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Applying Modes Question


Music Fusion

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d. Some of the things you write are beyond me...for now. But they get me thinking, and that's a good thing.

 

Hard to say my favourite style of music, but I will give it a shot

 

1. My own originals

2. Classic Rock. Love Led Zeppelin etc.

3. The Beatles

4. Old rock n roll (50's-60's)

5. Blues (should have been number 2 on the list but it just came to me)

6. Country

 

I am presently on shape 2 ofd the Mixoldian mode. I have been mainly playing the mode in different keys so i can get used to my fingers doing the same thing, on different parts of the fret board. I want these shapes to come out fluidly and if i only do them on one part of the fretboard, they may seem odd as I move them around. So, it is more about being familiar with them everywhere. I know the fingering does not change, but putting it on different spots on the neck makes things look a slight bit different. Just want to get used to it.

 

I'm having a lot of fun at this and I finding that i have an uncanny ability to remember dishpans. But of course, i don';t wan tot be robotic about music.

 

Here is a little something I co-wrote

 

http://musicfusion.us/2share/bmh.mp3

 

 

 

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That's all cool, MF, but rather than the types of music, I wonder at the particular songs you like.

Which songs resonate w/you & would therefore be more familiar to you & easier to dig how any particular mode fits w/them ?

When you hip yerself to that is when you get hip to the overall effect.

 

Any style or, in the case of many bands such as The Beatles any general general categorization, can involve a wide variety of musical effects such as scales (while scales are generally considered building blocks & tools, they're really effects in how the note collections work to build a mood---in fact one might consider that the words mood & mode are equivalent in that the mode/scale works to affect the listener's mood !)

 

While AString remains a better & faster source of theory than me,

[Craig's really smart & experienced plus is VERY interested in helping ppl] :2thu:

I do think I have 2 areas of expertise that may be valuable to you:

--- You are best served by the idea that there is no need to hurry.

Getting ahead of yerself is not really possible.

Until you get a grasp on an idea---a real understanding of what it does---yer only gonna spin yer wheels.

Like I said before, do not rush yerself.

--- Conceptual ideas are great for study but in the case of music---if not all art---the effect on the listener is what matters.

How many great players have not been able to connect w/ppl ?

As I suspect yer own experience shows, the feeling imparted by music is what matters.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

I'll chk yer latest music post out

but in the meantime here's a chance to teach me something...

WTF are "dishpans" ?!

 

I doubt it has to do w/this..........but :idk :D

 

JAPAN IN A DISHPAN

[video:youtube]

 

JAPAN IN A DISHPAN BASS SOLO

[video:youtube]

 

SOMETHIN' ELSIE ALTOGETHER

[video:youtube]

d=halfnote
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hi guys.....I have not had a chance to look at the videos posted. A mode, is a variation of the notes of the major scale. Displacing these notes by starting on a note other than the first (for example, starting on the second Dorian), changes the sound of the progression of notes which changes its colour and "mood".

 

In essence, a mode is a particular way of ordering the notes of the major scale by changing its tonality, achieved by starting on and making a particular note in the scale, the centre or root.

 

I think I am either not saying what i need to say clearly, or you are trying to tell me something I am not understanding.

 

Of all people, rest assured that i know that music is about feel and not forumula. I have written over 200 songs and most of them without the benefit of what i have recently learned. they worked because they sounded good, they conveyed a feeling that i was feeling and I had no idea how to represent the chords i played, or the melody i sang, theoretically.

 

BUT..I have been my own worst enemy by going only by feel. Maybe others may find that commendable (as do i, from an originality point of view), but I have robbed myself of learning about the mechanics and theory of music as a result. I am simply trying to compliment my ability to compose music, with an ability to understand how it works. I know it is not necessary and I'd rather play by ear and by emotion any day, over by sheet music, but I'd rather not have to choose and learn both.

 

Having said all that, maybe I am a difficult or frustrating person to teach. ;-(

 

I am only memorizing the shapes, so i can play them. Maybe someday this will all come to me fluidly by ear, or by feel, but one must walk before running. I sense that you may be thinking that i am forgoing the creative part off music (which is its soul), for a fixation ion rule for mechanics. This is not so. But I have respect the mechanics and rules, so that i can expand my learning.

