Understanding Modes Part 1 Introduction Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar

the modes oh my gosh so much confusion I
remember the first 100 times someone
tried to explain to me the modes what
they were and how they worked I had no
idea what they're talking about
some people just respond differently to
different ways of being taught certain
things and I think the modes is one of
those things that can be taught in so
many different ways there's a lot of
confusion between guitarists ah and
that's why I wanted to do a series on
the modes to kind of help people out
that maybe had the same hurdles that I
had and really understanding them so
first of all what are modes on a guitar
I mean if you think of modes in
different walks of life it's a good
thing to kind of segue into them like
for instance a video game right a video
game has different modes of difficulty
you can play it on easy medium hard
super hard stuff like that now it's the
same video game that you're playing but
it's going to be a totally different
experience depending on which mode of
that you choose and musical modes aren't
really that much different a lot of
times people would show me a chart that
looks like this and I'd have no idea
what to do with that I think one of the
things that gets a lot of people hung up
is you try to have the modes and
everything they can do explain to you
all at once and it can be overwhelming
so we're going to try to break this down
a little bit simpler so let's look at
what mode is and how it works let's
start off in a key now a key is a group
of notes the song good together in most
music that we listen to a key is seven
different notes right so in the key of C
for instance the notes are c d e f G a
and B if you don't know how to get those
notes I'll leave a link in the
description showing how you come about
those notes through intervals
now just like chords we've been doing a
lot of chord videos any of these seven
notes can become a different triad chord
in different three note chord either
major minor or diminished
now if you go one step further any of
these notes can become a different four
note chord a seventh chord right we've
done those in a couple videos too now
another step further any single one of
these notes can become a mo
the names of the modes are kind of weird
Ionian Dorian Phrygian Lydian mixolydian
aeolian Loughran sometimes pronounced
loperena and then you go back again to
the beginning now Ionian and the Olien
have two more common names major and
minor now I want you to think about
modes as different scales within one
parent scale so to speak right so the
first mode and the key of C would just
be c d e f G a B now it's only this C D
F D baby and then end or it started on
another C okay now the second mode would
be d e f g a b c d so that would sound
like this d e f g a now this is kind of
like what we reference with that video
game thing we played the same the exact
same notes we just started on one note
further right so the second mode in C is
going to be DS mode now the third mode
and the key of C is going to be easy
mode ease scale each scale is going to
sound like this e f g a b c
so now you might already have an ear for
how these are sounding different kind of
like the difficulty in the video game
you're experiencing a different kind of
musical feeling even though we're
playing the exact same notes in the same
order just one step through all right
now F's mode would be F G a B C D F G's
mode will be g a b c d e f g a's mode
will be a b c d e f g a and b's mode
will be b c d e f g a b and that brings
it back to C right now how does that
help us the one distinction I want to
make is learning the modes and applying
the modes are two totally different
things
so I'm going to make a few videos on
this and the first one is just going to
be learning the modes and essentially
what we're going to be doing is learning
a different hand position for each of
the seven modes so we learn seven
different shapes now I want to start out
with two very distinctive shapes that
you actually might already know and
these are two modes right the first mode
and the sixth mode it might seem weird
skipping from the first one to the sixth
one but there's a reason for this and
the reason is because we're really
familiar with both of these right so
here's the first mode in the key of C
which is called the Ionian mode
otherwise known more popularly as the
major scale right so again every finger
gets its own fret with your index finger
starting on the seventh fret but the
first no we're going to play is your
middle finger so middle pinky which is
810 C D middle pinky index middle pinky
index spring pinky so it's one octave of
this mode the scale the major scale
right now the other mode we're going to
use as a reference is actually going to
be the sixth mode in the key of C so if
C is one d e f G a so a is going to be
the sixth note a is going to be its own
mode we're actually going to kind of
think of it as its own scale called the
Aeolian mode or more commonly referred
to as the minor scale alright so if you
route your pointer finger on the fifth
fret of the eighth of the e string which
is an a it's going to go index ring
pinky index ring thank you
next ring okay so we have two of them
right now we have the first mode c c d e
f g a b c and then the sixth mode which
is a ABCD efg a so you might already be
able to pick out the differences between
them and well this one sounds kind of
happy i guess in a rudimentary way of
thinking this one sounds sad somber
whatever now if you actually see the
layout the map of it you can see that
they stack right on top of each other
and the top of one shape when i say the
top like if i'm looking down in my hand
the the side closest to the headstock is
actually the bottom of this shape right
so it's kind of like a puzzle we have
seven different shapes and they're all
going to interlock together in repeat up
and down the neck
okay so again major scale and minor
scale so we're going to go into depth
fit for each of the different modes but
for example like let's take I just want
to let's take the fifth mode right so
this is G's mode we're starting a G
which is a third fret here and we're
gonna play the major scale but we're
gonna have a flat seven so one two three
four five six flat seven eight and this
is how we're going to learn all these
modes okay just by one mode being
alteration of another one so like the
second mode is going to be a sharp six
the fifth mode is going to be flat seven
I think this is the best way to start
doing this and to start making puzzle
pieces you can interlock together so you
get a better idea of how the modes fit
together and how they work