”My Explanation of Modes and Scales”

There’s a lot of talk about modes and scales on the internet. A lot of information - some of it helpful and some of it just confusing. In this quick video I’m going to give you my explanation of modes in just under 5 minutes.

• To understand the modes we really only need to know how to play one thing, and that’s the major scale. Remember, Modes and Scales are really just two sides of the same coin. A Scale has modes within it. So modes are just a part of a parent scale.

  • play G major scale

• So that was a G major scale, starting on the third fret of my low E-string. Now, within the G major scale we have all 7 “modes”.

• What does that mean? Well, if we take a G major scale and we start on the fifth note of the scale, the “D”,

  • 1,2,3,4,5… the “D”

• then play the G major scale from “D” to “D”, we have the D Mixolydian mode. All the same notes of G major, just starting on a different note, thus emphasizing different parts of that G major scale.

  • Play D mixolydian

• Here’s another example. If we start on the 6th note in the G major scale

  • 1,2,3,4,5,6… the “E”

• Then play the same G major scale from “E” to “E” we’ll get another mode. The E aeolian, more commonly referred to as “E minor”.

  • Play E aeolian

• That mode has all the same notes as a G major scale, but it sounds quite different, right? That’s because we’re starting on a different note, thus emphasizing different parts of that G major scale.

• So why not just think and say “G major”? Well, you can - there isn’t anything illegal about that and the theory police aren’t going to come after you. But it wouldn’t be quite accurate to do so.
  Because when we say “G major” we mean this sound

  • g maj scale

• Or when we say “E aeolian” we mean this sound

  • e aeolian

• And why is that an important distinction, you ask? Well, if we’re playing a song that has a long stretch of “E minor” or E aeolian, then we need to know what’s going to fit over that chord the best, and emphasize the right parts of that sound.
  We could play G major, but it would be emphasizing the notes in the chord “G major”, not “E minor”. So let’s compare those two sounds, I’m going to use my trusty loop pedal to give us a backing track:

  • Loop E minor,

• Here’s E aeolian over E minor

  • first play E aeolian

• That fits pretty well, right? The E Aeolian mode focuses on the same notes and same sound as what we hear in an E minor chord, here’s the G major scale over the chord E minor

  • G major

• Now there’s nothing wrong with that sound, at all. But it isn’t emphasizing the sound of E minor, it’s emphasizing the sound of G major.

• Normally, at this point, I’d open the floor for you to ask questions, play through some examples together to get them under your fingers, and have a dialogue about this subject and what we’ve covered - but since I’m alone and talking to my computer I’ll just leave you with this:

• Modes are nothing more than a major scale, starting on a different note, thus emphasizing different parts of that major scale. It isn’t 7 more patterns or shapes to memorize, it’s just a way to talk about a “sound” within major harmony.

• I hope this was a helpful example of what we might cover in a private lesson.
  If some of it, or all of it, doesn’t quite make sense that’s totally normal. This is why we have one-on-one lessons so we can go at your pace, answer your questions as they come up, and learn together. Honestly, I ask a ton of questions when I’m learning something new, so you’ll be in good company.
  I hope this finds you well, and I look forward to connecting soon! Bye!