I have always been frustrated by modes, as you may have heard in our previous dalliances with them on the show. It's a lot to absorb. And it's not because I don't enjoy music theory. We can fist fight anytime about whether it's a circle of 5ths or a circle of 4ths. I'm down to talk about relative major and minor keys, scales, multipart harmony. You name it. But modes always stopped me cold. So, like action heroes who strap into the dune buggy and head for the gorge, we decided to attack. In psychology this is called "exposure therapy." The rules of engagement: 10 minutes on the clock and go. Empty your heads on modes! Knowing full well we'd go over the allotted time.

The resulting episode was quite fun. Kalimar professored, I protested. I think a lot of info was out there and most, if not all, of it was accurate. Most importantly, we got all the Carlton's correct. Am I any smarter on modes? Debatable. Is my anxiety about them lower? Nominally. But I feel like we exercised the old gray matter and it was a good experiment in evolving an episode on the fly. You bring the Cesium, I'll bring the water - meet you in the studio. What's the worst that could happen?

Did it work? Did we make it across the gully? You be the judge - Let us know if we're on to something here. Suggest future ideas for our next showcase showdown!

So I’m going to try to share how I understand modes, and why you might want to learn them, but only if you really want to.

Some additional minor preamble

Music theory is a way to explain music that’s already been created, and perhaps, just perhaps, can provide some new ideas for you to try. There is no right or wrong music. That’s up to the author and listener to decide. Music theory provides a language to describe what is happening musically - rhythm, melody, and harmony

What is a mode?

If you are like me - you were taught that modes are scales created by starting the Major scale (and other scales) at each diatonic position. What does that mean?

Take G Major. The notes that make up that scale are G A B C D E F#

To create modes you do the following:

G A B C D E F# gives you G ionian
A B C D E F# G gives you A dorian
B C D E F# G A gives you B phrygian

And you do this for each of the degrees (or diatonic positions) of the G major scale.

While this is correct when speaking about how they are created. It actually gives you zero insight into how they are used. I have come to realize that modes are really just their own scales, and with that, can suggest chords, and as a consequence harmonies. When I organize musical theory in my mind, I think in terms of most simple to complex:

Notes: describe just that single notes
Intervals: **describe the relationship between two notes
**Triads: **describe the relationship between three notes
**4 note chords: describe, well you get it.

After 4 note chords, then we generally start getting into scales (even though you may have 5 or 6 note chords too)

Pentatonic scales: generally major or minor. Made up of 5 notes
Hexatonic scales: have 6 notes.
Major, minor, modes, etc: are 7 note scales. They have their own chords associated with them which in turn can suggest particular chord progressions (harmony)

So now I’ll try to explain how you might use modes so you can better understand what I mean. You can spend a lot of time performing analysis of songs. There are some great videos if you want to really nerd out and hear the theoretical explanations of some really great music.

How I generally apply my knowledge of modes

To figure out what notes make sense for a solo over a given chord progression

There are many ways to decide what notes to play over a solo. Many a book have been written on the topic. Here I’m just going for a very basic approach you can use for harmonic analysis.

Let’s look at a simple vamp: | Gm | C7 |
So what do you play over that? Let’s look at some options:
G minor pentatonic
G minor pentatonic + C major pentatonic
G minor and C7 chord tones
Mix of all of those
G dorian
Why not the natural G minor? Cause that would have Eb instead of E and it doesn’t quite sit right very easily

When I’m soloing, I want to think about as few things as possible. For me, in this particular case Dorian handles all of that well. In other cases it might be easier for me to think in terms of pentatonic and chord shapes.

You’ll also notice I started to play more notes cause I felt like I had to. That’s why I might even start with one of the more “simple” scales and move my way up.

To spice up a solo

Some chord progressions are more simple than others. Let’s say you have a vamp that’s over a single chord. Now you can play a lot of things:
Pentatonic
Chord tones
And since it’s a single chord - you actually have a lot of options. Without getting too in the weeds, there are 3 minor modes:
Dorian
Aeolian
Phrygian
And they all work over a minor chord. Does that mean it works over any minor chord at any time? Probably not. Remember that modes also imply harmony, and so when you have more than a single chord playing, you have to be more careful about what you play.

To try something new

Modes can be a way to inject some new ideas in your playing (any new musical theory that you may want to explore)
Simple example. A I IV vamp. Here’s what you get for each I IV vamp with a mode
C Ionian: Cmaj7 Fmaj7
C dorian: Cmin7 F7
C Phyrgian: Cmin7 Fmin7
C Lydian: Cmaj7 F#min7b5
C Mixolydian: C7 Fmaj7
C Aeolian: Cmin7 Fmin7
C Locrian: Cmin7b5 Fmin7

My summary: modes are cool. Mostly if you want to nerd out. You’ll probably know if you really need to learn them. You don’t need them to be an amazing guitarist.

    Update: I just learned about this excellent article on music and mental health https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-start-making-music-alone-or-with-others?utm_source=pocket-newtab

This is a good time for a disclaimer: I have affiliate links but this article and opinions are all my own. You don't have to use TrueFire but I really like their videos. Excellent instructors, backing tracks and support material (tabs and charts).

