how to get to the next level on guitar

8/12/2019 How to Get to the Next Level on Guitar

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How to Get to the Next

Level on Guitar:

An Ebook on scales, chords and theory for Guitarists

By Brian Riggs

Table of Contents


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Page 4-Introduction

Page 6-Music Theory, Its not that scary

Page 8-Sharps and Flats

Page 9-Scales: Major scales

Page 11-Scales: minor scales

Page 14- A Little More Theory

Page 15- Intervals

Page 19- Review so far

Page 20- Guitar Tuning

Page 23- Finding Steps Across Strings (excluding strings 3 and 2)

Page 26- Finding Steps Across Strings 3 and 2

Page 27- Guitar Ninja Checklist

Page 28-The Part Where You Learn About Modes

Page 29- Modes: A Working Definition

Page 29- Dorian Mode

Page 33- Phrygian Mode

Page 35- My Rant About Thinking About the Modes

Page 37-Mixolydian Mode

Page 38- Lydian Mode

Page 41- Review of Modes So Far

Page 42- A Brief Discussion of Locrian

Page 44- The Circle of 5ths

Page 46- The Sharp Keys

Page 47- The Flat Keys

Page 49- The Relative Minor Keys


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Introduction

This e-book is designed to help you get better at knowing your way around the guitar and to help you

understand the musical concepts that will help you be able to write your own music and make up yourown guitar solos and melodies. This e-book is meant for people who have some basic knowledge of how

to play chords and single-note melodies on the guitar, but there isnt really any minimum threshold for

how good you have to be to be able to play this book.

This is e-book is unique in that its designed to give you the skills and knowledge to hand-make your own

music. This isnt a book thats going to try and teach you the current hit songs, and its not going to tell

you to do a bunch of technical exercises. What this book will do is teach you about the subject thats

often called music theory. I have mixed feeling about music theory; on one hand I love geeking out

about 9thchords and Mixolydian mode, but on the other hand I dont like the way that music theory can

sometimes take beautiful, transcendent moments of sound, and then slap a simple label on them beforemoving on.

I make every effort to be concise, clear, and jargon-free in my writing. This book was born out of my

experience working with students in private, one on one guitar lessons. All of my students had already

studied a lot of the information thats in this book, but when they came to me they were often pretty

overwhelmed.

Because of this, you wont find any charts or diagrams in this book. There is enough information out

there already, either in books or online to fill the worlds oceans. Ive found that once you understand

the concepts of how a chord or a scale is put together, its really easy to find a book or a website or a

smartphone app that will give you a fingering chart on how to play that chord or scale. For this book you

dont have to have any musical background or any experience reading notes. Evenif you think that

youre not someone who gets music theory; if you stay with it, take notes, and practice on your guitar

then in time youll become a music theory ninja.

I do have to very careful not to make any promises I cant keep. I definitely cant promise you that if you

skim the book, half-heartedly practice, and then move on before understanding something that youll

get any better. Thats the hard thing about teaching music lessons; ultimately I can only do so much. If

you are looking for a quick read that will help you become magically better, then this book isnt for you.

There arent any quick summaries on how to play current songs; you can find that for free on the

internet.

This book is for you if youve been playing guitar for a while and maybe youre stuck. Maybe you feel like

the guitar fretboard beyond the G chord and the E minor chord is a mystery and you would love to be

able to play on the higher frets and actually know what the notes are.

A lot of the students Ive worked with want towrite their own songs and theyve wanted a guide so their

writing doesnt feel so random, or just so they have a place to start. And some people are just curious


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about these musical terms they keep hearing. Theyve read a book or an article talking about a Phrygian

chord progression or a Mixolydian guitar solo, and theyve wanted to know what all that stuff means.

Ultimately Im going to help you discover this information for yourself; then itll be up to you to do what

you want with it. I know that can be a little scary, but ultimately youll be better at expressing yourself

musically and I think that you will find that youre better at playing other peoples music as well.

If you stay with it, go at your own pace and not skip anything, even the stuff you think looks familiar,

then youll be able to do any and all of the things I mentioned above. Hopefully youre anxious to get

started, so heres what youll need:

-something to keep notes in and a pencil

-a guitar

-a quiet place to read this

Thats it, lets get started.


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Part 1

Music theory, its not that scary

So now we will start with some really basic music theory. For some readers, this may be review, for

others it may be new information. If this information is very familiar to you already you can fly through

this section, but in any case I promise it will be as brief and to the point as possible. Ive found that a lot

of these terms are sort-of familiar, but maybe youre not quite clear on something. Dont worry, we will

take a look at everything you need to know to become a master of scales and modes on the guitar.

Music is divided into 12 pitches, or notes. The musical alphabet has 7 letters, which are C D E F G A B C.

The remaining notes can be found by adding what are called accidentals in front of these alphabet

letters. Well talk about accidentals in detail later, but for now you need to know that when a note is just

the alphabet letter, its called a natural note, when it has an accidental in front of it, then the note is an

accidental.

Youll notice the musical alphabet goes from A to G, but Ive started on the letter C. When we begin

Major scales well talk about why that is. For now, you need to know that these 7 notes are the natural

notes. Another way to visualize them is that they are the white keys on the piano.

In music, notes are separated by steps, and there are two varieties of steps,Half-Stepsand Whole-

Steps. In between mostof the letters of the musical alphabet is a Whole-Step. Whats tricky about the

musical alphabet is that between the letters E and F, and between the letters B and C, there is only aHalf-step.

If you look at a piano keyboard, youll notice that there are black keys between most of the white keys,

but to the left of the set of 3 grouped black keys there are 2 white keys side by side (that isEand F), and

to the left of the 2 grouped black keys there are two more white keys side by side (these areBand C.) If

you need to take a moment to look at a keyboard thats fine, its important to take as much (or as little)

time to process each piece of information before moving on.

On the guitar, when youre moving between notes on the same string:

a Whole-Step = 2 fret, a Half-Step= 1 fret


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This refers to notes that are played on the same string, so if the notes are on frets that are right next to

each other (1 fret apart), thats a Half-Step. If 2 notes are on the same string and are 2 frets apart, thats

a Whole-Step.

So if Eand F,and Band Care only a Half-Step apart, then how do you find the Half-Steps between notes

like Cand D, or Fand G?

The answer is accidentals. Accidentals alter a note, by changing it a Half-Step either higher or lower. A

Sharpis symbol that looks like the pound key on your phone (#), it causes a note to go up a Half-Step. So

a C-sharp (could be written C#) is a Half-Step higher than a C note and is a Half-Step lower than a D note.

You could say D natural, but in music when you say just the letter name, its the same as just saying

that note, so you can just say, D.

Speaking of natural, a naturalsign looks like a diamond and that means that a note that was previously

played as a sharp or as a flat (well get to flatin a minute) is to be played just natural. So if you were

playing F#s in a song before, to play an F naturalmeans to play the note just as a regular Fnote (a half

step lower than before, because the sharp sign meant playing a Half-Step higherthan a natural F, so the

natural sign means to cancel out the sharp).

One area of confusion Ive run into is that natural is listed under the heading of accidentals, and

those seem to be contradictory terms. An accidental is any sign that is put in front of a note. When

we get to certain scales and modes, a certain note or notes is always sharped or flatted, so in musical

notation there will be whats called a key signature.

A key signature consists of a note or notes that is always sharped or always flatted. So during the course

of playing a song, you may want to switch gears and play in another key, so you might end of taking

away sharps (say, go from always playing F sharps to playing F naturals).

The other type of accidental is a flat,and in musical notation it looks like a lowercase b. This causes a

note to be played a half-step lower than if it was just the plain letter. Guitarists tend not to play flats as

much as sharps much because flats arent a part of guitar keys (more on that later). Still, its good to

know how flats work.

To review so far, a Half-Step is the distance of 1 fret (when both notes are played on the same string) on

the guitar, and a Whole-Step is two frets.

You now also know that there are three types of accidentals, sharps which raise a note a Half-Step, flats

that lower it Half-Step, and naturalsthat cancel out any previous sharps or flats. Remember that not allof the 7 letters of the musical alphabet are a Whole-Step apart.

Be careful of going from Bto C, and from Eto F, these sets of notes are only a Half-Step apart. This

means that on the guitar if you are playing an E, if you go up one fret you are now playing an F, if you go

one fret further than Fthen the note is a F-sharp. Whats helpful is that this is the case anywhere you

play on the guitar.


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Hows it going so far? Lets take a moment to review.

A whole-step between notes is the distance of 2 frets (between notes on the same string) A half-step between notes is the distance of 1 fret (2 notes that are right next to each other on

the same string)

How about accidentals?

