Many guitarists fail to grasp the idea of using musical modes. They always come to understand some of the basic ideas: modes are scales that use a different arrangement of whole and half steps, or they are just a major scale that begins on a note other than the first scale degree. I’m sure this sounds familiar if you are a rock guitar player. They also might come to understand the deeper concept that playing them over a droning string showcases each mode’s sonic character. While this is all correct, it only goes about half way practically. This doesn’t explain HOW or WHEN to use a mode. The latter understanding about listening to the sound characteristic over a drone gets pretty close to the essence of using modes. The drone functions as a tonal center, and that is how modes are determined.
Harmonic rhythm and meter is essential to grasping the idea of hearing a tonal center. In most music, the tonal center occurs at the downbeat of the first measure of a musical phrase. Rhythm is more of an influence on harmony than we might think. If heard correctly, it shows us where the musical phrase begins, and the chord at the beginning is generally the tonal center.
The harmonic rhythm is how often the chords change. This is often once every measure or two, or maybe twice per measure. There will be chord changes that occur over different lengths of time than others, so you need to analyze how often they change to determine the most consistent recurring harmonic rhythm.
It is important to note that modes often change throughout a song. The very nature of using a mode implies that things may change during a song. Many songs do use 1 major or minor scale throughout. Often when there is a reason to use a mode, however, it is only for a section of a song before it goes back to the original scale. This changing nature can cause so many guitarists to quit pursuing modes entirely; it starts to look unfeasible. Believe me, I have been there.
There are 2 different schools of using modes. There is the droning, one mode during an entire song or section method where the chords relate to each other in a way that you can simply play the same modal scale the entire song (Oye Como Va is all A dorian). Then there is the jazz way. A good jazz player understands the theory behind the chord changes. Often they will switch mode on EVERY chord, but at least they will switch mode over every tonal center shift (All The Things You Are changes tonal center about 6 times over the course of its 32 bars). Both of these methods are correct, and it is important to remember that music is art and an artist should explore multiple routes to achieve the sound they want. Jazz standards are the best music to analyze in order to start understanding how modes work, for if you analyze the most difficult stuff, then the simpler songs will be so much easier and quicker to see.
Music theory, reading of standard music notation and the circle of fifths can make everything very clear. In studying theory, you are expected to analyze the chords of EVERY MEASURE in a piece of classical music. Everything relates to the harmonic structure (the specific chords and harmonic rhythm). The melody relates to it. EVERYTHING that has a pitch relates to the chords. When everything relates to the chords, everything relates to key signatures and familiarity with them is the shortcut to knowing quickly which key and thus which chords a section of music uses. So, music theory students understand when a piece is modal a lot better than most guitarists do because they are trained to analyze the harmonic structure that melodic material is based on.
Now, think of an improvised solo as mere melodic material, which it is. If you were to write a melody, you need to know the chords being played at what time so you can know what notes will sound good and when to use them. If you are to improvise a solo, you are attempting the EXACT same thing on the fly. You need to know how the chords relate to the scales and melodies, period.
Here I will attempt to give a short practical lesson for you to try on your guitar. Every note of a scale can be turned into a chord. In the major key and all 7 of its modes, the chord will either be major, minor or diminished. Begin by playing the root, third and fifth of every scale degree from a C major scale on your guitar. This is known as arpeggiating a chord, you are playing one note at a time rather than the entire chord at once. Take time on every chord (there’s only 7 of them, don’t rush!). Listen to the sounds carefully and hear the difference in quality (major, minor, diminished).
Next you should write down the major scale chord formula. Use C major as to not get confused with sharps and flats. The chord scale formula is this: major 1, minor 2, minor 3, major 4, major 5, minor 6, diminished 7. Everything repeats after that.
Now instead of arpeggiating each chord, play them as barre chords and give a name to each scale degree. In C major it looks like this: C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished. Each chord should line up underneath the formula you wrote above so that you see which scale degree (number) each chord belongs to.
So let’s take a simple chord progression from the key of C major: C major (major 1), A minor (minor 6), D minor (minor 2), G major (major 5). Set the harmonic rhythm to one chord per measure, and the first chord of the phrase (the one that begins the sequence and sets the harmony in motion) is the C major chord. This means that C major will be the tonal center and you should use the C Ionian mode to solo over it.
Now let’s take a chord progression that can be interpreted modally, it will use chords found only in the key of C major but will have a different tonal center: G major (major 5), F major (major 4), C major (major 1), D minor (minor 2). The harmonic rhythm is also one chord per measure but this time it begins on G major, the 5th note of the C scale. This means that the tonal center will be the G from a C major scale. So, the G mixolydian mode will be used. Not the G major scale, because in the key of G major there are F#’s and this chord progression uses an F chord. Understanding the circle of fifths lets you see the sharps and flats belonging to a key and quickly be able to fit chords into the right key.
This is the essence of how to use modes and is a very basic example, but it is all that is needed in order to understand how and when to use the modes. The mode you use is entirely dependent on the chord progression (harmony) being used. Following this simple example you can learn to play modally over more complex chord progressions because it all operates the same way. Analyze the chord progression and name each chord, then assign the chords to numbered scale degrees (find how they fit into a major scale), and determine which chord the tonal center occurs on (the beginning of the sequence). Not every mode is derived from the major scale, so if you can’t fit the scale degrees into major, it might be derived from harmonic or melodic minor. But you should just use simple, major scale oriented music for a while until you are ready to do the more advanced minor key stuff.
Familiarity with this stuff comes with the more harmonic progressions you analyze. Hearing tonal center isn’t always the way I explained it, but it’s a good start. Music is a language and there are just nuances that one has to recognize. Patterns occur between music and it can’t all be codified in some theoretical rule. You just have to keep trying and success will come. Remember that music theory students have to analyze every single measure of a Beethoven sonata or Bach fugue, so understanding rock and pop songs really is a feasible achievement by comparison.
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