Modes: most of the important ones

viz · August 2013

OK, here are the important modes. Hope you like my slightly unorthodox way of depicting them!

http://www.guitaristtv.com/Downloads/Modes 2014_02_18 - for GTV.xlsx

ChristophEar · August 2013

Ooh, I like that way of visualising the tones/semitones!

monquixote · August 2013

Viz you just post the links on here, you don't need BBCode.

viz · August 2013

OK lol, got it thanks!

mike_l · August 2013

Nice Work Viz.

I'll try to get my head round that properly. Sometime. In the future. ish.

viz · August 2013

Yes, it's not the most exciting thing about music, I'll give you that.

snakemanStoo · August 2013

I think the visual thing looks pretty cool

stonevibe · August 2013

I think thats well laid out. Not that I have ever consciously looked at Modes in my playing....

viz · August 2013

Thanks a lot - I've also used the same colour scheme throughout; and from the diatonic the colours are:

Ionian red, because it's strong and major

Dorian green, because of greensleeves

Phyrgian yellowy orange, because I don't know, it sounds yellowy orange and eastern and mysterious

Lydian pink because it's Steve Vai-ish and strident

Mixolydian brown because it has that brown flat sound

Aeolian blue because it's minor and blue

Locrian lilac because it's so bizarre and unsettling

and then I've used the same colours throughout the pages, so each mode can be easily identified. Eg in melodic minor, I've based it off the Aeolian, the first mode of the minor scale, so the first mode is blue (rather than having it based off the Ionian, red, and flattening the 3rd to make it minor, which would have been IMO incorrect), anyhoo etc.

bigjon · August 2013

Top work, Sir Viz of that ilk. I salute your indefatigability.

viz · August 2013

Haha ta

Clarky · August 2013

I think for general music [not jazz / fusion / prog or other more 'out there' stuff

the main scales / modes to learn are diatonic major, natural minor, mixolydian and dorian

and maybe add the harmonic minor

these will cover most bases across most genres / styles

viz · August 2013

Absolutely, good point! And for the next phase, try:

Diatonic: 4th mode, "Lydian mode"
Melodic minor: 4th mode, "acoustic scale" (more pleasing than diatonic Lydian IMO)
Melodic minor: 1st and 5th modes
Hungarian minor: 5th mode

axisus · August 2013

Ooooohhhhh ........ pretty ........... I see pretty .........

I just can't do scales by interval. I can figure it out on one string, but over all 6 explodes my head.

viz · August 2013

A huge number of you have correctly pointed out that the major Locrian scale is just a mode of the Neapolitan major scale, and that the Gypsy scale is merely a mode of the Neapolitan minor scale, so for the sake of conciseness I have edited my post with the relevant modifications. Thanks to the many of you who PM'd me about these delicate points.

viz · August 2013

comment deleted due to lots of mistakes

viz · August 2013

In fact, seeing as you asked, here's a summary.

viz · August 2013

I think this is the complete set - enjoy! http://www.guitaristtv.com/Downloads/Modes 2014_02_18 - for GTV.xlsx

axisus · September 2013

viz said:

A huge number of you have correctly pointed out that the major Locrian scale is just a mode of the Neapolitan major scale

I scream when I hear the Neapolitan scale.

viz · September 2013

Hahahaha!!

photek · September 2013

viz said:

I think this is the complete set - enjoy! http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab217/Vizzage/MusicalmodesbyViz6_zps15fcbf56.jpg

Phew, I don't have a 7 string guitar so I don't need to learn this

Great stuff viz thanks for sharing.

mike_l · September 2013

photek said:
Phew, I don't have a 7 string guitar yet so I don't need to learn this until I do Great stuff viz thanks for sharing.

Corrected for you.

Jalapeno · September 2013

Not my gag, but love it anyway .......

Modes ? We don' need no stinkin' modes !

viz · September 2013

There's 168 scales there - 1 for every hour of the week, which is nice.

mike_l · September 2013

Shit dude, 168 scales. I need a lie down...... :-S

Even if I learnt them all, I'd still pick the wrong one for soloing......... (

viz · September 2013

Just tell 'em it's the 4th mode of Persian minor, that'll do it.

mike_l · September 2013

I usually use the "it's the 4th mode of the minor pentatonic"......sometimes it really works........ #:-S

viz · September 2013

Lol :-)

Van_Hayden · September 2013

mike_l;30208" said:
I usually use the "it's the 4th mode of the minor pentatonic"......sometimes it really works........ #:-S

Call it the Man Gong and really confuse them. To be honest I quite like the third mode, Egyptian over sus chords.

It's all very well knowing this stuff, the trick is knowing how and when to use it.

randomhandclaps · September 2013

mike_l said:

Shit dude, 168 scales. I need a lie down...... :-S
Even if I learnt them all, I'd still pick the wrong one for soloing......... (

Calm down dear, technically there are only 5 as everything else is relative.

There is sometimes an overawed and over complex attitude taken to the modal system, which puts a lot of people off. It fundamentally more important to understand where the relative notes are on your fretboard. It is what you are playing over, not the notes you play that determine the 'mode' (or mood) and the key is to learn to exploit and highlight this.

C Ionian, D Dorian, E Phrygian, F Lydian, G Mixolydian, A Aeolian & B Locrian are all the same scale, it's the emphasis and relativity of the notes that change in relation to the chordal bed.

Good work though Viz, I think it's a great exercise to see what is going on in each various scale.

viz · September 2013

As soon as I work out how to record myself on my pewter I'm going to try to write some interesting little choons on some of the lesser known scales. And Mr RHC is correct, for each scale, its 6 modal variations are using the same notes, just with different starting points in the cycle.

Even so, there are still 24 different scales to choose from though, so get writing everybody

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Modes: most of the important ones

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Modes ? We don' need no stinkin' modes !