A sharpraises a note a Half-Step (1 fret) A flat lowers a note a Half-Step (1 fret) A natural cancels the previous accidental and means that the note that was previously played

with a sharp or flat is now played as the plain musical alphabet letter

Ready to go on? Next well talk about how you can tell whether to call a note by its sharp name or its flat

name.

Sharps and Flats

Remember how we just said that a flat makes the note go down a fret? So if you go down a Half-Step (1

fret) from G, you get a G- flat.

But what if you go a Half-Step (1 fret) up from F,you get an F- sharp. If youre playing this on your guitar

right now you may notice something, these are actually the same note. That is what called an

enharmonic equivalent. (Isnt that a big word for something so simple?)

Depending on what scale or mode you are playing, a note has to be called only one certain name. In

other words, there are times that you have to call that note F-sharp, not G- flat, or vice versa. Dont let

this stress you out or otherwise confuse you, Ill explain why this is and how can you easily know later

on. It seems arbitrary at first (I know this because a lot of people in guitar lessons have said, Brian, this

seems arbitrary, and Im nothing if not a good listener) but once you see how scales are put together,

itll actually make life easier.

So one more thing before we go on to playing actual, real, musical scales (exciting isnt it?) So at the

beginning I said there are 7 letters in the musical alphabet, right? They are:

C D E F G A B

Well how about the accidentals? How many notes are there total? Well, you may remember that there

is only a Half-Step (1 fret) between the notes Eand F, and between the notes Band C. This means that

there is nothing between the notes Band Cand nothing between the notes Eand F.


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But there are notes in between the other sets of notes. For example there is a note in betweenCand D

(well call this note C- sharp), a note between Dand E(this is D-sharp), between the notes Fand G( this

note is F-sharp), between Gand A(this is G-sharp), and between Aand B(A-sharp). To summarize:

7 natural notes (C, D, E, F, G, A, and B) 5 accidental notes (C-sharp, D-sharp, F-sharp, G-sharp, andA sharp)

7 natural notes plus 5 accidental notes equals 12 notes in music. (7+5+12, which pretty much exhausts

my math skills) Keep in mind that you could write the accidental notes as flat notes instead. This means

you could call each note by that particular notesenharmonic equivalent; which is just a fancy way of

saying the same note called by a different name. Ill write the enharmonic equivalents below

C-sharp=D-flat D-sharp=E flat F-sharp=G flat G-sharp=A flat A-sharp=B flat

Its worth noting that when you are in a particular key, all the accidentals will be the same. So either all

the accidentals will be flats or they will all be sharps, you wont mix the accidental signs within the same

key.

A set of all 12 notes make an octave.Once you get to the end of an octave, the process just starts over

again.

Scales

Ok, so lets go into some scales, thats youre here for, right? Every scale has 7 different notes that are in

the scale, and 5 notes that are not in the scale. For every scale, all of the alphabet letters in the musical

alphabet are used, its just a matter of what note you start on and what accidentals you add to the

notes.

One tricky, music teacher-y thing to watch out for: in any scale, the first note of the scale (also called the

root note) is played twice, once at the beginning and once at the end. So a C Majorscale starts on a C

and ends on a C. That C that you end on is 1 octavehigher than the C you started on. Enough talking,

lets try the following exercise.Youll need your guitar, what were going todo is play a C Major scale all

on the same string. Well get our notes by moving up the fretboard.

C Major Scale


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-Play the note on the B string, 1st

fret. This may be basic for some experienced players, but the B string is

the string 2nd up from the floor. The string closest to the floor is the high E string (the thinnest one), and

the B string is the next one up toward the ceiling. Ok, so play that 1st

fret, thats a Cnote.

-Next, move up a Whole-Step (2 frets) to the 3rd

fret, thats a Dnote

-Move up a Whole-Step to the 5th

fret, thats an Enote

-Move up a Half-Step to the 6th

fret, thats an F(you may have remember that the musical notes E and F

are right next to each other)


fret, thats a G


fret, thats an A

-Move up a Whole-Step to the 12thfret, thats a B

-Move up a Half-Step to the 13th

fret, thats a C, 1 octave higher than where you started.

Guess what? You just played a C Major scale. Did you notice the order of Whole and Half Steps?

Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Whole-Half

Think of this as the recipe for a (delicious) Major scale. Master this, and the rest of the material will go

down smooth, like a nice Goose Island beer.

Notice that the C Major scale has no sharps or flats. Lets try a scale that uses some sharps. I promise it

wont hurt.

For this exercise, start by playing the G string open. The G string is 1 string towards the ceiling from the

B string. Playing a string open means play the string without pressing down any of the frets. Think of

open notes as being fret number zero.

Ok, guess what? You all already know the recipe to make a G Major scale. To review, its:

Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Whole-Half

-Play the G string open (fret zero) for a G (straightforward enough)

-Go up a Whole-Step to the 2nd

fret, this is an Anote

-Move a Whole-Step to the 4thfret, this is B

-Now move a Half-Step to the 5th

fret, this is C(hey, B and C are only a Half-step apart, so this works)


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-Move a Whole-Step to the 7th

fret, this is, you guessed it D

-Move a Whole-Step to 9thfret, this is E

-Move another Whole-Step, be careful, E to F is only a Half- Step, so you need to an additional Half-Step

beyond F. To make a note a Half-Step higher add a sharp, meaning the next note in our scale is F-sharp

on the 11th

fret

-Almost done, F-sharpneeds to move a Half-Step, and look, going up a Half-Step from F-sharpbrings

you to G, which is where we started and where we needed to end up

So if we start on G, and move according to our recipe for Whole-Steps and Half Steps, we get the notes:

G, A, B, C, D, E, F-sharp, G

Notice how all 7 letters of the musical alphabet are represented in some form (withG, the root note

being represented twice, once at the beginning and once at the end). This is important, keep in mind

that you cant have 2 forms of the same letter in the same scale.

For example, in the above G Major scale, you couldnt say, Well, F-sharp is the same thing (enharmonic

equivalent) as G-flat, so Ill call it G-flat and then go on to G. The reason for this is that you would then

have 2 forms of the letter G (G-flat and G-natural), but zero forms of the letter F.

The more experienced you get with scales, and especially when we start to move into crazy, modal

scales like Dorian and Mixolydian, youll see how this actually makes your life easier and takes the

guesswork out of music theory. Youll no longer suffer the pain of not knowing whether to call that note

F-sharp or G-flat and youll be able to play with much more confidence.

Minor Scales

I love minor scales; they have a kind of somber, moody quality to them. Its possible to simply say

Major=happy, minor=sad and leave it at that, but I think its a little more subtle. Going on well see that

different scale have different moods, especially when we get into modes like Dorian and Mixolydian.

Ok, so just like the Major scale, the minor scale has 7 different notes that are in the scale, with the root

being played at both the beginning and the end, and 5 notes that are not in the scale. And just like the

Major Scale, there are 5 Whole-Steps and 2 Half-Steps. Its just the order of where these Whole-Steps

and Half- Steps fall thats a little different.

Important tip-if youre taking notes (and you should be), this would be a good thing to write down.

All of the scales covered in this book have the following things in common:

-they use all 7 letters of the musical alphabet in some form (but in only 1 form), with the root (first) note

being played once at the beginning and once at the end


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Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole

This time, begin by playing the high E string open, the high Estring is the string closest to the ground.

-Move up a Whole-Step, which is an F-sharpon the 2nd

fret (E to F=Half-Step, but we want a Whole-Step,

so go, E to F-sharp=Whole-Step)

-Move up a Half-Step, which is Gon the 3rdfret

-Move up Whole-Step to Aon the 5th

fret

-Move up a Whole-Step to B on the 7th

-Move up a Half-Step to Con the 8th

fret (B to C = Half-Step)

-Move up a Whole-Step to Don the 10thfret

-Move up a Whole-Step to Eon the 12th

fret

So you may have noticed that there is 1 sharped note (F-sharp), and the rest of the notes are natural.

That means that in an E minor scale, we have the notes:

E, F-sharp, G, A, B, C, D, E

Try building a minor scale on the B string; well build the scale on Bso start by playing the B string open.

Remember, the minor scale sequence is: Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole

-move up a Whole-Step to C-sharp(B to C=Half-Step, B to C-sharp=Whole Step) on the 2nd

fret

-move up a Half-Step to Don the 3rdfret

-move up a Whole-Step to Eon the 5th

fret

-move up a Whole-Step to F-sharpon the 7th

(youre probably getting the idea now, E and F-sharp are

always separated by a Whole-Step)

-move up a Half- Step to Gon the 8thfret

-move up a Whole-Step to Aon the 10th

fret

-move up to a Whole-Step to Bon the 12thfret

So, the notes in a B minor scale are:


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B, C-sharp, D, E, F-sharp, G, A, B

To review (again, I know), the recipe for a minor scale is:

Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole

Try the exercise of playing either a Major or a minor scale on a single string on as many strings as youd

like. The most important thing is to know what note youre currently playing, and what note youre

about to play. This may take a little more mental effort at first. But if you consistently practice this for

even a few minutes a day (every day or close to every day) youll get much faster at knowing what note

youre on, until the point it when it becomes automatic. So give it a shot.