When I first started buying guitar courses on TrueFire, my approach was to watch the videos a bit and then work on playing the lessons all note for note, using the tablature/charts. It's a great way to improve your timing and techinque and is an important part of the journey. It was also very entertaining, especially with guitar effects and the backing tracks. The problem is that it wasn't really increasing my musical knowledge or helping me internalize any new musical vocabulary. This is a term I came to learn later on, reading the excellent website Jazz Advice It really changed my perspective on learning. I strongly recommend subscribing to their free newsletter, and if you are in to jazz the premium membership too.

You should read their articles but here's a very high-level overview that I will then breakdown in practical terms:

• Find a piece of music vocabulary you want to learn
• Learn to sing and play that piece in all 12 keys
• Apply to your own playing where you can
• Rinse and repeat

I've always struggled to find those pieces of musical vocabulary I really want to learn. "Listen and learn from the masters" is what I've always heard. That's great but where do I start? Where do I go next? Do I need to learn an entire solo note-for-note?

It turns out that TrueFire is a treasure chest of essential musical vocabulary you can learn from. You can apply the ideas I'm going to share with essentially any of the courses they offer (or other instructional website or video you want).

One of the key things to keep in mind here is to focus on a small piece of musical vocbulary. Don't focus on entire solos. In guitar lingo we're talking a lick or phrase. It just so happens that TrueFire has a number of courses called "Licks you Should Know".

Here's my process:

• Find a piece of music vocabulary you want to learn - Here's a good one
• Learn to sing and play that piece...- Don't immediately go to the tab. I can't stress that enough. You should try your est to transcribe this lick yourself. Watch the video a few times and start trying to hum the phrase. Now try figuring it out on your guitar. I suggest you really try to figure it out yourself to get the most out of internalizing this but don't beat yourself up. You're here to have fun playing music. The other benefit of doing this with TrueFire is once you think you are done you can then watch the instructor break it down, as well as check the chart.
• ...in all 12 keys - yikes ok this is if you really have time. For other instruments playing in different keys forces you to play different fingerings. On the guitar it often just means moving up and down the neck. What I do strongly recommend is that you take the lick and try to play it all over the guitar. Some spots will make little sense and sound ridiculous. You will be amazed out how helpful this is. Now if you are serious and have the time? Play it in all 12 keys.
• The other important thing to do while learning this lick is to understand it's musical context. Is this taking me from the V to the I? Is this a blues intro? Is this a turn-aroud? That way you will know where you can use it in your own playing.
• Now try dropping this into your own playing. Perhaps that's with the TrueFire backing track. Sometimes I'll use iReal Pro (Mac, iPhone and Android) to create a small segment of a song that focuses on that harmony rather than a full song. When I have time I'll even write out iReal Pro so that it's the segment in all 12 keys following the circle of 4ths. Super nerdy.
• Rinse and Repeat - Now do it again and again and again for differents parts of a song in the genre that you are trying to learn. Intros, ii V Is, endings, etc.

Do you use something like TrueFire? I'd love to hear your process for learning.

When I first thought about enhancing my soloing I thought I would be learning Bebop. What I came to realize is that Bebop is like modern art. When I go to the art gallery and see a toilet on display I mostly scratch my head and wonder "how is that art?". Then I speak to my sister the art history major and learn about all of the historical context that arrives at the toilet and it makes so much more sense. Modern jazz, and one can certainly make the case any contemporary music has a history you can trace back.

So what I thought would be learning a few Bebop tricks has turned into...I should learn Hard Bop... oh wait but really I should take a step back and look at Soul Jazz...well but really I should be checking out Jazz blues...hmmmm ok ok Jump blues that's where this all comes from...

You get the picture. And that's how I ended up learning Charlie Christian Swing Jazz licks. I'm in no hurry so this is just fine.

Opinions are 100% my own. May contain affiliate links.

Or maybe it’s a guitar player mid-life crises…

Anyway, somewhere in 2020-2021 during the pandemic, I found myself unable to play music with other people and needed to fill my musical needs. I came across Josh Skaja - amazing writer and musician - and started reading his blog, working through some of his courses, and participated in a 30 day solo challenge. It was awesome. This got me really thinking about my playing and how and what to improve.

Somewhere along those lines I start listening to Josh Smith talk about to play through the changes. He mentions at one point - “you have to know what you can play over different chords or parts of the songs”. Well I thought - what better way to learn that then playing Jazz? Maybe I can learn Jazz, and then “forget it”. I enjoy performing in cover bands and occasionally taking a solo, or performing an instrumental tune. Adding some spice to my solos would be awesome!

Little did I know that thinking I can learn Jazz to add a “little spice” to a solo was more than naive. We’re talking about “what on earth were you thinking?”. First of all, what does Jazz even mean? Charlie Christian “Grand Slam”? Pat Martino “Joyous Lake?”. How do we go about learning a new genre of music? Well, in all of this I got bit by the Jazz bug and I definitely want to sound more like Grant Green and Kenny Burrell.

I’m kicking off a series on my approach to learning a new genre. I want to answer questions like:

As a working adult with kids, how do I make time to practice?

What should I practice - with so much content out there it’s so easy to jump around

I’m still very much in the “middle of this” so I hope we can exchange ideas.

Cheers