Module 9: Scales and modesLesson 1advanced⏱ 90 min + two weeks of drills

The modes of the major scale

Build the seven modes two ways, find each one's characteristic note, pair each with the chords it fits, play them in three positions and improvise over modal vamps.

Why modes, and why they are not seven new scales

You already know the major scale in every key from Theory I, and you have spent the improvisation modules targeting chord tones through changes. Modes are the bridge between those two skills. A mode is the major scale heard from a different note: the same seven pitches, a different tonic, and therefore a different set of tensions around a chord. When a chart sits on one chord for eight bars, or when a ii–V–I goes by and you want the correct colour on each chord without hunting for it, modes give you the answer immediately. They also fix a fretboard problem: a player who only knows "the C major shape" has to translate every time; a player who knows the same shape as D Dorian, G Mixolydian and F Lydian is already in the right place.

Nothing in this lesson is new material for your hands. It is a new way to hear and label material you can already play, and that is exactly why it works fast.

Two ways to build a mode

Parent-scale (derivative) thinking

Take C major and start it on each of its seven notes. Every one of those seven scales is a mode of C major. Mode 1 is the major scale itself, also called Ionian; mode 2 starts on the 2nd degree and is Dorian; and so on. The table below is generated by the engine from C; the notes column uses the same seven pitches in every row, only the starting point and therefore the formula changes.

Derivative thinking answers the question "what scale do I play over Dm7 in the key of C?" with "the key, from D". It is fast on the bandstand because one fingering covers all seven chords of the key.

Parallel thinking

Now build every mode from the same root, C. This is how you hear the character of each mode, because the tonic is held fixed and only the colours move. The formula column is what to memorise: each mode is the major scale with specific degrees lowered or raised.

Read the formulas from brightest to darkest: Lydian (one raised note, the #4), then Ionian, Mixolydian (b7), Dorian (b3 b7), Aeolian (b3 b6 b7), Phrygian (b2 b3 b6 b7), Locrian (b2 b3 b5 b6 b7). Each step down the list flattens exactly one more degree. That ordering is the single most useful thing to know about the modes: it tells you how "bright" or "dark" a chord-scale will sound before you play it.

Parallel thinking answers a different question: "the chart says D7#11 for four bars, what colour is that?" You are not in any key; you want D with a particular set of alterations, and you reach for the formula.

Use both. Derivative thinking is for playing through keys; parallel thinking is for hearing the colour of one chord. Advanced players switch between them without noticing.

The characteristic note

Every mode shares six of its seven notes with at least one neighbour. The note that makes a mode sound like itself is its characteristic note, the degree that differs from the nearest "plain" scale:

• Dorian: the natural 6 (compared with Aeolian). Play Dorian over a minor chord and lean on the 6 and the sound is unmistakably the jazz minor-seventh sound.
• Phrygian: the b2. Lean on it and you have the Spanish, dark sound.
• Lydian: the #4. Everything else is major; the #4 floats.
• Mixolydian: the b7 (compared with Ionian). It is the dominant-seventh sound.
• Aeolian: the b6 (compared with Dorian). Natural minor, more sombre.
• Locrian: the b5. It is the only mode whose tonic triad is diminished, which is why it is used over m7b5 chords and almost nowhere else.
• Ionian: the natural 4, in the sense that it is the one note that fights the tonic major chord. You will see why in the next lesson.

The practical rule: when you improvise modally, put the characteristic note on a strong beat or hold it, otherwise the listener hears only "a major scale somewhere". The vamp lines below do this on purpose.

Chord-scale pairings

Each mode contains one of the diatonic seventh chords as its 1-3-5-7, so the pairing is automatic: the chord on degree n goes with mode n. The engine lists every scale in its library that contains all the tones of each chord; the first column of each row is a diatonic chord of C major. For the major, dominant and half-diminished chords the first scale listed is the diatonic mode; for the three minor seventh chords the engine lists Dorian first, and the notes below explain when to prefer Phrygian or Aeolian instead.

Three details matter:

1. Minor seventh chords get Dorian by default. Phrygian and Aeolian also contain the chord tones, but Dorian's natural 6 avoids the b6 clash described in the next lesson. Use Phrygian for the iii chord when you want to stay in the key, and Aeolian for the vi chord for the same reason; use Dorian when the minor chord is a ii or stands alone.
2. Major seventh chords get Ionian or Lydian. Ionian when the chord is the I of the key, Lydian when it is the IV or when the chart says maj7#11. Many modern players use Lydian on any maj7 that is not functioning as a tonic, because the #4 replaces the awkward natural 4.
3. Dominant sevenths get Mixolydian when the chord is unaltered. Altered dominants need the melodic-minor and symmetric scales of later lessons.

Fingerings: one shape, seven names

Because a mode is its parent scale, you need no new fingerings: the major-scale positions you already own from the first scale lesson are the modal positions. What you do need is to see the mode's root inside the shape. The maps below show D Dorian (the notes of C major) in three positions. In each, find the R first, then the 6 (the characteristic note), then play from R to R.