A great exercise is to write out the notes in a particular scale on a sheet of paper when youre away from

the guitar. Start by writing the recipe for Major scales and for minor scales at the top of the piece of

paper and then see if you can build, say, a Major scale on E, or a minor scale on D. (Feel free to come up

with your own starting points)

Dont go on to the next section until you feel you can easily play Major scales and minor scales up and

down the length of a single string evenly. (You dont have to worry about playing really fast, just make

sure youre not stopping and taking a big pause between notes). Once youre ready, well talk about

putting Whole-Steps and Half- Steps together for bigger distances between notes and how to apply this

knowledge to the fretboard of your guitar.

A Little More Theory (You can do it.)

So now were going to talk about intervals. In music, intervalrefers to the amount of distance between

any two particular notes. The fact is youre alreadywell on your way to becoming a master of intervals,

because weve already done a lot of work with the smallest, or narrowest intervals, the Half- Step and

the Whole-Step. If you combine multiple Whole and/or Half- Steps together, you get bigger, or wider,intervals where the notes are farther apart.

When musicians talk about a Major 3 rd or a Major 6th, what theyre referring to is a Major 3rdor

Major 6thinterval from the root note. Most of the time people wont actually say, scale degree.

Note: From this point on if I say something like 2 Steps, that refers to 2 Whole-Steps. If I say

something like 2 steps, that refers to 2 Whole-Steps and 1 Half-Step.


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Remember, for notes that are on the same string:

Half-Step= 1 fret

Whole-Step=2 fret

Well also need to review the Major Scale:

Major Scale recipe

Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half

Notes in a C Major Scale = C D E F G A B C

If you need to play this again on your guitar, thats totally ok. Start on the B string(2ndstring) on the 1st

fret. Thats a Cnote. Move up a Whole-Step to D, Whole-Step to E, Half-Step to F, Whole-Step to G,

Whole-Step to A, Whole-Step to B, and Half-Step to C. You should be on the 13th

fret. If thats the case,

great, if not, go back to the previous section and make sure youre absolutely rock solid on building

scales before continuing.

Ok, so each one of notes in the C Major Scale can each be described as an interval relating back toC,

which is in this case the root note.

Intervals have two parts-

1.a qualifier, these are; major, minor, perfect (but not imperfect, well get into more detail later )

2.a number

C is the root note, all intervals relate back to C

Dis a Major 2nd = 1 Whole- Step (for all these examples the interval relates to C, so Dis a Major 2

nd

away from C)

E is a Major 3rd= 2 Whole-Steps

Fis a Perfect 4th

= 2 Steps

Gis a Perfect 5th= 3 Steps

Ais a Major 6th

= 4 steps

Bis a Major 7th

= 5 steps


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Cis an Octave (same as 8th, but musicians will never use the term 8th) = 6 Whole-Steps, which is the

same distance as 12 Half-Steps

Make sense? This is just another way of thinking about the different notes in a scale. Truthfully, it will

take some time and practice to become comfortable with how all these intervals sound and how to play

them.

When the notes are labeled the way I have done above, they are referred to as scale degrees. So for

example, the note A is scale degree 6, and if I ask, What kind of 6th?, you can say that its a Major 6th.

What Ive found confuses people is that when you get more advanced, you can start referring to

intervals between 2 notes in the middle of the scale (where neither note is the root note). Dont let that

intimidate you, all that this means is that C and E are a Major 3rd

apart, and the notes G and B are also a

Major 3rdapart. Why it that? Its because in both cases the two notes are separated by an interval of 2

Whole-Steps.

In a C Major scale, E is the 3rd

scale degree and its a Major 3rd

, because its 2 Whole-Steps higher than C.The note B is scale degree 7, and its a Major 7 th, but thats relative to the root note C. The note B is a

Major 3rd

away from the note G (scale degree 5), because they are separated by 2 Whole-Steps as well.

If youre the type who likes to get all crazy and figure out every possible combination of intervals

between every note in the scale, feel free to do so on some scratch paper. Either way, make sure you

understand the concept of intervals and as time goes by the information will simmer in your brain.

All you really need to understand is that while the actual intervals themselves (Major 3rd, Major 6th, etc.)

are fixed and always the same, what the interval of any particular note is depends on where youre

measuring from.

So Bis a Major 7thaway from C, but Bis only a Major 3rdaway from G. Once you feel confident with the

intervals in the Major Scale, move on to the next section dealing with the minor scale.

Intervals in the minor scale

Lets review the A minor scale. Play this scale on the A (5th) string, starting on the open note, which is an

A. The notes are:

A B C D E F G A

The recipe of Whole-Steps and Half-Steps for a minor scale is:

Whole-Half- Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole


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Remember how there were a bunch of Major intervals in the last scale? Now were going to play some

minor intervals now, so hold on. After youve figured out the notes, play this example on your guitar on

the 5th

string (A string), moving up the fretboard to the 12th

fret.

A= Root note

Bis a Major 2nd

= Whole-Step

Cis a minor 3rd= 1 steps

Dis a Perfect 4th

= 2 steps

Eis a Perfect 5th=3 steps

Fis a minor 6th= 4 Whole-Steps

Gis a minor 7th

= 5 Whole- Steps

Ais the octave = 6 Whole-Steps

Ok, so what do you notice? You may see how relative to the root note, both a Major Scale and a minor

scale have a Major 2nd, Perfect 4th, and Perfect 5th.

It would be a good idea to put that in your notes, now that youve done that, take note of what changes.

The 3rd

, 6th

, and 7th

are all slightly different. In a Major scale, the 3rd

, 6th

, and 7th are all Major intervsals

and in a minor scale the 3rd

, 6th

, and 7th

intervals are all minor. (Pretty logical right?)

Whats the difference between a Major 3rdand minor 3rd? Just a Half- Step.

Major 3rd

= 2 Whole-Steps

Minor 3rd= 1 steps

So in other words, if you lower a Major 3rd

by a Half-Step, it becomes a minor 3rd

. The same thing applies

to 6ths and 7ths.

Ok, but now you may be wondering about those Perfect 4th

and Perfect 5ths. As in, whatsthe deal is

with perfect intervals? Instead of getting too technical (at least for now); just think of those intervals as

structural support notes. Theyre load-bearing intervals that keep the Major scale or minor scale up. Ifwe mess with them, everything collapses and just doesnt sound very good. (Well reference this when

we discuss Locrian mode).

Once again, its superimportant that you really understand how the minor scale is put together. Lets

think of it this way, to make an interval go from being a Major interval between itself and the root, and a

minor interval between itself and the root is a matter of lowering (flatting) the note by a Half-Step.


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If only there was a musical device that would lower the B note by a Half-Step. Oh wait, there is and its

called a flat. So the B is flatted in a D minor scale. So our answer is B-flat. This checks out because the

distance (or interval) between A and B-flat is a Half-Step, and the distance between the root note (D)

and B-flatis a minor 6th, which is a distance of 4 Steps.

I would recommend that you play the notes from the following example going up the D (4th

string).Begin by playing the open string note, and then proceed by Whole-Steps and Half-Steps in the way

described above.

The 2ndfret should be anEnote, the 3rdfret an F, all the way up to the B-flat note, which should be on

the 8thfret.

Remember that B-flatis a minor 6th

(4 Whole-Steps) higher than D. So on the guitar, a Whole-Step is 2

frets, and if want go 4 Whole-Steps you can go up a total of 8 frets. This is because 2 frets per Whole-

Step multiplied by 4 steps equals 8 frets. This checks out, since the B-flatnote is on the 8thfret of the D

string.

I admit that this can be tricky at first. When youre starting out its easy to be intimidated by all the

sharps and flats and intervals. I cant give you an easy way to magically know all the notes in every scale

overnight, and I would be wary of anyone who promises that. But if you continue with the information

you have so far, and dont move on until youve processed all the information, youll be fine.

At this point I recommend that you use the above material and your notes to give yourself an open-book

test on the notes in several Major and minor scales.

What do you know now?

