Quote:
Originally Posted by capo_critters
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Well, seeing as you name-checked me in your explanation, I feel (while being flattered) I can be critical...
You've called it "guitar modes" for a start, which is a bad idea!
It risks the very confusion you're trying to deal with. There's nothing guitar-specific about modes.
Another risky thing is linking those 7 patterns with the "key of C". It suggests that the modes have a relevant place within a key-based tune or progression, which they don't.
Thirdly, while your patterns are correct (marking which note is the root in each one), it's not true -and is highly misleading - to suggest that each mode has a specific fret pattern; it doesn't. Any of those patterns can be any mode, just by re-assigning which one is the root.
IOW, you're starting the whole thing from a false premise in the first place. The whole problem with modes - why so many guitarists (not other musicians) have problems understanding them - is the spurious links with (a) keys and (b) fret patterns.
A mode does not have one fret pattern, any more than the major scale does. Any major scale pattern can be used for any mode of that scale.
A mode is a
sound produced by a particular scale structure over an established keynote. (And the mood associations you've listed for each mode are good enough, I'd say. A lot of it is subjective, but I agree broadly with your descriptions.)
Modes are not within keys. A major key does not contain 7 modes. A major key is ONE mode in itself (Ionian). (In truth, Ionian mode is subtly different from the major key, but the differences are not important here.)
Modes are a totally different way of making music from major and minor keys.
Your facts are all correct - in that you can
derive the various modes
from a major scale in that way. But once you've done that, you kiss the major key goodbye! The modes are on their own; that's the whole point of them.
Just as A minor is a different key from C major, so all the other 5 modes of those 7 notes are different things. (When you get an Am chord in key of C major, you don't suddenly think you're in the key of A minor... I hope.
)
IOW, the fact that modes are "relative" (share the same 7 notes) doesn't make them belong in one "key". Those 7 notes - scale or pitch collection - may be used with six of notes as individual keynotes; not just chord roots,
keynotes. (The one that can't is locrian.)
I.e, it's important to separate the notion of a "scale" (set of 7 notes) from a "key" on the one hand and a "mode" on the other. Essentially, from any set of 7 notes (assuming the diatonic pattern), you get two "keys" and 5 "modes".
The two keys, of course,
begin as two modes (Ionian and Aeolian), but (classically) undergo certain treatments, in particular harmonisation into chords, the use of certain common chord sequences, and - in the minor key - common alterations of the 6th and 7th degrees.
In that way, keys (traditionally) behave very differently from modes.
Modes in modern music are even more different from the original medieval modes - and can sometimes behave a little like keys - but the distinction
is still useful.
(One thing you could add to your blog - seeing as you touch on historical origin - is a brief description of the medieval mode system, which ran for (very approximately) 1000 years, from 600-1600. It began as four "authentic" modes: dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian; added four "plagal" variants; and, after Ionian and Aeolian were officially added in the mid-16th century, gradually evolved into the "major-minor key system" we know today; aka "tonality", as opposed to "modality". Chords did not exist in the modal system, and nor did harmony of any kind to begin with. You can find plenty of good data on the medieval system online if you want more.)
I haven't yet watched your video (my old PC currently has an allergic reaction to video
), but I will be interested to learn how modes have helped your guitar playing. They haven't helped mine.
(They've expanded my musical consciousness, and introduced me to other ways of
composing music, but they haven't actually helped my
playing or my
improvisation.)