Why You Haven’t Been Able To Use Modes Yet

When most guitarists talk about modes, all they see and can talk about is this: 

E Phrygian Mode = E – F – G – A – B – C – D 

“1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7”

“There’s a minor 2nd in there!” 

“It’s the third mode of C major!” 

“That was used in Metallica songs!” 

It’s really odd to me, after all of my years of studying music, that many of the people who argue and talk about modes don’t talk about chords. 

The big idea you must understand is that…..

There are dozens of chords you can make with this set of 7 notes. You saw 7 of them earlier…

The chords of E Phrygian, 3rd mode of C Major, cannot be created with the E minor scale of E – F# – G – A – B – C – D.  

 

All of this is the study of harmony. The study of putting chords together either with the guitar, or with several instruments playing parts of the chord in an arrangement. 

In order to understand harmony better, you’ve got to start understanding many of the symbols and ideas I threw at you….

Like how major and minor chords are made. 

Which chords are minor and major in a major scale, and a minor scale….

What you’ve got to understand when a chord contains notes out of a key….

Etcetera, Etcetera. 

 

Some of you by now are probably like….”Shut up already! And tell me how to solo with this mode already!” 

Well, you can just take a mode pattern and noodle away if you want. That’s all it really takes to solo. 

However, in order to make a piece of music similar to the music we’re going to talk about, you must understand how important it is to learn how to put chords together. 

This will help you create a context where the notes of these modes will come alive and work to create interesting licks and melodies. 

Sure, at its core, you just slap two chords together and you’re done. 

However, that won’t help you understand why Mixolydian is used a lot in Rock and Country music…..

Or why Dorian is used a lot in R&B, Funk, and Jazz….

And why so many of you songwriters and lead guitarists are stuck playing some variation of G C D. 

You threw in an F chord? Woah! How does that make sense????

It makes more sense after you learn this junk, which is not a set of rules by the way…..

Modes can be tools for creating harmonies (chord progressions) that immediately put the listener into these genres.  

To better understand this, let’s put all of that random info you have about modes (the minor 2nd!) into context…..