-That every scale uses ever letter of the musical alphabet in some form once, with the root note being

played at both the beginning and end of the scale

-That intervals (Major 3rd

, minor 6th

, etc.) are fixed distances, and that a note can be called different

intervals depending on where youre measuring from (for example, Eis a Major 3rdup from C, but Eis

only a Major 2nd

up from D)

-That if you need to raise a note a Half-Step, you can sharp it

- If you need to lower a note a Half-Step, you can flat it

-If you need to raise or lower a note a Half-Step and its already a sharp or flat note, you can cancel out

the sharp or flat with a natural (for example, if you want to lower F-Sharpby a Half- Step, make it F

natural; if you want to raise B- flata Half-Step, make it B natural)


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Make sure you have in your notes the recipe for each of the intervals; so a Perfect 5th

is 3 steps, a

Major 3rd

is 2 Whole-Steps, etc. Next welltalk about one of my favorite issues, and something that

nobody who plays at the rock bar near my house ever seems to know understand, which how a guitar is

tuned.

Guitar tuning

Ok, so if you have a little bit of experience tuning a guitar, you may know the names of the strings, but if

not, dont worrywell go over them here. What people mean when they say that a particular string is

tuned to a particular note is that the string is tuned in a way so that when you play that string open, that

is, without holding down any fret with your left hand, the string plays that certain note.

So for example, we say that the 5thstring is tuned to Abecause when you play the 5thstring open, the

note it produces is an Anote.

The strings of the guitar are tuned:

6th

string (closest to ceiling) = E

5thstring = A

4th

string = D

3rd

string = G

2nd

string = B

1st

string = E

These are listed in the order low to high, meaning the 6thstring has the lowest sound, and the 1st

string has the highest sound.

Its important to know that in guitar (and music in general), when we say low or high were referring

to the sound.

So even though the low E string is physically highest off of the ground, its referred to as the lowest

string because it has the lowest sound.


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The same thing is true of the guitar fretboard. When you play on frets that are closer to the body of the

guitar, you are going up the neck because the sound is getting higher. When you move on the

fretboard towards the headstock of the guitar, youre moving down, since the sound is going down.

When referring to either the 6thor 1ststring, its usually best to qualify whether its the low E (6thstring),

or high E (1st string) to avoid confusion. (After years of teaching guitar lessons I can tell you thats the

case).

So heres the thing, the distance (interval) between the different strings on the guitar are not all the

same.

Some readers may be familiar with the method of tuning a guitar you play the 5th

fret of the low E (6th

)

string, and tune the open A (5th

) string to match. If thats you, do you remember how when you get to

the part where youre tuning the open B (2nd) string you have to play the 4thfretof the G (3rd) string to

match the notes? Well, why is that? Why is that set of strings different than all the others? Thats thequestion that this section will answer.

If we start on the 6th

string played open, we get an Enote. The next string towards the floor is an A. So

the question you want to be able to answer is how far apart are the notes Eand A? If you start at the

open note (fret number zero) and move up the low E string, how many frets do you need to move up in

order to get to an Anote? If youre familiar with the tuning method described in the previous

paragraph, you know that the answer is 5 frets.

5 frets= 5 Half-Steps, right?

And 5 Half- Steps is the same thing as 2 steps. What interval is 2 steps? (I dont expect you to havememorized this yet, but it would probably be a good idea to have this in your notes if you dont already.)

The answer is a Perfect 4th. So the notes Eand Aare separated by an interval of Perfect 4th.

Lets move on, what is the interval between Aand D?

If Ais the root note, Bis 1 Whole-Step away, B up to Cis only a Half-Step away(1 steps so far), and C

to Dis another Whole- Step, equaling 2 steps total, which once again is a Perfect 4th.

Its a good idea to try the next one on your own in your notes. Whats the distance between Gand D?

Once again, its a Perfect 4th.


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Things get different

Ok, so now lets look at the distance between the G (3rd) and B(2nd) strings. Starting with G, what is the

distance to the next letter of the musical alphabet? The note is A, and its a Whole-Step up from G. So

whats the distance from A to the note we want, B? The answer is just one additional Whole-Step. That

gives us a total of just 2 steps.

Remember that a Perfect 4th

is 2 steps, so what kind of interval is made up of just 2 steps? Once again,

if you refer to your notes youll seethat its a Major 3rd.

So the notes Gand Bare separated by an interval of a Major 3rd.

When we go from the B(2nd) to E(1

st) strings, what is the interval?

Bto Cis a Half-Step, Cto Dis a Whole-Step, and Dto Eis a Whole-Step, for a total of 2 steps. That

means that the notes Band Eare separated by the interval of a Perfect 4th

.

So the obvious question is why have one set of strings (Gand B) that are separated by a different

interval than all the other sets of strings? Theresactually is a good reason, lets investigate what it is.

Lets step back for a moment and imagine that all the strings were separated by equal intervals, so all of

the strings were separated by Perfect 4ths. If this were the case, then what note would the 2ndstring be

tuned to?

If all the other strings are separated by a Perfect 4th

, well go ahead and say that the 2nds string will betuned a Perfect 4

thhigher than the 3

rd(G) string. So what is a Perfect 4

thabove G?

Gto A=Whole-Step

Ato B= Whole-Step (2 steps so far)

Bto C= Half-Step (2 steps total)

So in order to keep the interval between every string the same as a Perfect 4th

, you would have to have

the 2ndstring be tuned to a Cnote. What about the 1ststring? If the 2ndstring is a C, the 1

ststring would

have to be a Perfect 4thabove C, so lets work out what note that is.

Cto D= Whole-Step

Dto E= Whole-Step (2 steps so far)

Eto F= Half-Step (2 steps total)


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So, the 1st

string would be an Fnote, while the 2nd

string would be a Cnote. That would leave us with a

guitar tuned:

E A D G C F(low to high, meaning the first note listed is the lowest- sounding string)

Now, its fair to ask what would be so bad about the guitar being tuned that way. Youre probably

familiar the chords in open position on the guitar. You know, the C chord, G chord, E minor chord, A

minor chord, et al. If the guitar were tuned like this, playing a simple E minor chord would become a

challenge to say the least.

For most people, this is the most obvious disadvantage to having the guitar tuned in the way described

above. Personally, I think playing all over the fretboard would be much more difficult if the guitar was

tuned this way, and I think it makes a lot of sense to have the guitar be tuned the way that it is. Music is

a constant exercise in problem-solving, and that often means find compromising and finding the best

solution, which is often not perfect.

Ok, Ill stop rambling and just say that you need to know that the guitar is tuned mostlyin 4ths. That is,when you go to the next highest sounding string, you are usually moving up a perfect 4

th, except when

you go from the G to B string, where you are moving up an interval that is a Half- Step lower, which is a

Major 3rd. Once you feel comfortable with this information, well move on to what I honestly think is the

most difficult section of the book, finding intervals across strings. By now you should know how to find

an interval by moving a certain amount of steps staying on the same string and counting up. Finding

certain intervals between notes that are each on different strings may seem a little trickier at first, but

its not so bad and in any case its how you are more likely to play and move around in the real world

of writing music and making up solos, so lets take a look.

Finding Steps (Whole and Half) Across Strings

In this section well look at how to find Whole-Steps and Half-Steps across strings. Well start by figuring

how to move between the strings that dont involvecrossing strings 3 (G) and 2 (B). Once youre

comfortable with the concept of string-crossing, you just have to alter things slightly when going

between the 3rd

and 2nd

string, and its really not so bad.So make sure you have your guitar handy, andthat youre all tuned up(that should be the case after that last section). Even more so than before, in

this section its really important to play each of these examples so you really process the information.


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Playing Whole-Steps across strings

Start by playing a Gon the 3rdfret of the low E string. Next were going to move to an A. First off, try

playing an A by staying on the same string. You should have moved up 2 frets for a Whole-Step to play

an Anote.

Ok, go back to the Gon the 3rdfret of the low E string. To move up the same distance (a Whole-Step)

from this Gnote, you can also move to the next highest- sounding string (5thstring) played open. So in

other words, by moving to the next higher string and moving 3 frets backwards (toward the headstock

of your guitar), you have moved a Whole-Step. Lets try another example.

This time, start by playing the Aon the 5th

fret of the low E string. Since we will go up a Whole-Step, we

will want to end on a Bnote. To find a B on the next higher-sounding string, move up 1 string (to the 5th

string again), and move back 3 frets. This will put you on the 5thstring, 2ndfret for a Bnote.

If you want to check and be sure that that note really is a B, you can see that the 5th

string open is an A,

and if you go up 2 frets on the same string (Whole-Step) you will also be on a B note.

Playing Half-Steps across strings

If you think about it, a Half-Step is a 1 fret difference from a Whole-Step, right? Ok, well if to find a

Whole-Step across strings you need to go the next string and back 3 frets.

To play a Half-Step across strings you need to the next highest string and go back 4 frets.

