Guitar Scales: Modes

I’ve kinda been putting off doing this one for a long time. You see, there’s so much misinformation out there about Modes for guitarists that I didn’t want to just confuse the issue. What I’ve (eventually) decided to do is to explain the basics of what modes are and how the different ways they’re used by guitarists and other musicians. If you have any problems with my explanation of modes, there is a comment section below…

CAUTION: DON’T READ THIS UNLESS YOU UNDERSTAND THE PREVIOUS “GUITAR SCALES” POSTS!

Modes Aren’t Keys

Way back in my post on the Major Scale, I mentioned that in order to create a song in a major key, you have to make chords from the notes of the scale. I also mentioned that the Major Scale was originally from an Ancient Greek system.

Well, in the Ancient Greek system, they didn’t have “keys” like we do now (and, so they didn’t have a use for chords…). Instead, each scale was a different pattern of intervals (distances between notes) used to create different sounding melodies.

As I mentioned when talking about the the Minor Scale, if we take the major scale and start it on a different note, we change the sequence of intervals in that scale (or use the same sequence from a different starting point…). So, if we take the C major scale (which the Greeks called “Ionian”):

C D E F G A B

…and start it from the D instead of the C, we end up with:

D E F G A B C

…which, is a different scale based around a D- and if you play it (over a D bass note) you’ll realise that it creates a different sound to the major scale.

Related to the Root

The key difference (no pun intended…) here is: we don’t then take this scale and harmonise it to create a key- that’s a different musical system, not modes! If you try to harmonise this mode, you’ll end up creating the chords of the C major scale (because it has the same notes) and you wont be using a mode anymore, you’ll be in a major key!

What we do with this scale instead is: we play it over the root note. So this scale is played over a D note. You may also realise that the third note of this scale is a minor third from the root- so the scale will also work over a D minor chord instead of just a D note (or a Dm6 as there is a major sixth here too…).

Let’s make this clear: you are NOT in the key of C major, nor are you in the key of D minor! You’re not in a key, you’re using a mode. This is where most of the confusion about modes comes from, and it’s probably because we’re all brought up with the idea of being “in a key” all the time. The truth is: the Ancient Greeks hadn’t invented keys yet (they were only really invented 4 or 5 hundred years ago…), and so their music wasn’t “in key”, it used modes.

Summary

To summarise, Modes are not keys, and they are not “in a key”. The example mode above was taken from the second note of the C major scale, and so you could say it’s the “second mode of C major”, but it’s not “in C major”! That mode (actually called “D Dorian”) is based on the D note, and fits over that OR a D minor chord (because the notes are the same). The Greeks (and medieval composers) would have (probably) used it over D bass note, not a chord progression (as these hadn’t yet been invented), and more modern Jazz players might use it over some kind of D minor chord (which has a D root note already)- but it’s not the KEY of D minor, it’s a MODE!

Here are the posts on Guitar Modes:

Aeolian
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Locrian
Ionian

I hope that clears a few things up.
Rob.

May 2, 2011 at 11:00 pm | Guitar Scales, How to | 1 comment

One Response to “Guitar Scales: Modes”

Brad says:

05/16/2011 at 6:40 pm

Hoho, this is the exact info. i need. Thanks dude!