 

I go back to maybe I'm a difficult student?

 

Notwithstanding., every thing I learned here will always be invaluable and I am thankful for it.

 

 

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In terms of what songs I like, there are a ton. but if you want me to pick some:

 

At Seventeen- Janis Ian (great songwriting)

Custard Pie (Led Zep)

More Than a Memory- Garth Brooks

We All Fall in Love Sometimes- Elton John

I'm so Tired- The Beatles

This Boy- The Beatles

Anna - The Beatles

Since I've Been Loving You, Led Zep

Al Stewart- anything from Year of the Cat album

Angel- Tower

Laura- Billy Joel

La Grange- ZZ Top

Cry Baby- Janis Joplin

 

 

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Okay...I'm not sure how this fits, and maybe it may send d and Craig over the top, but another exercise I have done is as follows:

 

I have thought of a theme or a slogan, and then tried to build guitar solos around it. So, for example, I posted something called The Chase, here before.It was a solo based on a vision of teens being chased by cops in cars.

 

The next thing I am experimenting with is the words "Walking Home Drunk. " I want to write a guitar solo in such a way that conveys the feeling of someone walking home drunk. So I was thinking elongated notes, bending parts, perhaps electronic noise to simulate someone walking into a poll etc.

 

Now you probably think I'm outright crazy ;-)

 

 

 

 

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I just listened to the Captain Beefheart bass solo. I think I get it. The guy seems to be entranced into what he is playing and feeding off the reaction he is getting from the audience. Is this pure music, pure art? I think so from the perspective of playing for and to your audience. Is it masterful? probably not. But it's all about conveying a mode/feeling/emotion, rather delivering a contrived array of notes/scales/chords.
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sorry for writing so much, but I feel I have to explain myself. as mentioned, i have learned all positions of the Dorian and am starting on Mixolydian. What i did not say, which i should have, is that when i learned the first 5 shapes of the dorian, I jammed for hours on various dorian jam tracks. I did this to try to understand the mood and colour of this mode. That is my end goal, is to understand what this tool does and how it sounds. i should have said that but I thought it would be apparant. I am not memorizing the shapes for the sole sake of recalling them, but for the sake of recalling and applying them based on the colour they provide contextually.
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Afraid to wade into this but it's timely as a friend just asked me to clarify the "modes" thing after a couple of different teachers have him confused.

 

I told him that I learned them when I was 12 and quickly scrambled them up, forgot the names and integrated them into my playing and never thought about it again. But to clarify it the way my dad clarified it to me (he was a music teacher with a Master's Degree in music and a jazz saxophonist):

 

Lydian: Major scale with a sharp 4th. play over Maj 7 and Major chords... that raised 4th can either sound dissonant or sophisticated based on how well you apply it...

 

Ionian: Major scale, play over Major and Major 7 chords.

 

Mixolydian: Ionian with a flat 7, play over 7 chords

 

Dorian: Mixolydian with a flat 3, play over minor chords but more in progressions that use the iim and then resolve to the im.

 

Aeollian: minor scale, or Dorian with a flat 6. Play over minor chords

 

Phrygian: Aeolian with a flat 2. Play over minor7 chords... especially to make things sound "Flamenco!"

 

Locrian: Phrygian with a flat 5. Play over m7b5 chords, in jazz songs using the minor ii v i progression

 

So right away, my buddy was able to dismiss worrying about some of them at the moment because he isn't a jazzer and is mostly interesting in blues rock. And he asked "why don't they just tell you what chords/progressions you use them over?"

 

I don't know.

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on Dorian... I'm remembering as a kid reading Ritchie Blackmore saying "just play your solos in the Dorian mode... they love that..." so I called the local high school radio station and requested "Smoke On The Water" (they played it a lot... and it was already a bit of a cliché by then) just to tape it and examine the solo... and he plays some sophisticated lines in there that most guys who cover it don't quite seem to get... I can't exactly remember and I don't have a guitar at the moment, but he isn't just playing in the G minor blues scale upon inspection, I think it might actually be C Dorian over the songs G minor... I'll dig into that later at home.