Lets play an example. If you play the 5thfret of the 6th(low E) string, you get an Anote. What note is a

Half-Step above A? You could call that note A-sharp, or you could call it B-flat. In this case, either

spelling (thats the music theory geeks way of saying writing the note out) is ok because were not in

any specific scale. Since we dont have a context other than this exercise, you can call it either name.

In any case, we want to move up a Half-Step from that Anote. Go 1 string down towards the floor to the

next highest-sounding string, to the 5th

string and move backward (towards the headstock of the guitar)

4 frets. This gives an A-sharp note.

You can check your work by seeing that the 5thstring open (fret number zero) is an A, so going up 1 fret

to the 1stfret gives an A-sharp, a note a Half-Step higher than A.


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What if you played the 2nd

(B) string on the 4th

fret? That would give a D-sharp note. (B is open, C = 1st

fret, D = 3rd

fret, D-sharp =4th

fret) What note is a Half-Step above D- sharp? The note is E, or E natural.

Lets look at how to find an E note on the next highest-sound string.

If you go to the next highest-sounding string, the 1st

(high E) string, and count back 4 frets, you get to

the open note, or fret zero. So by playing the high E string open you of course get an Enote. Theimportant thing is that you now know how to play a note a Half-Step away from this E.

A note about moving up vs. moving down

So far in this book, you may have noticed that the direction that we move is always up. Ive found in

private lessons that in thinking through the concepts, its naturally easier for most people to think in

terms of moving up.

The same concepts hold true when youre moving in the opposite direction, so the distances stay the

same. For example, 2 frets up is a Whole-Step up, and 2 frets down is a Whole-Step down. In keeping

with that principle, going to the next highest string and back4 fretsequals moving upa Half-Step

(except between the 3rdand 2ndstring), while thinking of it as going to the next lowest string and

forward4 fretsis going downa Half-Step.

It might be hard to keep all that information straight just by reading it, so its a good idea to play lots of

little examples on your guitar.

If its easier for you to think in terms of going down, then by all means feel free to do so. If youre able to

comfortably play intervals going up, it wont be hard to move in the opposite direction.

Ok, so the above section can be summarized:

Between all strings (except 3 and 2)

Whole-Step = next string up, back 3 frets

Half-Step = next string up, back 4 fret


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If youre like me, you may be stressed about how to find intervals between notes on the 3rdand 2nd

strings. Wait no longer, lets take a look.

Finding Half- Steps and Whole- Steps between the 3rd

and 2nd

strings

This is actually not too hard. Since the 3rd

and 2nd

string are separated by an interval that is a Half-Step (1

fret) narrower than all the other strings, you can actually just take the chart from above and reduce the

numbers by 1 fret (a Half- Step). So:

Between strings 3 and 2:


Half-Step = next string up, back 3 frets

Lets try an example. If you play the 5thfret of the G string, thats a Cnote. (G string open= G, G string 2nd

fret= A, 4th fret = B, 5thfret = C)

What note is a Whole-Step higher than C? If you said D, youre correct. So we want a D note.

If we start on the 5thfret of the G string, we want to go up the next string (2ndstring) and back 2 frets. So

you should end up on the 3rdfret of the 2nd(B) string. Is this a Dnote?

If you play the B string open, you get a B; to get to the next alphabet letter, C, is a Half- Step (1st

fret) and

to Dis a Whole-Step up, so you should move to the 3rdfret of the B string for the alphabet letter D. so

we were correct. Make sense? Then lets try movingbetween the 3rdand 2ndstring by a Half-Step.

This time, play the 4th

fret of the G string. This note is a B. What note is a Half-Step above B?

Remember that in the musical alphabet, the note Bis only a Half- Step from C. So were looking for a C

note. If you go to the next (2nd) string, and back 3 frets, youll be on the 1stfret, giving you a Cnote.

See how that works? That spot on the guitar (2nd

string, 1st

fret) is always a Cnote, and now you have acouple of ways to arrive at that note.

Feel free to do as many of these examples in your notes as youd like, and of course play as many as

youd like on the guitar.


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Were almost ready to move on, to really dive into the meaty stuff, but before we do, make sure that

you feel confident about everything on this guitar ninja checklist.

Guitar ninja checklist (stuff you should know at this point)

The difference between Whole and Half Steps The way the guitar is tuned, and in particular which set of strings are tuned differently How to play a Major scale and a minor scale going up on a single string How to determine what the intervals are between notes that are more than a step apart What a sharp, flat, and accidental sign do What notes are in the musical alphabet Which alphabet letters are separated by a Whole-Step, and which are separated by a Half-Step How to find Whole- Steps and Half-Steps across strings that dontinvolve crossing the 3rdand 2nd

string

How to find Whole-Steps and Half-Steps across strings that doinvolve crossing the 3rdand 2ndstrings

How to tell whether a note in a scale should be called the sharped alphabet letter, or by the nextalphabet letter but with a flat sign

I promise that there will be some review of the concepts listed above as we go on, because its all so

important and inter-connected and well run into trouble if yourenot clear on these points.

That being said, it would be good to pause here if need be and make up your own additional exercises

before we move onto the next part, where we start to really have some fun and dive into what we

mysteriously call modes.


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Part 2

The part where you learn about modesOk, before we go any further, lets talk about the word mode. Its seems like a strange word to use for

something thats so similar to a scale, and maybe it is. I know that maybe I should go into a technical

discussion of the origin of the word mode, and how it dates back to the different scale patterns used in

church music, and how it evolved over hundreds of years.

If you really feel like thats vital, you can always refer to a music encyclopedia (or Wikipedia). Dont get

me wrong, I think its good to be curious about things like this. Its just that in my experience, its easy to

get bogged down and confused before youve even played a single note. Remember that theory follows

practice. So make sure you can play these modes first, and then later you can read up on the history and

development of the modes all you like.

For the purposes of this e-book, were going totend to refer to a regular Major scale or minor scale as a

scale, and to any of the following scales that are based on the Major and minor scales as modes.

Why? You ask.

Well, this is the way that performing musicians refer to these scales. Think of the term, scale as being

the generic, all-inclusive term; and think of mode as being more specific. I know that technically that a

Major mode can be called Ionian mode, and the minor scale can be called Aeolian mode.

The reality is that most musicians tend to say things like, this song is modal, or for this solo remember

the chord progression is modal.Well learn what the means and how to navigate the modes, and have

you on track to playing great solos and writing your own music in no time.

In reality, the terms scale and mode are technically interchangeable, you just need toknow the

difference between a more common Major and minor scale, and a mode.

The best way to think of the modes is to think of each particular mode as a unique color, or mood. I

know that some other books present the modes as being connected, with each mode being built on a

step of the Major scale.

Ive found that this approach can be confusing because it is a result of backward-looking theory. In other

words, its not really how people first started using it modes, its just that at some point, someone said,

hey, look, if you put each of these modes in order they all fit together, isnt that neat?

If youve learned, or tried to learn, the modes this way and have been frustrated, dont worry. If youve

never read anything about modes before and have no idea what Im talking about, thats fine too. Were

going to approach learning the modes the same they were developed, by focusing on the sound, and by

extension, the mood and feeling that each mode invokes. Enough talk, lets get started.


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Modes- A working definition

For our purposes, well define a mode as a scale that is based on either a Major Scale or a minor scale,

but with 1 note in the scale altered by a Half-Step.

The connation of using the word mode,is that you are doing something other than playing a regular

old Major or minor scale. If you look back at your notes youll see that certain scales degrees in a scale

are a certain interval back to the root. To review:

Major scale = Root, Major 2nd

, Major 3rd

, Perfect 4th

, Perfect 5th

, Major 6th

, Major 7th

, Root

Minor scale = Root, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, minor 6th, minor 7th, Root

Ok, so be sure you get this definition: a mode is a scale that is based on either a Major or a minor scale,but that has 1 note altered by a Half-Step.

Modes can be based on either a Major scale or a minor scale. Well start with a discussion of the modes

based on minor scales.

Modes based on minor scales

As I just said, a mode can be based off of either a Major scales or a minor scale. One note in that scale

will be changed, which will alter the sound, or as I like to think of it, the mood of the scale. Make sense?

Ok, lets start with my favorite, Dorian mode.

Dorian Mode

Dorian mode is based off of a minor scale, but there is 1 important difference. Whereas a minor scale

has a minor 6th

(as you can see from the list above), Dorian mode raises (or sharps) the 6th

scale degreemaking it a Major 6

th.

That means that Dorian mode= a minor scale with a raised 6th.

Functionally, thats all you need to know. Later on while get more theoretical and how see that works

together with all the other modes, but for all you need to know is the Dorian is a minor scale with a

raised 6th (a 6ththats a Half-Step higher than normal). Lets figure out the notes for A Dorian.


