Guitar Talk & Reviews with Bob Molton

Hello Guitar Players,
I wanted to share the answer to the question that many people seem to be asking.
Guitar modes can be intimidating, and more confusing than they need to be. Here’s a brief example of how to view them more clearly. 

Here’s a Question from Jordan Mackie: Well, I am confused by this whole mode business. I have previously learned 5 caged shapes for the major scale.

Are modes basically just giving names to all those shapes?

Say I wanted to write a solo in ”A Lydian” am I limited to that one shape on the neck that you did in your video, Or does the Lydian scale have other shapes all around the neck?

Good Question, first off, I think it’s very important to understand the difference between modes and scales.

• Scales: Scales are a series of notes that create a particular sound. Typically, there are seven notes within a scale and the eight note is the octave.  Whatever the notes are within that scale, are what gives it it’s tonal identity. To identify the scale by name you would use a name such as “Harmonic Minor” or “Melodic Minor” etc… The important thing to remember is that anytime you change a note within that scale it’s becomes a different scale entirely, with a different name, and a different sound, and different feel.

• Modes: Modes are the particular set of notes (that make up a scale) played with different orders, but always the same exact notes. For example, if you had the scale – (ABCDEFGA)  the next mode would be (BCDEFGAB) and the next mode would be (CDEFGABC) and so on… 

You’ll notice that the notes never changed, only the order in which they were played. The way you bring the tonality of the mode out is by leaning on the beginning note of each mode. It takes practice and ear training to get a good grip on the tonality differences, but rest assured your ear will begin to pickup on the sound very quickly.  This should make things much easier to view in your minds eye.

As far as the different positions you’ve learned, it really doesn’t matter as long as you are playing the same notes, such as if I would play a G major scale in 3 or 4 different positions, it’s still the G major scale, it’s just played in a different position. A mode only changes when you change the order of the notes used in a particular scale.

Hope this sheds more light on the subject.
Please comment on how this has helped you.

More Later…

Bobby Molton

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