Here is the position V shape as an exercise, two octaves from D, up and back. Alternate pick it, one finger per fret, and name the degrees aloud on the first few passes.

\tempo 92
.
\ts 4 4
:8 5.5 7.5 8.5 5.4 7.4 4.3 5.3 7.3 | 5.2 6.2 8.2 5.1 7.1 8.1 7.1 5.1 | 8.2 6.2 5.2 7.3 5.3 4.3 7.4 5.4 | 8.5 7.5 :4 5.5 :2 5.5 |

Now re-label the same frets. The next map shows the same seven pitches in position V as F Lydian, with note names so you can confirm that nothing has moved except the note you call the root. The three after it put G Mixolydian, E Phrygian and B Locrian in their own windows.

Practising the re-labelling

The drill that turns major-scale shapes into modes is simple and tedious, and there is no shortcut. In one position, play the scale from the root of each mode to that root an octave higher, calling the mode name. Then, with a backing chord or a looped bass note, play only that mode's root and characteristic note for a minute until the sound of the mode is in your ear, and only then add the rest of the scale. Do this with every major-scale position you own. By the end you will have three positions for every mode in every key, which is more than enough.

Modal vamps: lines that sound like the mode

A modal vamp is a single chord, or a two-chord oscillation, that lasts long enough for the mode to become the harmony. The jazz repertoire has many: the Dorian vamps of modal jazz, Mixolydian vamps in funk-influenced tunes, Lydian pedals under ballads, Phrygian vamps in Spanish-tinged pieces. Here is one line for each of the four modes you will use most, with the characteristic note deliberately on strong beats or held. Each is checked against its scale, so every note belongs; the chord symbol tells you what to loop underneath.

\tempo 120
.
\ts 4 4
:8 5.5{ch "Dm7"} 8.5 7.4 4.3 5.3 4.3 7.4 5.4 | 8.5 7.5 5.5 7.5 :4 5.5 r | :8 7.3 5.2 6.2 5.1 7.1 5.1 6.2 5.2 | 7.3 4.3 :4 7.4 :2 7.3 |

\tempo 112
.
\ts 4 4
:8 8.5{ch "Fmaj7#11"} 7.4 5.3 5.2 7.1 5.1 8.2 5.2 | :4 6.2 :8 5.2 7.3 :2 4.3 | :8 5.3 7.3 5.2 6.2 8.2 7.1 8.1 7.1 | :4 5.1 :8 8.2 6.2 :2 7.3 |

\tempo 126
.
\ts 4 4
:8 3.6{ch "G7"} 2.5 3.5 5.5 2.4 3.4 2.4 5.5 | 3.5 2.5 5.6 3.6 :2 5.4 | :8 5.4 2.3 4.3 5.3 3.2 5.2 6.2 5.2 | 3.2 5.3 :4 4.3 :2 3.1 |

\tempo 108
.
\ts 4 4
:8 0.6{ch "E7sus4b9"} 1.6 0.6 3.6 0.5 2.5 3.5 2.5 | :4 0.5 :8 3.6 1.6 :2 0.6 | :8 2.4 3.4 2.4 0.4 2.5 0.5 2.5 3.5 | :4 0.4 :8 2.4 3.4 :2 2.4 |

Notice what these lines have in common. They use the whole scale, but the melody keeps returning to the root and the characteristic note; the other five notes are the road between them. Without that emphasis the Lydian line would be a C major line that happens to start on F.

Modes through a ii–V–I

Derivative thinking makes the ii–V–I trivial: Dm7, G7 and Cmaj7 are all C major, played from D, then G, then C. The traps are the ones the chord-scale lesson deals with in detail (the natural 4 over Cmaj7 above all), but the exercise is worth doing now: play the position V shape as D Dorian for one bar, G Mixolydian for one bar and C Ionian for two bars, starting each bar on that chord's root. Then do it starting each bar on the chord's 3rd. Then the 7th. You are learning to locate the chord inside the key, which is the skill that chord-scale theory assumes you have, and which chord-tone soloing trained from the other direction.

Exercises

1. Formula drill. From a random root, say the formula of a named mode, then play it on one string. Use the parallel table until you no longer need it.
2. Derivative drill. Name a key and a degree (say, Ab major, degree 3); say the mode (C Phrygian), then play it in the nearest position.
3. Characteristic-note drill. Loop a chord. Play only root and characteristic note for 30 seconds; then add one note at a time.
4. Three positions. For each of the four vamp modes above, play the mode root to root in all three positions you own, then improvise two choruses in each position without leaving it.
5. Re-labelling. Play a C major position; call it D Dorian and improvise over Dm7; call it G Mixolydian and improvise over G7; call it F Lydian over Fmaj7#11; call it A Aeolian over Am7. Same frets, four sounds.

Quiz