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Im going to start this section by repeating the sequence of Whole-Steps and Half steps for a minor

scale. For every scale and mode, remember that there are 5 Whole-Steps and 2 Half-Steps. This is always

true; its just a matter of what particular order the steps are in. Personally, I recommend being an expert

on the recipe of Whole-Steps and Half steps for the Major and minor scales, and when youre playing a

mode, adjust as needed.

Realistically, you dont need to memorize the Whole-Step and Half- Step recipe for every single mode.

Dont get me wrong, you should be able to figure it out quickly enough for whatever mode you happen

to be playing, but if youre really good at the sequence of steps for Majorscales and minor scales, youll

be fine.

Ok, so that being said, lets write this out again.

Minor scale

Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole

If we start on A, that gives us:

A, Whole-Step to B, Half- Step to C, Whole-Step to D, Whole-Step to E, Half- Step to F, Whole-Step to G,

Whole-Step to A

In terms of scale degrees that means that in an A minor scale:

A= root B= Major 2nd

C=minor 3rd

D= Perfect 4th

E= Perfect 5th

F= minor 6th

G= minor 7th

A= root

To make this A minor scalean A Dorian mode(or scale, either term is acceptable), all we need to do israise the 6

th, changing it from a minor 6

thto a Major 6

th. To do this, simply raise the Fa Half-Step by

adding a sharp. So the Fnote becomes an F-sharpnote.

If you look at your notes, youllsee that a Major 6this an interval of 4 steps. Is F-sharp4 steps above

A?

Ato B(1 Whole-Step), B to C(add a Half-Step, so 1 steps), C to D(add a Whole-Step, so 2 steps), D

to E(add a Whole-Step, so 3 steps), E to F-sharp (add a Whole-Step, so 4 steps).

So that checks out. Now, since in the minor sequence of steps we have:

Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole= regular minor scale

See the 5thstep listed above? The Half-Step? Well, in Dorian, you switch that one around with the next

step, the second to last one, which is a Whole-Step. So now the sequence becomes:

Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Whole-Half-Whole=Dorian mode


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Lets try another example. Lets build a Dorian mode on the note E. If youre already at the point where

you feel that you know the notes of an E minor scale really well, then all you need to do is take the 6th

degree, which should a minor 6th

(4 steps) from the root, and make into a Major 6th

(4 steps from the

root). I wont give the answer away quite yet. If you need to work through the scale degrees and thesequence of steps, thats completely fine, lets do it right now.

If we want a Dorian mode and Eis our root note, then we need a Major 2nd

, minor 3rd

, Perfect 4th

,

Perfect 5th

, Major 6th

, minor 7th

, and root above E.

Lets figure the notes by scale degrees first and then well check our work by looking at the sequence of

Whole and Half- Steps.

Starting with Eas the root note, we next want a Major 2ndabove E. This is a Whole-Step, so the note is a

F-sharp. Next we want a minor 3rd, thats 1 steps above the root, so the minor 3rdis G.

Next we want a Perfect 4th

. This note is 2 steps above the root, giving us an Anote.

Next is a Perfect 5th, which 3 steps above the root for a Bnote.

Next we have the Dorian note,we want a Major 6th, which is 4 steps above the root, so this note is a

C-sharp.

Make sure you count all the steps up to C-sharpas youre working through this example in your notes,

so you understand why a Major 6thabove E is a C-sharp.

Ok almost done, a minor 7th

is 5 steps above the root, giving you a Dnote. Finally, the next octave up

from Eof course is an E. Whew, lets review.

E=root, F-sharp= Major 2nd, G= minor 3rdA= Perfect 4thB= Perfect 5thC-sharp= Major 6thD=minor 7th

E= root (again, 1 octave higher)

So how does that square with our sequence of Whole and Half Steps for Dorian? Remember the

sequence for Dorian mode is:

Whole Half Whole Whole (Whole Half) Whole


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So, if Eis the root note, then start by moving up a Whole-Step to F-sharp. Next, move a Half-Step to G.

so far so good. Now, coming up we have 3 Whole-Steps in a row, lets see if it this checks out. From G, a

Whole-step up is A, another Whole-Step up is B, and another Whole-Step up from B is C-sharp.

Those are the same notes as before, so were good so far. From the C-sharp note, we want to move up a

Half-Step, so this takes us from C- sharp to a Dnote. Ok, so now all we need is a Whole-Step above D,which takes us back to our root note, E.

Make sure to play this example on your guitar. For fun, try do it twice, one time playing on the low E

string and on time playing on the high E string.

So you can think of the scale in terms of scale degrees or in terms of the recipe of Whole-Steps and Half-

Steps. Feel free to use whatever approach works better for you. Some people prefer to think of intervals

relating back to the root, other people find it easier to think, ok, I played Bhere, so I need to go up a

Whole-Step to play a C-sharp.

What these 2 approaches have in common is that either way, you really have to think about what noteyoure playing and what note you want to go to. The more you do this, the more connections youll

make and youll start to recognize groups of notes all the fretboard.

I recommend that you play the following scales all over the guitar fretboard. You can work your way up

a single string for several notes, and then jump to the next string. Remember, when crossing strings:

Sets of strings except 3 and 2:



Between strings 3 and 2:



You might get lost at first, thats ok, start over again and see if you can find where you went wrong.

Instead of giving you a giant pile of scale diagrams, I encourage you to find your ways of navigating the

fretboard.

One complaint I often hear from private lesson students is that they learned a scale diagram from abook and they can play it well enough, but after a couple of weeks theyre totally bored because they

feel stuck in a box. They can play the fingering pattern but they dont know how to move beyond it.

So I know that my method of not writing out big complicated diagrams might seem strange at first to

some readers. Theres no shortage of books at there already that will give you diagrams and charts of

the patterns for all of the scales and modes. It may seem like more work in the short term, but if you can


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mentally work through the notes for a particular mode or scale, youll be a scale master much faster in

the long run.

So to review, Dorian= minor scale, with a raised 6th

scale degree.

If theres only 1 thing you take away from this section, let this be it.

I like Dorian because that raised 6thdegree gives the mode a brighter, more optimistic sound. It still has

a minor sound and feel, but its not so dark. Speaking of dark, lets go on to the next mode based of a

minor scale, Phrygian mode.

Phrygian Mode

Phrygian mode is also based on a minor scale. Remember the intervals of a minor scale?

Minor Scale

Root- Major 2nd

- minor 3rd

- Perfect 4th

- Perfect 5th

- minor 6th

- minor 7th

- Root

Whats different about Phrygian is that in Phrygian mode, the 2ndscale degree is flatted, so instead of a

Major 2ndthere is a minor 2nd. So:

Phrygian is a minor scale with a flatted 2nd

scale degree.

That means that the scale starts off with a Half-Step. From the root note, the next note in the scale (the

minor 2nd) is only a Half-Step away.

Instead of having the minor scale recipe:

Whole Half Whole Whole Half Whole Whole

For Phrygian, the first steps swap places, so instead of starting with a Whole-Step and then a Half-Step,

you have:

Half Whole Whole Whole Half Whole Whole


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Lets go through the scale degrees, again starting on the note A.

A= root, B-flat(minor 2nd), only a Half-Step up from A), C=minor 3

rd(1 steps from A) D = Perfect 4th(2

steps from the root) E= Perfect 5th(3 steps from the root) F= minor 6

th(4 steps up from the root), G

= minor 7th

(5 steps up from the root), back to the root note A, 6 steps up from where we started.

A Phrygian mode =

A, B-flat, C, D, E, F, G, A

So, try playing this mode all on the 5th

(A) string. How would you describe the sound of Phrygian mode? I

think of it as being kind of dark, kind of mysterious sounding. Theres not one right answer, but if you

think that this mode sounds really chirpy and happy youre probably playing a few (orall) of the notes

incorrectly.

Lets build a Phrygian mode on E.

Keep in mind that Phyrgian mode is a minor scale with a flatted 2ndscale degree, so that means when

youre playing a Phrygian mode, right after playing the root note, the next move you make it a Half-Step,

which brings you to a minor 2nd

scale degree.

So what note is a Half-Step above E? Thats right, its the note F.

Starting with Eas the root note, we then get Ffor the minor 2nd

. Next is the minor 3rd

(a minor 3rd

is 1

steps up from the root) which is the note G. Next we want a Perfect 4th

(2 steps above the root) for

the note A. Now we want a Perfect 5th, and Ive found that its helpful to just remember that a Perfect

4th

and a Perfect 5th

are 1 Whole-Step apart.

So whatever note is a Perfect 4this, the Perfect 5this a Whole-Step higher. Since the perfect 4thin this

case is the note A, the Perfect 5th

is B. (B = 1 Whole-Step higher than A)

Ok, now we want a minor 6th. You could think of the minor 6thas being 4 steps above the root, but you

could also think of it as being a Half-Step above the Perfect 5th. So if the Perfect 5this a Bnote, then a

Half-Step above B is just the note C.