 

just as an example of its use.

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@Music Fusion, you are not being difficult at all. As a teacher, I like to make sure my students are understanding what they are doing and not just memorizing notes. You seem to be at a point where you understand the modes and are now memorizing the different locations on the neck for the different keys. IMO, that is the correct way to do it. Understanding....then memorizing. Keep it up and keep asking questions.
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on Dorian... I'm remembering as a kid reading Ritchie Blackmore saying "just play your solos in the Dorian mode... they love that..." so I called the local high school radio station and requested "Smoke On The Water" (they played it a lot... and it was already a bit of a cliché by then) just to tape it and examine the solo... and he plays some sophisticated lines in there that most guys who cover it don't quite seem to get... I can't exactly remember and I don't have a guitar at the moment, but he isn't just playing in the G minor blues scale upon inspection, I think it might actually be C Dorian over the songs G minor... I'll dig into that later at home.

 

just as an example of its use.

 

Or just play natural minor with a flat sharp 6. :)

 

I know why guitarist often get all Gaga over ecclesiastical modes because they want magical patterns that they can plug and chug but I don't think it is a real good way to think about compositional and melodic elements. Modes don't explain variances of movement around tonal centers .... And I'm Byzantine Orthodox. :D

 

The thing about Orthodox chant is there are no fixed keys. Tonal centers vary according to the singers. There are no instrumental musicians locking us into set frequencies/keys. Modes/tones ect.... Become central. Byzantine notation doesn't tell you what note to sing but rather how the next note moves in relation to the last note. It's a different world musically. My church doesn't even have a piano in it.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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There's a great deal of misunderstanding, even amoungst authorities, on the development & history of modes.

As they were created in the 1st place in Greek era culture, in how the developed during the Middle Ages (basically their tranliteration into European music got them all turned around).

 

I'll reiterate this a last time.

There are many ways to study them & develop their use.

One way is to concentrate on using them as exercises to develop music.

That can be interesting, mostly as an exercise that may become interesting music...or may not & just remain an exercise.

Another is to develop music that happens to have qualities associated w/any mode(s).

 

To me the best way to get the gist of anything is to reduce it to it's simplest qualities & add to that as one learns.

Therefore I view all scales/modes/etc, no matter what culture they're from, as variants on the major scale (which in fact is how the modern modes we generally use are defined).

You have the basic melodic notes involved in a tune, the "color" notes that elaborate the music & the harmonic notes that frame those.

 

Concentrate on what you want the music to sound like & express.

Then consider what went into that.

It will sort itself out.

 

 

 

d=halfnote
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+1 Once you know the major Ionian scale mode, you know all of the 7 modes as they are contained in the pattern. It's just a matter of knowing your tonal center starting point and the octave pattern that is contained. The pattern can be broken down into 7 sections or into 5 sections. They will allow you to play [across] the fretboard. By linking them together you will be able to play [along] the fretboard. Learning as a pattern of dots will allow you to play beyond your technical knowledge of notes and intervals.

 

The section charts can be found by googling on "guitar modes'. After learning the pattern of dots, you can go back and learn the notes and intervals and use the intervals to learn your chords as well. When you 1st learned the C chord (or any other) someone or some book showed it to you as a pattern of dots. All of the chords in the books are broken down this way. Some include the fingerings and some include the intervals. Eventually you learn both. There is memorization involved. The important thing the modes do (by shifting the major scale using the tonal center of the new mode, is provide your ear with the new sounds of the intervals (which shift automatically with each mode).

 

 

My book defines the genres/sounds created by the various modes as follows:

 

Ionian major scale, Dorian rock, Phrygian flamenco, Lydian jazz, Mixolydian classical, Aeolian relative minor scale, Locrian folk...

 

This is not to lock you in, just might give you an idea of how to [pick] on one to improvise over a selected song or backing track. I get a lot of use out of the Pentatonic scales swapping them in and out with the major and minor scale modes.

