Chord Melody Made Simple (Part 5): Modes of the C Major Scale

[00:00:03][music] [music] Hey, Jared here from sound guitarlessons.com. This is my series called [music] Chord Melody Made Simple.

[00:00:19]In this series, we are doing bite-size lessons, a bunch of them, where each [music] lesson gives you a specific homework assignment to get down. So, you can arrange anything as a chord melody arrangement in the key of C in the open position, which is a fantastic place to get things down because you can translate that theory knowledge and fretboard knowledge anywhere on the guitar later on. And we get to use open strings and have tasty little arrangements like the one I showed you at the beginning of the video. And I have examples in all of the lessons in this series. So again, link in the description to check out the entire series or you can watch this lesson on its own because it kind of does stand on its own. We are going to work on modes.

[00:00:57]You might be interested in modes and maybe wonder but why you know how are they useful? Just learning it abstractly can be fun but but it makes us wonder when am I going to use this? Well, one of the ways that modes are very useful to know is when we're arranging something uh with chord melodies or solo guitar arrangement. These can kind of be synonymous terms, but I think of chord melody as a specific thing where we're making chord shapes, often rootless chord shapes even, that go along with the melody. But when arranging something like that, knowing the modes is incredibly helpful because we want to see the relationship of any melody note to the root of the chord that we're on.

[00:01:34]Not just what that melody note is in the parent scale, which is important. We want to know what that melody note is in the mode of the chord. Now when you're playing when you're able to see the modes in this way that doesn't mean you're playing modally playing modally or is kind of a style of music. There are modal jam tunes or modal jazz or modal um even like psychedelic rock tunes but this is more just understanding the theory of it so that in any kind of harmony so here's an example in [music] that let it be that I played well this da da that's really unusual. This is the four five of G four five. [music and singing] So I'm not just thinking of as 1 2 of the C scale, which it is. This is C to D, but it's four and five specifically of the G chord that that is happening in the harmony right now. So like da da [singing and music] da da that note there is the four of a minor. So I'm playing a specific chord shape just momentarily.

[00:02:32]Beautiful chord shape.

[00:02:35]And I have the chord shapes memorized so I can do this systematically on any song where that shape [music] is one of my go-to shapes I'll play if the four of a minor chord is on this string and if it's a minor 7 chord. [music] Beautiful. There's not even a root there. Though I could play the open A and I get [music] that. But right from there I go da [singing] da. Ah well now that is 655 of [music] F. Okay. Da da 4 3 4 3 of C 6 5 65 of G 65 [music and singing] 65 of F I'm thinking of it that way seeing it that way on the fretboard so that I can quickly find the shapes that I need to to arrange things faster to memorize it better to remember it longer and all of that so that's why we are going to work on the modes and drill them and get them down this is the good stuff when we have a way to practice something that might be really challenging and really engage all of our senses and be difficult, but we really know why now that we're doing it. Not just to memorize something to memorize it, but hey, it's going to be helpful for this process. And I'll give you some secrets for how to think about this that can be really helpful because this will be brain twister stuff here. So modes are just scales where the root of the scale is a chord that is in the key, but that chord is not the tonic chord or the main chord or the number one chord of the key. So we're in the key of [music] C for this entire series. Very beneficial to play be able to play anything in the key of C. Kind of transpose it. That's benefit [music] we get out of this too.

[00:04:14]We're going to do everything in the key of C in this whole series. Well, this is the one chord. [music] C is the one chord. The two chord is D minor. We did this earlier in the series. We know that. Well, then each of those chords has a scale to it. So, if [music] we're on the one chord, then 1 2 3 4 5 then, okay, we're just in the mode. This is called Ionian mode. Just the major scale. If you're on the two chord, [music] well, now the two that was the two of the C major scale, we can call it one of the [music] second mode. So, one of the scale that belongs to the D minor chord, the scale that belongs to the two chord. This is the second mode of the [music] scale, also called Dorian.