Almost done, so if you want a minor 7th, thats another Whole-Step up (5 steps up from the root), giving

you the note D. From there its just a Whole-Step up to the root note again, E, 6 steps up from where we

started, just as it should be.

Lets look at the recipe for Phrygian again:

Half Whole Whole Whole Half Whole

If the we start on the note E, then this gives us the notes:

E F G A B C D E= E Phrygian mode


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Make sense? Before you go on, make sure to read the following footnote/rant:

Brians rant about thinking about the modes

If you look at the notes above, youll notice that there are no sharps or flats. You may be saying, Hey!

Those are the same notes as a C Major scale!, that means that E Phrygian and C Major are related.

Technically that is true, from a backward-looking analysis point of view. But be careful, do you

remember when I said that if you play a Phrygian scale and it sounds chirpy and happy, then something

is wrong?

Well guess what, Ive had students who think they can save time by just playing a C Major scale when

theyre supposed to be playing an E Phrygian mode. The idea is to save time, Hey, I already know to

play a C Major scale, so Ill save time and energy by just using what I already know.

The problem is context. If you begin and end on the notes C, and use the notes above, it will sound

chirpy and happy because your ear will hear all the notes in relation back to the note C, and so it will

sound happy, like you would expect a Major scale to sound

It may be helpful to think of it this way, the root note of any given scale is home. If you establish Cas

home, then your ear and the listeners ears will hear all the other notes you play in terms of how they

relate to home. The sound of Phrygian absolutely depends on the sound of a minor 2ndscale degree

above home.

If you want to create the sound and mood of E Phrygian (or any other given mode) then you have to

(have to, underline this in your notes) establish the root note as home and then establish the other

intervals above that root. If you try to find a shortcut right off the bat, youll end up being more

confused, because youll be playing the correct notes, but it wont sound right, which believe me, I knowis very frustrating.

I promise well get back to work on the modes in a second; I just want to say that I didnt always

necessarily think about/teach the modes this way. I didnt set at my desk and ponder the mysteries of

the modes and come up with this approach. (Although that wouldve been pretty cool) I started

explaining things this way because I had lessons with students (some of whom already played very well)

who were really frustrated because they could play the fingering patterns they found in books, but they

couldnt hear the difference between a C Major or E Phyrgian scale, even though by all accounts they

were technically the correct notes.

So, if you only take 1 thing from this book, just remember that any scale or mode depends on

establishing the intervals above that root. Make sense? Dont worry so much about which scales share

the same notes.

To use one last metaphor; a nice warm cup of dark roast coffee (like the coffee Im drinking right now) is

great on a cold, Chicago February day. That very same coffee may not be what Im craving as Im sitting

on my porch on a hot, sticky summer night reading a book. Its the same with the notes in the modes.


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The notes E, F, and Gmay sound pretty and upbeat in the context of a C Major scale, but they can sound

downright scary (in a good way) in the context of an E Phrygian mode.

Ok, so what do you know so far?

Dorian mode = minor scale with a raised 6th(brighter and more optimistic sounding)

Phrygian mode = minor scale with a lowered 2nd

(darker sounding)

Remember that its actually acceptable to use the terms scaleand modeinterchangeably. Its just that

people tend to use the terms scalewhen talking about Major or minor scales, and the term mode when

referring to one of these altered scales, like Dorian or Phrygian.

Next up were going to talk about the modes based on Major scales. Some readers may be wondering

why we havent discussed Locrian mode yet. Were going to skip it for now and give it a brief discussion

later because in practice, you probably wont use Locrianvery much.

Personally, when I hear someone say something like that, it just makes me more curious and want to

know about it all the more, so I promise I wont skip any information. Its just that I want you to have a

running start on playing the modes that are used the most commonly. Why are certain modes used

more commonly? Because they sound cool. Locrian has a stranger sound.

Dont take that to mean that you cant use Locrian to write a chord progression or play a solo. Its just

that its hands down the least- used mode. Stay with me, and eventually well get to a technical

discussion of just why its used so seldom. For right now, well continue by taking a look at modes based

on Major scales.

Modes based on Major scales

So there are 2 modes based on Major scales and they both have similar names. They are Mixolydian,

and Lydian. Im going to start with Mixolydian, just because I like it more, not for any technical reason.

I know you can hardly wait to jump into Mixolydian, but 1st

lets review the recipe for a Major scale.

Whole Whole Half Whole Whole Whole Half

While were at it, lets review the scale degrees, what intervals they are relating back to the root.

Root- Major 2nd- Major 3

rd- Perfect 4th- Perfect 5

th-Major 6th- Major 7

th - Root

Try building a Major scale starting on the note G, then well compare whats the same and whats

different about a Mixolydian mode built on the note G.


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G Major

Start on G, Whole-Step up to A(Major 2nd), Whole-Step up to B(Major 3

rd), Half-Step to C(Perfect 4th),

Whole-Step up to D(Perfect 5th), Whole-Step up to E(Major 6

th), another Whole-Step up to F-sharp

(Major 7th

), Half-Step back to G(root again).

Keep in mind that all the intervals are relation back to the root, so in this case G is home.

Ok, ready? Heres the definition of a Mixolydian mode

Mixolydian mode = Major scale with a lowered (flatted) 7thscale degree

This means that Mixolydian mode is similar to a Major scale, but when you get to the 7thscale degree, it

should be a minor 7thdegree (instead of the Major 7thdegree that would be typical.

Im a big fan of Mixolydianbecause it sounds Major and upbeat, but that flatted 7th

scale degree keepsthings from sounding too corny. Feel free to come up with your own description of this mode, lets build

a Mixolydian mode on G.

Well start by building the notes in the mode, thinking in terms of scale degrees, and then well look at

the sequence of Whole-Steps and Half Steps.

G Mixolydian

So, Gis the root, Ais the Major 2nd

, Bis the Major 3rd

, Cis the Perfect 4th

, Dis the Perfect 5th

, Eis the

Major 6th, now next well go up just a Half-Step up from Ein order to get a minor 7th.

What note is a Half-Step from E? Thats right, F. So F is the minor 7th, and then we go a Whole-Step back

up to G, the root.

Compare the difference between:

G Major scale= G A B C D E F-sharp G

G Mixolydian mode = G A B C D E F(natural) G

Try playing these scales on the 3rd(G string) of your guitar. Pay special attention in the difference in

sound between a G Major scale and a G Mixolydian mode.

It will be helpful to remember that the only difference is the F-sharp is lowered to an F-natural for the G

Mixolydian mode.

Lets compare the sequence of Whole-Steps and Half-Steps between a Major scale and Mixolydian

mode.

Major Scale = Whole Whole Half Whole Whole Whole Half


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Its also good to keep in mind that 4ths and 5ths are the only the only intervals that are called Perfect.

All other intervals (and here Im using the word interval to refer to what could also be called scale

degrees) are called either Major or minor.

When you raise (or sharp) a Perfect 4th

or 5th

, it becomes augmented.

When you lower (or flat) a Perfect 4thor 5th, it becomes diminished.

So youll recall from above that Lydian mode, has a raised (sharped) 4thscale degree. Another way to say

this is that Lydian has an augmented4th

.

Lets build a Lydian mode on C, and then we can compare it a C Major scale and see how the two scales

are similar and how they are different.

C Lydian

For this scale, Cis the root, and we want a Major 2nd, so the next note is D.

We then want a Major 3rd

, so the next note is E.

Be careful on this next part, this is where we need an augmented 4th, so it will be a Half- Step higher

than a typical Perfect 4th. Well want to go a Whole-Stepup from that Major 3rd, so well be going a

Whole- Step up fromE. By this point you probably know that the note thats a Whole-Step up from E is

F-sharp.

Ok, lets keep going. Next, we want a Perfect 5th, which is only a Half-Step away. What note is a Half-Step

above F-sharp? Thats right, G. So G is the Perfect 5th.

From there, we want to go on a Whole-Step to the Major 6th

, which is an Anote, followed by a another

Whole-Step move to the Major 7th

, which is a B, and from there its just an easy Half-Step back to the

root note, C.

Lets try 1 more example of Lydian mode, and then we can step back and look at the recipe that gives us

Lydian mode.

F Lydian

This time, well start on F. So if Fis the root note, then the Major 2ndis a Whole-Step higher and is a G

note.

Easy enough, the Major 3rd

is another Whole-Step up, so we go from a G note to an Anote.


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Once again, the move from the 3rd

to the 4th

scale degree is what you have to watch out for. Just for fun,

lets figure out what a Perfect 4thwould b, even though for this scale we want an augmented 4th.

