: The first mode of the major
scale is called Ionian. It's actually just the same thing that we've
been practicing. Essentially, Ionian
is just another name for our major scale. It has a very happy, uplifting sound as we've seen. Now I'll play it again
real quick for you. The key of C. Here's starting
and ending on C we have. [MUSIC] We've already known
that as the major scale, but actually another
name for this is Ionian. I still call it major
scale most of the time. [MUSIC] The first chord in
our major scale is a C major. Ionian refers [MUSIC] to
that C major with the scale. Moving on to the next mode. If we start and end from the
second scale degree instead, in this case, it's going to be a D. We're going to get a
totally different sound. I'm going to use the same
scale positions, and instead, I'm going to start and end on D. [MUSIC] Now this mode is actually called Dorian, and it's a minor scale. Dorian is unique, and
that's a minor scale, but it still has this
natural six here. From the D, we were talking
about intervals here's our natural six or a major six. [MUSIC] Leading up to here, and if I continue [MUSIC]. Since this is the second
mode of the major scale, it's associated with the second
cord of the major scales. We have a D minor
or a D minor seven. [MUSIC] With that natural six, we get this brighter, funkier sound that you hear
a lot in actual funk music. We have this D minor, [MUSIC] you get this kind of
[MUSIC] it's pretty cool. Next, we'll look
at our third mode.
5. Mode: Phrygian: The third mode of the major
scale is called Phrygian. We're going to start and end on the third degree of
the major scale. In this case, since
we're in the key of C, we're going to be
starting on E. Now you can either
play it up here on the seventh fret of the
fifth string or you could even just start on the
low E string down here, but either way we're
still sticking to the same shapes and
we're going to go up starting and
ending on E. [MUSIC] Phrygian is also a minor scale with a pretty dark tonality. What makes the skill unique
is that it has the flat two in it. We're talking
about intervals. The flat two is just a half
step away from the root. When I'm on E, we're just
going right up to this F. It has that flat two which gives it this
mysterious dark tone. It's used a lot for metal music, rock and some Latin
styles of music. Being a third mode
of the major scale, it's also associated
with the third chord of the major scale which is a
minor chord or a minor seven. Over this minor sound, we have a Phrygian. [MUSIC] Nice. Now, let's check out Lydian.
6. Mode: Lydian: Lydian is the fourth
mode of the major scale. Meaning, we're
starting and ending on the fourth degree
of the major scale, in this case F. [MUSIC] Now, it's almost like our
normal major scale in terms of the
positions that we see. [MUSIC] It is a major scale, but it has a very unique note, this sharp 4 right here. When I'm going from F, I know I explain this to you
guys earlier as a flat 5, but the reason
we're going to call this note a sharp 4
instead of a flat 5 is because we actually have the perfect fifth
in here as well. When we go, we have one, two, here's our major third. Instead of a four, we're moving that
note up to a sharp 4, and then fifth, sixth, seventh back to our octave. Normally in the major scale, we get this fourth degree, so I'll play it still
from this F. We have one, two, major third,
and then the fourth. [MUSIC] But if I'm playing over a chord
or trying to solo over a major chord like this F, if I'm hanging onto that note, it doesn't really
sound that great, it sounds a little crunchy. Really sounds like
it wants to resolve down to this note,
the major third. But with Lydian, we have this
beautiful sharp 4 instead, which when I'm playing over
that same chord, [MUSIC] has this new mystery to it. It sounds really
pleasant to your ears. [MUSIC] Pretty awesome. Let's check out the next mode.
7. Mode: Mixolydian: [MUSIC] Mixolydian is the
fifth mode of the major scale. This scale works best
with dominant chords as it contains both
the major third. I'm going to start
with this G down here. This is where we're
at, the fifth mode. It contains both the major
third and also the flat seven, which is both notes
that are found in these dominant chords. The scale works perfectly
over any dominant chord, including the ones that
we were playing in the blues from the
earlier classes. Because we're in the key
of C, our Mixolydian scale is going to be starting on a G. I'm going to just
play this G9 chord and get a nice little
chord loop happening. Our same major scale positions, our caged system, our single-note string scales, everything like
that still applies. [MUSIC] It's amazing that we've been using the exact
same scale positions that we learned in our previous
class for C major, but as we think about our
new root notes instead of C, the same notes will transform
into these new sounds that also have direct
cord counterparts to associate them with. With each chord in the major
scale like C major, D minor, E minor, F major, and so on, there is a scale or a mode that corresponds and
defines that chord. Let's take a moment to apply the Mixolydian scale to the blues that we
learned earlier. I was playing this
blues in the key of A, which started on an
A dominant chord, then eventually it went
to a D dominant chord, and then even an
E dominant chord. Now I know we learned
the pentatonic scale, and that works over pretty
much this entire blues. But if we want to
start getting a little more colorful and a
little more specific, we can actually play
the Mixolydian scale from the root of each one
of these dominant chords. With A, we play A Mixolydian. The equivalent of
A Mixolydian would essentially be a D major scale, so starting the same
positions that you knew on C, but a whole step up on D. When we're
thinking about this, A dominant we have A, and when we move to that
D dominant chord because D is the fifth degree
of this G major scale, we're essentially
going to be playing a G major scale over this D, so we have D Mixolydian scale. The same thing happens
when we go to the E. We can play an E Mixolydian scale, which is the same as
playing an A major scale, [MUSIC] then back to our A. Now, I know I just played
one position here, but all of the same
cage positions that we went over earlier and all of the
single-string scale stuff that we did, all applies here.