[00:04:50]Lowest priority on the list here is to memorize these names. Ionian, Dorian, Friian. Totally cool to memorize them and know them if you want to. But way more importantly is that ah there's a [music] two chord. We already learned that. And if you play the scale, the same exact scale, the C major scale, but you treat [music] now D the two note as the one and change all the numbers, you have the second mode. And that is that 1 2 flat 3 4 5 6 flat 7 1. same notes as in the C major scale, [music] but numbering them off of now D. You can number them off of E minor, number them off of [music] the four chord, number them off of the five chord. That's how we get the modes. That's what we got to drill. They all have different qualities, different sounds, different structures. So, let's really learn this.

[00:05:37]As I've said earlier in the series, it is all about the practice. Your learning happens from the practice. You can learn all kinds of information and you've learned about that information, but you haven't actually learned it, internalized it till we really practice it and specifically practice it in a an organized way where we're working on milestones and have clear goals with it.

[00:05:57]So, it's all about the homework. So, we're going to dive in and explain the homework and I'll do that in one second.

[00:06:01]If you do want to follow along with this whole series and have everything written out for you on a PDF, I have made a booklet that's the chord melody made simple workbook. You can get that if you become a premium supporter of the channel. Just go to soundguit guitarlessons.com/join to join and get that and a bunch of other resources. Anytime I have downloadable resources that go along with my lessons, they are in there. So that's in there right now. You can also use the link in the top of the description to get that. If you don't want to, that is completely fine. I'm going to put everything on the screen during the lesson so you can follow along and do it all from the video as well. But if you want that PDF booklet and want to support the channel, that would be awesome. And if you want a PDF pack for free that has all of the parent scales in it and the modes come from the parent scale. So the C major scale is the parent scale. All the modes are the modes of that scale. I have a PDF pack of every shape of every parent scale.

[00:06:53]That is important to know. You can get that totally for free by going to soundguit guitarlessons.com/scales or use the link in the description. That is the second link down there. That's super useful to know so you can know your scales all over the guitar and you could apply this chord melody stuff over there. I do teach all that stuff in my course called chord melody magic all over the guitar. A bunch of styles, accompaniment approaches and stuff like that. But uh that scale pack will help you get this information up and down the fretboard if you don't have that yet and if you want to work on that. Okay, so the drills, the homework assignment, this is where it's at. So simple to explain, so challenging to work on.

[00:07:28]Whatever gets us to intuitively knowing what we're playing while we're playing it, do that. Okay, so here's one way to do it. There may be many other ways. If you found other ways that are helpful, please share in the comments. Uh it's really does help people when you share what you're working on in the comments.

[00:07:42]So, what we want to do is play up and down the scale that we know from this series so far, the C major scale in the open position. And we want to say the scale numbers according to the mode that we're on. So, okay, this is going to be the first mode or the major scale or the Ionian mode off of the one chord, the C major chord. Okay, so this is 3 4 5.

[00:08:00]We've already done this before. 6 [music] 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 5 4 3 2 1 76 54 32 1 765. We've already done that cuz that was an assignment before.

[00:08:10]But now we got to go to the two chord.

[00:08:13][music] Okay, we got to do that same thing off the two chord. This is two.

[00:08:16]This is flat 3. This is four [music] 5 6 flat 7. 1 2 [singing] 3 4 5 6 flat 7. 1 2 3 4. That was the mode with [music] all of those relationships being how far away they are from the D note from the second note. We'll go back down. Four flat 3 2 1 flat 7 6 5 4 [music] flat 3 2 1 flat 7 6 5 4 flat 3 2 slow down or pause where you need to. It's a mouthful and it's tricky to follow it all. So any way you can follow it better, do that.

[00:08:57]Okay. So, couple things. There's a baby step uh exercise you might want to do that. What I just did there is the drills, the exercise. You got to prove to yourself, can you do that with every single chord through it? Um, if you want to, this can be really helpful. Find the lowest root or any root, but just the lowest if if you want to um do it this way [music] and play the note and then the root. note then the root.

[00:09:23][music] You get the idea. [music] You get the sound of it now. Now it's very much the dorian. Now that is modal. That is really sounding like a modal sound. Um but more importantly for our purposes we're [music] seeing hopefully the distance much better. You want to lock your view onto a root somewhere. So if I'm starting up here, I I might not be thinking of this low here. I'm actually usually think of the closest possible route. So you could attach it to the closest possible route as well. So here's D right here. So I'm I'm seeing and thinking [music] of ah this I know as an interval of a fourth.