 

It's a fun lifetime journey of music study and theory. Some very good players I know, never use any of it. I find the mode studies a great tool that you can go away from and return back to. If it pleases, by all means continue! :cool:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take care, Larryz
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I think I have come a very long way.

 

It began on this board, where I leaner how to play the pentatonic stuff. Then , it continued as I started getting into modes. It has not been an easy journey for me, but it was very rewarding- and still is.

 

It is not in my fabric to learn something, outside of its context or outside of the possibilities the new learning brings. so, for any of you who may think I am trying to learn "quickly" and not thoughtfully, let me assure you that it is not the case.

 

Everyone learns differently, and I prefer to get a handle on the mechanics first, because once I do that, I can put my mind to letting myself absorb the feel and application of certain approaches - be it modes, or whatever.

 

Everything I have learned here, has been augmented by countless hours of my applying it to jam tracks and really trying to listen to what a particular mode can do.

 

For a long time- as many go you know, i was stuck on the "concept: of a mode. But now, i am beyond it. So I plan to memorize, and the experiment and apply each mode. Right now, i can basically say that i am comfortable with the dorian mode. I know how to finger it, i know what it sounds like and I have done a lot of experimentation with it.

 

I am now back to the mixolydian. I plan to do the same as i did with Dorian. Learn all the fingering and then spend a lot of time using it on jam tracks. I eventually want to do each and ever mode this way- even the stranger ones.

 

So far i have done the major scale, the dorian and now i am on the mixolydian mode. Any thoughts on which modes I should do after mixciolydian? In a way, it won't matter, as i will be doing all of them, but I'd rather tackle the ones that are more frequently used in modern music first.

 

Thanks for hanging in with me. When i said that perhaps i was a difficult student, i did not say that sarcastically. I actually meant it, because I learn a certain way and sometimes that can be challenging to those doing the teaching.

 

 

 

 

 

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I hope

(& suspect, hopefully :D )

that you can discern the weeds from the chaff here.

 

Quotes that refer you

to

other explications of info

are but deeper morasses of what you can already

& have already found.

 

Play music

& listen to what it tells you.

As A-String said, understand what yer yerself doing

Roll back to dig it deeper.

Hear what you hear.

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOwBDlcasZ8

 

Best of, MF, & keep us informed !

 

d=halfnote
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Still going back and forth between playing all positions of the Dorian and then playing all positions f the Mixolydian, using different backing tracks. I am getting pretty fluid at playing them.

 

That's where I am at. Going to pick another mode to learn soon. Just have to make sure I'm not going to forget what i have been playing, but it has become pretty easy, especially when playing to the backing tracks.

 

 

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Hi. Thank-you. I am drilling these modes into my playing. I don't find it useful to memorize the fingering, although it is necessary. What I am finding more useful is simply playing them over and over against backing tracks. Slowly, this practice is starting to help me know the modes rather than trying to remember them. But I am staying with just the two modes for now until I am comfortable that i know them without having to think about them.

 

Lastly, I found this santana type backing track the other day that did not specify which mode to play. So I just began soling without any regard to modes/scales and the like. It was more just from feel. Surprisingly, it worked out very well and boosted my confidence in a way.

 

 

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STOP !

Do Not Drill.

Do not force anything into what you play.

 

Music is a social communicative tool.

It is not a system of rules nor a preset science.

Music is for communicating w/ other ppl.

Look 4 the ways 2 communicate.

 

 

If you think you need to modify how you communicate, OK but quit tryna BE CORRECT !

 

Do U think that Luis de Milán or Jimi Hendrix thought much abt BEING CORRECT ?!

 

----------------------

Sorry to yell but some shthds here got me stirred up.

 

Yer a player.

Keep playing.

Do not worry abt what you play if it gets across what you intend !

 

d=halfnote
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d. I appreciate how you always warn me about falling into robotic, mechanical traps and how so contrary it is to musical creativity. I get it because I was you (and still am), in that regard. I would take every opportunity to warn other musicians, even chastise them if the truth be known, about relying so heavily on sheet music (for example) and how sheet music tried to ascribe a scientific representation to something that ought to be left to be solely a creative endeavour.