Since for a Perfect 4ht we want to go up a Half-Step from A, it has to be some form of the letter B, right?

But it cant just be B, (that phrase really sounded funny, didnt it?) because A to B is a Whole-Step.

So how do you make the move up a Half-Step from the note A?Just make the B note a B-flat note.

Now we know that when Fis the root note, B-flatis the Perfect 4th.

But right now we want a dreamy, evocative Lydian mode, so how do we make that B-flat a Half-Step

higher so that its an augmented4th?

Simple, just cancel out the flat and make it a regular B note, or another way to say it would be to call it

B- Natural.

Next, lets go from the augmented 4thto the Perfect 5th. This is only a distance of a Half-Step and so a

Half-Step up from Bis the note C.

Lets finish the rest of the scale quickly. After C, we want to go up a Whole-Step to the Major 6th, so the

note is D.

Then we want a Major 7th

, so the note is E. From the Major 7th, its just a small Half-Step move back to

the root note, F.

Alright then, heres the recipe of Whole-Steps and Half Steps in Lydian mode.

Whole Whole Whole Half Whole Whole Half

You can see that Lydian mode begins with 3 Whole-Steps right off the bat, and I think thats what gives it

that dreamy, moody sound.

To repeat one more time, you can think of Lydian mode as a Major scale, but with a raised 4th

scale

degree. So instead of a Perfect 4th

, Lydian mode contains an augmented 4th

.

Before moving on, try playing C Lydian and F Lydian, all on one string. For C Lydian start on the 1stfret of

the B string, which is the root note, C.

For F Lydian, begin on the 1stfret of the high E string, which is F.


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Review of the Modes covered so far

At this point weve covered 4 modes in addition to the Major scale and the minor scale. So really you

know 6 different scales. There is a 7th

scale that we havent looked at yet, and well take a brief look at

this mode at the end of this section. For now, lets review what we know, organizing the scales into

Major and minor.

Major = regular Major scale, Mixolydian mode, Lydian mode

minor = regular minor scale, Dorian mode, Phrgyian mode

Keep in mind that its totally acceptable to use the term scale for any of these. So for example, you

could say either Dorian mode or Dorian scale. The terms are interchangeable, its just that in

practice people tend to use the word mode when referring to these altered scales. Speaking of altered

scales, whats distinctive about each of these scales?

Make sure you very solid on understanding each of these constructions before moving on. Just in case

you dont already have them in your notes, Ill list them below.

Mixolydian= Major scale with a lowered (flatted) 7th

scale degree

Lydian= Major scale with a raised (sharped) 4th

scale degree

Dorian= minor scale with a raised (sharped) 6th

scale degree

Phrygian= minor scale with a lowered (flatted) 2ndscale degree

An exercise that seems to really help (although to be honest is a little tedious) is to write out and/or play

each of the scales, starting on the same root note. In other words, build each scale starting on the

musical alphabet letter C and build a Mixolydian mode, Lydian mode, etc.

Try doing this on the B string of the guitar, starting on the first fret for the note C.

Doing this forces you to really think about what scaled degrees and by extension what notes are in each

scale. It also helps highlight the differences and similiarities in each scale.

This brings up one last point which will help transition to the next section where we talk about Locrian

mode. If you were to write out all the above modes starting on C, you would notice that there are only 2

notes that are the same in every single scale.

These notes are C (the root note) and G. (the Perfect 5th). As I mentioned earlier, these are very

important intervals that provide the foundation for the scale. It would be pretty hard for a C Major scale

to sound right if you messed around with the Cnote. Messing with the Perfect 5th

is almost as bad, and


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well see that thats the reasonwhy Locrian mode is so seldom used, because Locrina mode lowers the

5th

by a Half-Step, making it a diminished 5th.

A Brief Discussion of Locrian Mode

The first thing we need to do is review what happens when we lower a Perfect interval. What happens?

It becomes diminished.

Locrian mode is based on the minor scale, but in addition to a lowered (flatted) 2ndscale degree (just like

Phrygian mode) it also has a diminished 5th. This makes the scale unstable, which is the music theory

nerd way of saying that its hard for your ear to find anything to hold on to.

Another, less objective way to say this is that it just doesnt sound very good. Dissonance is the

musical term for sounds that rub up against one another and clash, and theres nothing wrong with

some well-placed dissonances.

But dissonances depend on context, and if theres a framework in place where the dissonance can occur

and eventually resolve then dissonance can be pretty cool. The thing about Locrian mode is that due to

that diminished 5th

scale degree, there isnt really a framework for the dissonances to operate in and the

result usually sounds more like a jumble.

Again, I know that by avoiding talking about Locrian mode, it just makes some people all the more

curious. Maybe you feel like you want to get your moneys worth, because after all, Locrian mode does

exist, so you figure you should learn about it. Fair enough. Here is a discussion of Locrian mode.

Locrian Mode

Locrian mode is a minor scale but with a lowered 5th

and a lowered 2nd

.

I realize that some people with a music theory background could argue that the because Locrian has a

diminshed 5th scale degree, it means that Locrian should be placed in a category that is technically

neither Major nor minor, but diminished.

For the purposes of this e-book, the most practical route that will allow you to quickly play this scale onyour guitar is to think of Locrian mode in terms of what you already know and think of it as a minor scale

with a lowered 2ndand lowered 5th.

Lets try an example of Locrian mode, beginning on the note E.

So starting with E, you want a minor 2nd, which is only a Half-Step away which is in this case the note F.


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After F, you want a minor 3rd

, so you should move up a Whole- Step to G.

After G, you need a Perfect 4th, so you want to move up to the note A.

After the Perfect 4th

, remember that you want a flatted 5th, or diminished 5th

, so you need to move from

the note Ato the note B-flat.

After this you want to go to a minor 6th, so youll need to play a Cnote.

After C, you need a minor 7th

, so you should play a D. from there its just a Whole-Step move back to the

root note E.

The recipe for Locrian mode is:

Half Whole Whole Half Whole Whole Whole

You may notice that this is the only scale where the last 3 steps are Whole- Steps. This is part of why the

scale has such an unbalanced, dissonant feel.

I do think its worth the time toknow the theory and construction of the Locrian mode. That being said,

in practice the only time youll probably use Locrian mode is if you were soloing over a jazzy chord

progression and you encountered a diminished chord.

Well talk about in detail about chords in Part 3, but for right now you should know that you would only

use a Locrian mode over a chord called a diminished chord. This kind of chord is neither Major nor

minor, but it most resembles a minor chord more than a Major chord. Dont get me wrong, the

diminished chord can sound cool in the right context, it can make a chord progression or a song sound

more interesting.

Think of it this way, the other scale and modes sound cool in of themselves. The Locrian mode itself

doesnt sound all that great (I know that thats my opinion, but thisis my e-book, which means I get to

write my opinions), but within the larger context of a song or composition, the Locrian mode can add

some color and make things sound better. Think of Locrian as that exotic spice that youve seen at

Trader Joes. You wouldnt that to be the main ingredient in your meal, but it can spice things up a bit,

thats Locrian mode.

Ok, so we have 1 more thing to talk about, and then we can move to Part 3, where well talk about

chords and how to set up chord progressions so you can start writing your own songs and play all of

these awesome scales. First, well spend sometime discussing the Circle of 5ths.


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Ive seen different methods out there for figuring out/remembering which sharps are in which keys. Ill

share the method that Ive found works best for me in lessons with students, but if you have some sort

of approach or idea that works for you, feel free to use that.

Lets start at C. Remember that C that has no sharps (or flats).

Next, the key of G, or the G scale has 1 sharp.

Ive found that its easy for most people to remember that for the sharp side of the circle, all you need

to think of is the note thats a Half-Step behind the root, thats your new sharp note.

So what note is a Half- Step behind, or backwards, from G? If you go back a Half-Step (1 fret) from G, you

get F-sharp.

If you go on to the key of D, whats your new sharp note? Just go back a Half-Step from D, and your note

is C-sharp. The F-sharp from the previous key remains and you add the C-sharp, so in the key of D Major

the sharps are F-sharpand C-sharp.

Going on to the key of A, you keep the F-sharpand C-sharp, and add a G-sharp. If you think of the note

a Half-Step lower than A, youll get a G-sharp. That means the accidentals (the notes that arent natural)

in the key of A, are F-sharp, C-sharp, and G-sharp.

As we saw earlier, the key of Ehas 4 sharps. What are they? We already know that there will be F-sharp,

C-sharp, and G-sharp. If you go a Half-Step behind E you get D-sharp, so in the key of E Major there is F-

sharp C-sharp G-sharpand D-sharp.

The key of Bhas 5 sharps, and you may hav

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