[00:10:06]This is the four of this D. Ah, this is the flat three [music] of this D. Ah, this is the two of this D. Well, here's the root. Here's the flat 7. It's a whole step below this D. off below flat 7 is six. Here's five. [music] And now from here I can think five of this D or five of this D. I'm just seeing it even in my mind kind of feeling the distance.

[00:10:27]Five four of this [music] D flat three of this D two of this D flat 7 flat 7 of this D six [music] flat 7. So I'm kind of like where's the root? 5 1 uh four. There's D flat three would be down here. Um, so don't let that confuse you. Attach to a root wherever you can. This exercise [music] can be helpful for the sound and it can be helpful for that a little bit. But when if you're feeling lost, what we don't want to do is just memorize. I'm thinking of the order and you want to know the order too. But [music] two um are think 1 2 3 4 [singing] 5. Okay.

[00:11:08]Yes. But 1 2 flat 3. I know this is flat three because we also want to know where it is on the fretboard. Not just that we said it, but it can the first phase of this can be that you just learned to say it and then eventually you say it enough on this that you see it as that on the fretboard. There's no wrong way. The interesting thing about learning and the practice itself being where we actually learn is that we all have to use little stepladders that are the things we already know and everybody already knows very different things. And so I if you do know that this is a [music] interval of a fourth really easily, well then that same thing will help you. Here's the four because [music] that's D there.

[00:11:47]But if you don't then you have to establish something to attach it to something that you do already know.

[00:11:53]Don't sweat about what that is. That happens naturally from truly drilling and truly practicing. Speaking of truly drilling and truly practicing, that's what you want to do for the rest of these. So you're testing yourself out.

[00:12:04]Can I say them as I play them and do it accurately? And if you want to be really serious, try to do each one three times in a row accurately. No t There's no timing on this one according to how I'm assigning it. I I almost did. I almost said also do it in time, but it's just such a mouthful to say them all. But let's go to E minor. I always demonstrate everything I assign. So here is one flat 2 [music] flat 3 4 5 flat 6 flat 7 1. I'm very much seeing the one here, the one here, the one [music] here, and where I am in relation when I play that note there. flat 7 because I'm whole step below that one. Okay. So, here's [music] flat 2 flat 3 [singing] 4 5 flat 6 [music] flat 7 1 flat 2 flat 3 flat 3 flat 2 1 another side note. Just to reiterate, I am not memorizing the or I'm not trying to just recite plainly the order flat 3 flat 2 1 flat 7 flat. I'm seeing it on the fretboard first and then saying it.

[00:13:06]That's because I know that well. So, you might need to come from the other direction. Memorize how to say it. You could drill that a bunch. Play it that way. You'll start to see it on the fretboard. But I'm saying I'm doing Hm.

[00:13:15]I know that's flat three, so I'm going to say flat three. [music] I know that's flat 2, so I'm going to say flat 2.

[00:13:20]There's 1 flat 7 flat 6 5 4 flat 3 [music] flat 2 1 flat 7 flat 6 5 4 flat 3 flat 2 one. So, it is possible to do it in time also. So, the next one is F the fourth mode. Okay, this one's called Lydian mode if you're studying those names as well, but just the fourth mode off F. 7 [music] 1 2 3 sharp 4 5 6 7 1 [music] 2 3 sharp 4 5 6 7 1 2 1 7 6 5 sharp 4 3 [music] 2 1 7 6 5 sharp 4 3 2 1 7 That one's kind of nice cuz you can just count in order until you get to four and you have to say sharp four for that sharp four that's in it. It's really cool to know this stuff. What's this sound? [music] Ooh, that is 1 3 sharp four. Lydian's very Lydian sound.