8. Mode: Aeolian : Aeolian is the six mode
of the major scale. And it's also known as
the natural minor scale. Because simply put, this is
our standard minor scale. Now in the key of C, the six mode is going
to be starting on an A and our six chord in the
major scale is in A minor. So again this A minor, we are associating with. [MUSIC] Now the
natural minor scale has a flat third in it, it has the flat six in
it, and flat seven. So these are all things that are normal to our minor scale. [MUSIC] In terms of visualizing the scales, all of the original major
scale positions that we learned are starting from three frets below
our original notes. So instead of C, we
have moving down to A. It's all the same positions. [MUSIC] The chord that we're playing this
over is it an A minor. This is also known as the relative minor because when we're in the
key of C major, it's also the exact
same thing as A minor.
9. Mode: Locrian: Locrian is the last mode
of the major scale, starting and ending from
the seventh degree. It's a very dark minor scale, and it has a lot
of unique notes, so I'm going to start
with here on the B, right below our original
scene note here, and it's going to
start with the B, going all the way
up to [inaudible]. Not only do we have the
flat 3, and flat 7, and minor 6 like we find in the natural minor scale eolian, but we also have this flat 2
that we found in Phrygian, and this time a flat 5, which gives us the darkest
tonality of all the modes. This can be used over
diminished chords or the minor 7 flat 5 chords
that we were going over when we talked about the major
scale in the last class. I'm going to play a
little bit of this. [MUSIC] This is a minor 7
flat 5, starting from B. [MUSIC] It's pretty spooky and dark, but essentially
it's still coming from our core major scale, which is crazy to think about. The drastic
differences in sounds. We have this really
happy major sound and then this really dark
sound coming from Locrian, all in the same group of notes. Now that we've learned
all of our modes, join me in the next
lesson as we look at a few ways to
practice the modes.
10. Practicing the Modes: In one of the earlier classes, we discussed organizing
the fretboard using the caged system and learning
the scales on one string. These same shapes apply
to all of the modes. No need for re-learning
any new shapes, only re-imagining the
same shapes but with a different starting and ending
point. Our new root note. One way of practicing that can be really helpful
for learning modes, especially is playing scales
with three notes per string. I'm going to start down on
the lowest part of the neck, which is going to be
my open E. [MUSIC] Essentially we can consider
this as E Phrygian, [MUSIC] but I'm
going to start here and play three notes per string, [MUSIC] so I have 1, 2, 3 and I'm going to do the same thing going all
the way up the neck, three notes per string. [MUSIC] Right here we're going to switch to
this position here [MUSIC] and come back down. [MUSIC] Now as always,
with our scale playing, we want to make sure that our right hand is constantly
alternate picking. I'm just going to move up to
the next note in the scale, which is going to be
F and we're going to continue this three
notes per string. We can essentially
consider this as F Lydian. [MUSIC] Back down, now I'm going to move to
the next note in the scale and continue doing
the exact same thing. Here we're going to start
on G. [MUSIC] We consider this a nice position
for G Mixolydian. [MUSIC] Now we get these
nice repeating patterns that allow us to shred a little bit faster up and down the neck with this
particular pattern here, I had three strings
in a row that had the exact same spacing. [MUSIC] When I start to play, [MUSIC] you can get
a lot of speed out of these three notes per string. I'm going to continue on.
