Guitar Modes
Understanding Modes And How To Apply Them
On this page I am going to focus on guitar modes, where they come from and how to apply them to your playing.
In an earlier lesson that I called Guitar Scales "Why Do We Need To Know Them", I showed you the major scale and the pattern of whole steps and half steps that make up the major scale. Using patterns of whole steps and half steps applies to every scale, including the modes.
At the beginning of the 17th century, modes were used extensively in music. But because of the similarities between them, musicians began using the two most dissimilar sounding ones, the Ionian and the Aeolian modes.
The Ionian and Aeolian modes are easy to distinguish between. The Ionian mode has somewhat of a "happy" tone or quality, while the Aeolian mode has somewhat of "sad" tone or quality.
Forgetting about the Aeolian mode for know, the first mode I will cover in this guitar lesson is the Ionian mode.
Ionian Mode
Let's look at the C Ionian mode below.....
The Ionian mode is actually the major scale. They both have the same exact pattern of whole steps and half steps.
To really hear the mood or "color" that distinguishes this guitar mode from the other guitar modes, is best understood if you play it against the chords that work for that mode.
In any major scale there are "strong" and "weak" chords. The strong ones being the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords built from the scale. For the C major scale those chords are Cmaj, Fmaj, and Gmaj. The "weaker" ones being D minor, E minor, A minor, B diminished.
If you want to make a simple chord progression with the C Ionian mode, you simply take the strong chords in the scale Cmaj, Fmaj, Gmaj and play them in any order you like.
Below is tab of the C Ionian mode starting on the root note C, at the 8th fret, 6th string of the guitar, using a 3 note per string pattern as well as an audio example.
C
Ionian Mode
Here is the fingering on the fretboard starting at the 8th fret for the C Ionian mode....the fingering is a little different than the above fingering is. That's because it's what's known as a boxed finger pattern.
The idea is, the scale is divided up into smaller chunks or boxes, in order to more easily memorize where the notes fall on the neck. Once you have these patterns or boxes memorized, you will be more able to move freely around the neck, playing in any position.
Try recording the chords mentioned above onto something and playing the C Ionian mode over them. This is the best way to get the feeling or mood of the mode.
I will eventually be posting arrangements for the purpose of practicing your modes over in the Free Guitar Backing Tracks page. Stay tuned for those.
That's it for this lesson. For the next instalment of guitar modes we will look at the Dorian mode and how it can be used.
Part 2-the Dorian mode
Return to Free Guitar Lessons from Guitar Modes
