Stay away from modes!
Sep 20, 2023Do you find yourself wanting to understand the fretboard better? Do you already know basic chords and scales? Do you find people telling you to study modes to understand the fretboard better? Then, once you start to study modes, do you feel that it's confusing and difficult to make sense of?
If that’s you, let me go ahead and tell you, Don’t Study Modes.
There is nothing wrong with them, but people make them way too complicated for what they actually are! Let’s discuss them and you will come away with a better understanding of how to study and view this concept.
First, the seven modes are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Lochrian. If your head is starting to hurt thinking about it, well, you’re already proving my point. That is the most confusing terminology for what the concept actually represents.
What the concept represents is the scale of the key you are in, but starting on different notes in that scale. If that sounds confusing, it’s because it is! That is, until you know what it is you are actually doing!
If you know your basic major scale, then you already know Everything you need to know about modes. Scale diagrams often show modes based on intervals. You often see things like a flat 2 and sharp 4 and it's no wonder you get confused. I get confused thinking about it. Those charts show the particular scale degree of the mode you are in as starting on the 1 or the root note. Well, that’s not actually the case if you aren’t in that key. Your key is the root note. In no way do you ever deviate from the original major scale of the key you are in within the idea of modes!
Scales and arpeggios are nothing more than frameworks for musical sentences and ideas. Modes attempt to be that as well. But oftentimes, for people who want to learn to play guitar and learn to play well, they can do more harm than good.
Try this: The whole idea behind modes is the idea of note coloration. Take your major scale that you already know and pick any key you want. For example, strum a G chord and then create a musical sentence starting on the note A using the G major scale. Then do the same thing but start on the note B and so forth. Play with the idea of resolving those musical sentences to different notes. Doing this, you will begin to hear the different ways notes affect your key. If you can train your mind and your ear to do that, then you have no need at all for the idea of modes or its terminology.
Benefit #1
Causes you to only learn only necessary concepts to grow as a guitar player.
Benefit #2
Gives you the ability to start a musical sentence from any note you choose instead of the root note.
Benefit #3
Simplifies your learning process.
Here are three steps you can take to improve your ear when creating musical sentences:
Step 1: One key takeaway you should draw from this article is that you don’t have to use every note in the scale. In any diatonic (7 note) scale, there are only seven notes before you come back around to the root note. G, for instance, is G, A, B, C, D, E, F# (sharp), and the next note is the root G an octave up. Pick three or four notes and start coming up with different musical sentences. Use different combinations of those notes and different rhythms with your picking hand.
Step 2: After getting used to the sound of single notes, use double stops, which are two notes played together. They can be strings that are next to each other or not next to each other. Use a static chord from a backing track or a drone note on your instrument. Begin to play around with and hear how those notes affect your background chord or drone note.
Step 3: Once you have a decent idea of double stops, start to use notes that aren’t in the scale. For example, use Bb (B flat), Eb, Ab, C# (C Sharp), or F as passing notes in your musical sentences. When I say passing notes, I mean that they are not held long. They are more of an effect as opposed to a note you lead into such as a note in the scale.
Doing this exercise and playing along with recordings will increase your musical intuition. Your mind will start to come up with ideas that have little twists and turns as you play through chord changes. What you are listening for is harmony. That is how different notes affect each other and how chords and music in general works together. Modes are great if you want to study music theory. You can definitely apply them to any musical situation. But you can go ahead and byass the confusing terminology! You can learn to hear what the end result sounds like without the terminology. Begin to create musical sentences with that sound in mind. That process much simpler to learn.