Modes Of The Major Scale : Simplest Approach?

[Paleo]

Start with a Major scale.

Harmonize the scale following the Standard Harmony rule.

Create a progression using the resulting chords in any order.

Play the Major scale you started with over the progression.

 

[ChrisGSP]

Hmmmm, sounds like Jazz to me.
So if you were to create a progression, say VII - IV - VI - II - V - I would you play Locrian, Lydian, Aeolian, Dorian, Myxolidian, Ionian? And Yes, I DID have to look them up; hope I got them right !!

 

[Paleo]

VII - IV - VI - II - V - I

Not sure if you meant to write all Major chords. If you did, they are not all in the same key following the Standard Harmony Rule for a Major scale.

Harmonizing a Major scale results in the following group of chords:

I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - viib5

If you meant viib5 - IV - vi - ii - V - I, I would agree.

However, the "simplest" approach would be to just play the Major scale over the whole progression.



For Example:

Chords in G Major: G - Am - Bm - C - D - Em - F#mb5

For any progression using any combination of these chords you can play a G Major scale over that progression.

 

[ChrisGSP]

If you meant viib5 - IV - vi - ii - V - I, I would agree.

Whoops, you're right, of course. I did remember the Major/Minor/Diminished aspect of the Rule, after I posted; but too late by then.

And definitely, the G Major scale will work over the whole progression.

 

[ronico]

Nice tip as always Paleo! Thanks!

 

[ronico]

And out of curiousity, to do it the most difficult way, would ChrisGSP's way work. That is playing the modal ionian on the I for example and so on? Good question Chris.

 

[Paleo]

to do it the most difficult way, would ChrisGSP's way work

The short answer is "yes".

But it actually all comes out the same either way, so why make it more difficult?

(Unless you decide to play some scale other than the "mode" of each chord.*)

Example: Progression in G Major

G - Em - Am - C - D - G

You could think "I'll play a G Ionian scale over the G, an E Aeolian scale over the Em, an A Dorian scale over the Am, a C Lydian scale over the C and a D Mixoydian scale over the D".

Whew!!!!

That's a lot of scale changes.

However, all of those "different" scales are the "same" scale. The G Major scale.

Playing G Major over the G chord is the Ionian sound, G Major over the Em chord is the Aeolian sound, G Major over the Am chord is the Dorian sound, etc.

The only difference is that the chord will "lead" you to emphasize a different note in the G Major scale when over that chord.


*But you could decide that you want some other sound over any one, or all, of those chords. Maybe you want something other than the E Aeolian sound over the Em chord or something other than the A Dorian sound over the Am chord.

Treating each chord by itself you could make a specific decision what you wanted to hear over each chord.

This is more "complicated" and what Griff considers another level of "sophistication".


Similar to not taking the "simplest" approach to a Blues Progression and playing the same minor pentatonic scale over all 3 chords, you could decide to play any number of different types of scales over each chord.

Some combination of Major and/or minor pentatonic, Mixolydian, Dorian, Pentatonic 6,etc.


The point of starting this thread was to stress that as long as you are playing some combination of chords that are all within a key, you can play the Major scale of that key over all of those chords.

After all, the chords came from the scale so the scale's gotta work over the chords.

Conceptually pretty "simple".

Beyond that point, the progression and scale will take on a different sound/feeling/character depending on which chord serves as the tonal center of the progression.

That was the "aha" moment for me.

Play any chords in a key and play the Major scale they came from over them.

That's modes "simplified".

 

[Paleo]

Side note.

Griff has had several AAP sessions recently in both the Theory and Techniques sections regarding what scale/mode to play over chords in a variety of different progressions.

The "simplest" approach is to be able to play the same scale throughout.

Playing different scales over each chord is a higher "level of sophistication".

 

[ronico]

Excellent explanation as usual Paleo! Thanks! Gonna mess around with the simpler route and experiment with beginning and ending on the chord roots to suggest tonal character.

 

[Jalapeno]

It'd be nice if they never tried to revive the old mode names. I've started students who couldn't wrap their heads around the modes this terminology.

C-C
d-C
e-C
F-C
G-C
a-C
b-C

now when someone says play d dorian think d-C. Keep to a D tonal center whilst playing the C major scale. For G mixolydian keep a G tonal center while playing the C major scale.

you can use numbers too 0, -1, -2, etc.

Then later on, we change the identifiers from those listed above to the mode names. Some students think it is harder and for some it makes more sense. I just think there can be a better way to teach the key centers of a major scale than using mode names.

But of course, knowing them makes you sound cool at lead guitar cocktail parties

Eric

 

[ronico]

@Jalapeno I like that ! ALOT! Great visual for me. @Paleo Feel it won't be long until my AHA gets here feel it coming. Sometimes I may be overthinking it