 

Part of me still believes that and if push came to shove, i would choose playing by ear (which i have done all my life), over playing by formula.

 

But what i am doing now, with this excersizes and "drills" is to hone my skills. I am already starting to find that i could break free from them and start soling on my own in ways I never could in the past.

 

So, this theoretical,"drilling" phase I am in is actually just making me a stronger player and aiding me in being creative. But sometimes it feels like excersices. i get that.

 

Like I said, your perspective is a valid one, so i never find myself dismissing anything I read here. it is always well thought out, albeit from different approaches.

 

Bear in mind that my first love is songwriting. 99% of the songs I have written, were based on my not having much of a clue as to the musical "rules" It was just what i felt at the time and when what you feel comes out in musical form, it could never be wrong.

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Not sure how sheet music fits in as a trap or anything other than another tool :idk

 

But I take yer point abt the necessity of sheer physical exercises as long as the exercise does not become the end result.

 

I've heard some of yer stuff & yer good.

Maybe you should consider a latter-day Bach thing wherein you create a series of etudes that start w/yer explorations of various modes & explore the melodic kernels that you find therin.

 

Been v busy lately but I'm still looking at that list of songs you posted to see how they fit in w/various modes.

-------------------

Perhaps this

Do not worry abt what you play if it gets across what you intend !

should've been written thus:

Do not worry abt what you play or how you play it

so much as the effect is has on listeners.

 

:wave:

d=halfnote
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Thanks for the suggestion. Here is where I am at.

 

I have fully learned the following:

 

Major scale

Pentatonics

Dorian

 

 

I am now starting Mixolydian.

 

But what i have been doing, which I am finding both interesting and assisting me in helping to remember the modes and their sounds, is switching between Dorian, Mixolydian, Major and Pentatonics as I play over various backing tracks.

 

The reason this is helping, is, of course, not all modes/scales will sound good over the backing tracks. So, this is what I am doing

 

1. Switch between modes/scales on the fly

2. Discern what modes/scales sound good over what backing track and which do not fit.

 

I also try to leave the modes/scales approach and I also throw in just some "from the gut" playing (d would be proud of me ;-)). And this is also helping me to play more from my ear 9which i am used to), than from pre contrived approaches.

 

It's fun for sure. My goal is to fully learn the mixilydian and then keep growing my modes until i know all of them. this will take some time- especially if I want to study what they sound like and what they do, but in the end, I think it will be worth doing it.

 

People who hear me play now are amazed that i can devour the entire neck and stay in key.

 

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Something that might speed the process is to know that the Dorian & Mixolydian are exactly the same, except for the thirds. Dorian being minor & Mixolydian being major. Which to use is dependent on the whether the underlying chord is major or minor.

 

Yeah, I had hoped the approach I shared above would help with realizing that... or with all of the modes and when to use them.

 

Lydian: Major scale with a sharp 4th. play over Maj 7 and Major chords... that raised 4th can either sound dissonant or sophisticated based on how well you apply it...

 

Ionian: Major scale, play over Major and Major 7 chords.

 

Mixolydian: Ionian with a flat 7, play over 7 chords

 

Dorian: Mixolydian with a flat 3, play over minor chords but more in progressions that use the iim and then resolve to the im.

 

Aeollian: minor scale, or Dorian with a flat 6. Play over minor chords

 

Phrygian: Aeolian with a flat 2. Play over minor7 chords... especially to make things sound "Flamenco!"

 

Locrian: Phrygian with a flat 5. Play over m7b5 chords, in jazz songs using the minor ii v i progression

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...I have fully learned the following:

Major scale

Pentatonics

Dorian...

Wow---I myself have never fully learned anything ! :D

 

 

I also try to leave the modes/scales approach and I also throw in just some "from the gut" playing (d would be proud of me ;-)).

Hey, cat, 7 things you never needa wonder abt is what I think of you ! :2thu:

People who hear me play now are amazed that i can devour the entire neck and stay in key.

Eat 'em up, cat !

d=halfnote
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