[00:14:12][music] [music] The fifth mode is next off of G, also called mixelyian mode. We start on six flat [music] 7 1 because that's the root of G, right? Okay, you can always go start on the root and go down and say okay [music] this is five flat 7 and you can drill these first by saying okay what does mixelyian have you go go about this any angle you want mixelyian is one think of how it's different think of how it's altered from the major scale the theory of the major scales 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 3 and four are a half step apart seven and one are a half step apart and so the sharps or flats that we add to things any time are only telling us they're tell they're there to tell us how something is different from the major scale. So the mixelyian mode is 1 2 3 4 5 6 flat 7 1. Ah, it's just like the major scale, but it has a flat 7. So we got 6 flat 7 [music] 1 2 3 4 5 6 flat 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 flat 7 1 flat 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 [music] flat 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 flat 7 6 Okay, can always play [music] the chord there at the end. Two. Next one is the sixth mode. The scale that goes [music] with a minor. The aolon mode is the name of it. And the structure of this is 1 2 flat 3 4 5 flat 6 flat 7 1. That's how it's different from the major scale. You can do that with all the modes if you want. 1 2 flat 3. Okay. Has a flat three. It has a flat 6 and it has a flat 7. Everything else is the same as the major scale. You [snorts] do want to know it as its own thing though. But that's the major scale is our measuring stick [music] for everything else.

[00:15:55]always in all of theory. So, let's do this. Five flat 6 flat 7 1 2 [music] flat 3 4 5 flat 6 flat 7 1 2 flat 3 4 5 [music] flat 6 flat 7 back down flat 7 flat 6 5 4 flat 3 2 1 flat [music] 7 flat 6 5 4 flat 3 2 1 flat 7 flat 6 5 and the last one is the mode [music] off of the seventh note of the scale. It's the seventh mode. It's called the Lorian mode. The chord that goes with it is that the B diminished chord in the key that we're in here. [music] And it has flat everything except for four. So it has one flat 2 flat 3 4 flat 5 flat 6 flat 7. It's totally uh all mangled up.

[00:16:41]We have four flat 5 flat 6 flat 7 1 flat 2 flat [music] 3 4 side note. Just to remind you, I'm thinking of the root here. I'm seeing it there. Flat two because it's a half step above that.

[00:16:57]Flat three because [music] I know the distance of flat three. Four because I know this is the distance of a four to a one. Flat 5. I'm seeing the root [music] here. The relationship. Okay, just a reminder of that. So 1 flat 2 flat 3 4 flat 5 [music] flat 6 flat 7. I'm seeing the distance that that is flat 7. If you don't know those distances, that's [music] fine. But if you're like playing a minor 7 chord, dominant seven chord, this kind of shape [music] or something, you might start to recognize intervals like that. Use whatever you know. Flat 7 1 [music] flat 2 flat 3 4 flat 5 flat 6.

[00:17:33]Back down. This is the hardest one. Flat 6 flat 5 4 flat 3 flat 2 [music] 1. I'm seeing this on all that. This is the distance of a minor 6. This is a flat five or trione. Here's four. This is the flat three from here. This is flat two from here. So locking my view of perspective onto a rooe always. That's one flat 7 [music] flat 6 flat 5 4 flat 3 flat 2 1 flat 7 flat 6 flat 5 4.

[00:18:04][music] That was the mode. Seventh mode.

[00:18:07]That is your assignment. I can't tell you how beneficial this kind of drilling is if you don't know it. You're going to get something. You don't have to get it perfect, but practice it with your perfectionism switched from I need to execute this perfectly, though you try to. You have milestones. Can I get it one time, two times, three times in a row correctly, saying all of them, just like Jared said. But change that perfectionism of I have to play it perfectly, too. I'm going to practice it with my full focus, and I'm going to follow these rules. I'm going to practice perfectly instead of play perfectly. And then you can just relax and say, I it's fine that I didn't play it perfectly because I practiced the best I could. Makes all the difference in the world and it really does add up.

[00:18:49]But that kind of clarity, this kind of clarity, it's going to apply to so many other things. The drilling can really suck though. If you're miserable while drilling some of that and trying to get it down when you haven't yet, you're in very good company. You you should feel some of that. And so it's okay. So don't think maybe I shouldn't do this because I don't like it. it's going to lead to things you really like to know that stuff. Okay, so that's the assignment.

[00:19:12]Uh, thanks for watching.