few questions on modes/scales

[devilfish]

Hey,

trying to break bad habbits and learning scales/modes for my grade 6.

I'm just struggling to understand once I've learnt all the scales and modes like the Ionian, dorian, phrygian modes etc... how do I use them in my playing?

I'm truggling to find ways of placing the scales and definitely struggling understanding why I learn all these modes? how do I use these in my improvisation and lead writing?

Thanks

[apj]

Re: few questions on modes/scales

what I suggest that I do, and what my guitar teacher taught me was just start jamming to anything. If you play with a friend have him just do a simple rhythm that swtiches between maybe two notes, and try improvising. Also, turn on the radio, figure out the key of the song and start playing in whatever makes sense. I can pretty much play to anything now, he said if you can turn on madonna and jam to it, you will have no problem jamming to a blues rhythm or jazz or whatever.

[LukeGilmour]

Re: few questions on modes/scales

first try and compose something in the modes.

say for instance, a composition in D dorian. just 2 o r 3 chords. then try and jam with the dorian scale over it. you will eventually get the "groove" of the dorian scale, and once you have it in your ears you can adapt it to other songs, that may or may not be composed in dorian.

same for all the modes.

[TinMan]

Re: few questions on modes/scales

Write down all of the notes to each of the modes in relation to Ionian and figure out what chords work with those modes. From there, record a song using 1-3 of those chords (like what Luke Gilmour above said!) and play the corresponding mode over it.

For example:
Ionian: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-1
VS
Dorian: 1-2-b3-4-6-b7-1

Record just a simple Cmaj7 chord for about 2-3 minutes.
Take a small break.
Record just a simple Cmin7 chord for about 2-3 minutes.
Now jam over each back to back.
You should be able to hear the tonal shift as well as the mood shift brought on by these two modes.

[TinMan]

Re: few questions on modes/scales

PS
A well known song that's completely in Dorian is "Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles.
Another is "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: few questions on modes/scales

The modes applies to the chords they are made for or variations.
It is more fun and beneficial to get a real teacher for this stuff, as you can slice them up, use some of it in Major and then switch to minor, colour it up, but get a hand on someone who knows his/her stuff, that would really make some sense.
Or it will most likely just end up in the forgotten stuff I learned section of the brain

[mudpuppy]

Re: few questions on modes/scales

One good thing about knowing about modes (and other scales, like diminished, whole-tone, etc.) is that it can give you some guidance if you want to improvise over some particular chord. Like you know that you can play mixolydian notes over a dominant 7 chord. This gets even more useful the weirder the chords get, like altered 9th, 11th, 13th chords. My opinion is that even if you're not going to play jazz, studying some of that jazzy kind of harmony is going to make anyone a better player.