We're going to move to A. We're going to still do
this three notes per string and it's going to
be A only in this time. [MUSIC] Now again, we have these little
repeating patterns, these first two strings, the exact same finger
pattern for both. Then the next two strings repeat the exact same finger pattern and then these last ones
change just a little bit. [MUSIC] Continuing once again, I'm going to be
starting on B and we're going to basically consider
this as B Locrian. [MUSIC] Now, moving on to C, we're going to start on
C. This is essentially our Ionian or our C major scale. [MUSIC] Now this one has three different
patterns that repeat. We have the first two
strings are the same. [MUSIC] These next
two strings are the same and then these next
two strings are the same, in terms of the pattern
this makes it really easy for us to get some speed out of our scale playing and we can
come up with some new ways to [MUSIC] play this. Moving on once again, starting on the denote this
time our second scale degree. We're going to be playing
three notes per string. [MUSIC] Again, we have a lot
of nice repeating shapes here and then we're
back to our E, which I'll play it
again for you here because we have the 12th frets instead of
the open strings, but it's still the
same position. Same way of thinking. [MUSIC] Again, even though I'm playing
these cores and I'm saying, this is Phrygian and this is
Lydian and this is Locrian. All of these scale
shapes can apply to all of the modes they all
connect between each other. Every single one of
these is going to work over the chord that
you're playing over. Another thing that
we can do is play three notes and then
four notes per string, alternating from each string. I'm going to start
again down here from the low E and at first
I'm going to play three notes and then I'll play four notes then I'm going to play three
notes, then four notes. [MUSIC] Then three
notes. Then four notes. Now look at all the
distance that we covered. We went all the way from the low open E string all the way up here
to the 10th fret, where it's ending and then
we can come back down. We still go four then
three then four and three. Doing this allows
us to really cover a lot more ground and it
starts to expand the neck and we really start
connecting the dots going this direction rather than
just the cage system, which is primarily
these boxy shapes. If I continue doing
this up the neck, we're going to start on the F, [MUSIC] I'm going
to play three notes per string and then four notes. Two, three, and
then here is four, three, four. Again, look at all the
distance we covered. We went from the first fret. Now we're all the way at the 12th fret here
on the high string. This is extremely useful in
terms of breaking out of those box positions
and just allowing yourself to do what's
called linear playing. Where you go all the way up and down the neck
and you're thinking this direction rather than just up and down the same
scale positions. Record yourself
playing the scale alternating three notes and
then four notes per string, starting from each degree of the major scale and upload
it into the project gallery. Use a metronome to stay
consistent and then up the BPM to challenge
yourself at a faster pace.
11. Using the Modes in Modern Music: [MUSIC] So now we've
learned the modes and we also learned some ways
of practicing the modes. But how do we use the
modes in modern-day music? Well, there's a few
things that we can do. If we have a certain
chord progression, such as E minor to F major
[MUSIC] something like this. Well, it doesn't really
have any other chords, it's just switching
between those two chords. We can use deduction, knowing what we've
learned in the major scale and the modes, to figure out what key we're in. With E going to F, there's only one place in
the scale that this happens. It's the three-chord moving to the four-chord where it's a half step up and
a major sound. So using deduction, we
can figure out, okay, if this is three,
then that's two, and that's one, so we're in the key of C. As we're playing, those modes are going to apply. [MUSIC] So let's take another example. Let's say we have a
C major seven chord going to an F major
seven chord, well, the only two places that
we have major chords in the major scale is the first-degree and
the fourth degree, which is F. We can deduce that this is the root and
this is the fourth degree, which means that we're
going to be playing Ionian and then Lydian. So I have a little loop and we have [MUSIC]. So that's one way
of doing things. Where it starts to get really
cool and really interesting is when we start thinking about chords that are just
out of context. When we have just a C major chord that we're
jamming on, [MUSIC]. I'm going to keep that looping. Now we have a choice here; we can actually play
the major scale, [MUSIC] or we can
take another mode of the major scale such
as Lydian that works over a major seven chord
like this and we can actually just apply it without
having any context at all, just because we liked
the sound of Lydian. When I play that C Major again, I have the choice to switch. I could play regular
C major scale, or Ionian, [MUSIC] or
I could play Lydian. [MUSIC] Right there,
I just switched a little bit from using the regular Ionian mode to
now switching into Lydian. We can also do the same
thing with minor chords. If we have something like a
static, just D minor chord, [MUSIC] there are four modes in the major scale that
are all minor scales. We have Dorian that has that brighter funkier sound to it with the
natural six in there, we had Phrygian that
had a little bit of that darker sound
with the flat two, we have Aeolian, which is our natural
minor scale, just straight down
the middle minor. Then we had Locrian, which was the darkest
tonality out of all of them with the flat
five and the flat two. I'm going to play this D
minor chord and we can figure out which color
we want to add to it by playing the
different modes starting from the D. So I'm going to start off
with this chord vamp, [MUSIC] and I'm going to try
playing Dorian over this. [MUSIC] Now what if I tried playing Phrygian over
the same chord progression? [MUSIC] Now, you notice that gave it a
completely different tone. Now I'm going to
do the same thing, but I'm going to play
Aeolian and then Locrian. Here's a Aeolian. [MUSIC] Now let's try Locrian, which is definitely
the darkest sound [MUSIC] so we can take
a single chord like that and apply
different modes that cord to basically
color that sound the way that we like and the way that we
want it to sound, whether it'd be brighter, funky, or dark and spooky and we don't even need the
major scale to do this. All we need to do
is just think about the chord that we're playing and what we want to
play over it. [MUSIC]
12. Final Thoughts: I know modes can
be very complex, but you made it. Just like any other skill, it's super important
to practice. Without that, none of
this is going to work. Remember to re-imagine
your shapes with a different starting
and ending point, or try playing three notes and then four notes per string. Practice up and join me in
the next class where we look at guitar as it relates
to music production.
Wes Singerman, Music Producer, Guitarist
