Understanding Modes Part 3: Why Do I Need to Know This?! Video Lecture | The Ultimate Guitar Course: From Beginner to Advanced - Class 6

we've got a couple different positions
under our belt now but I want to take a
quick second to just step back and s why
why are we spending so much time devoted
to the modes
what is it even doing for us it's a lot
of information it can be daunting your
first is so much to take in so I just
want to take a quick second and kind of
talk about why the modes are helpful why
you should learn them what they can do
right so when you break it down there
are 12 notes in all of music and any key
7 of those notes are good 5 of those
notes are bad now if you really want to
simplify being a good guitar player you
could just say you're always hitting
those 7 right notes no matter what key
you're in no matter what song you're
playing you're skipping all the bad
notes right I think learning the modes
is hand positions and kind of as we've
been doing just pieces of the guitar
like what really what we're doing is
we're just learning different positions
that are just like you know four frets
of the guitar at a time step all the way
down the neck to get a total fretboard
awareness just learning little pieces of
the puzzle that we can kind of interlock
together and be able to do really
anything that you want now one thing
that we can do so even though we've just
learned a couple shapes so far is being
able to navigate through those shapes
down the fretboard now for instance like
an example of that is if you're playing
up here right
and then maybe you're able to like take
this shape down into this one into the
next one into the next one and so on and
so forth so just being able to play
through the fret board and having these
positions mentally up here is going to
help your fingers do a lot of things a
lot of guitar players get pretty fast
with their fingers and what actually
holds them back is just a confidence
like knowing that they're going to be
able to go to the right place like if
you've ever maybe tried to solo
something if you're playing with another
musician or something like that and it's
your turn to like take a solo I there
might be some kind of trepidation or
like hesitancy and like what you're
going to do you might get in one shape
that you're comfortable with maybe like
a pentatonic thing but then if you go
outside of that shape you might start to
lose confidence that what you're going
to do is going to be the right thing
so learning these different positions
and seeing how they stack one on top of
each other is a really great way to
build confidence in your playing so
let's take it down to the third mode
this is called Phrygian and Phrygian is
in my opinion the mode east of all the
modes and what I mean by that is if you
can instantly hear how it's different
right
so we're in the key of C still so C was
Ionian or major - is Dorian which is DS
mode in C and 3 is going to be YZ mode
Phrygian ok now we're going to start
even though we've been going higher up
the neck we're going to bring it back to
the open E string right so he's gonna be
the first note of the mode now to play e
f g a b c d e we're just going to do
this open 1 3 on the low E string so e f
g a b c d
all right we're gonna actually stop at
this you so one two three four five six
seven those are going to be our first
eight notes of this motor first octave
of the Phrygian mode and the thing the
IQ right off the bat is that second note
one two right and almost all the other
modes the first interval is going to be
a full step which is two frets now there
are only two modes this one in Locrian
where right away right off the bat
it's a half step also called a minor
second in interval terms right and
there's something about that when you
start out an E and go right to that F
it's kind of like a like evil sounding
like metal guys love the Phrygian mode
just because of that kind of sound right
so when you put it all together
that's the Phrygian mode and like we've
been doing in the other videos we've
been relating that to a different mode
so this is going to be the minor scale
with a flat two or a minor second right
so the E minor scale would be like this
open two three open two three open two
the e Phrygian scale makes a specialist
open one three open two three now again
we're just learning different positions
to play the major scale throughout the
entire neck of the guitar and that's
going to be our introduction into modes
but I want to take a second just to kind
of see how you can inflect a chord that
you already know really well with this
one Phrygian mode scale how you going to
look at it so ii minor the triad that
you get from the Phrygian mode when you
take the first third and fifth there's
going to be an e a G and a B which you
probably already know is an E minor
right you can arpeggiate that or play as
a core now that minor second that flat
two that we talked about you can add
that on top of an E minor chord and you
can already get what's a Phrygian type
of a feel and atmosphere right so if we
just have the Triad it
there's a dissonance and you might even
think that you're kind of going outside
of the key but really you're not this is
the sound of Phrygian so we're taking
the E minor or adding the second note in
the mode and the RB kind of has a
totally different sound than anything
else you've done so far now we can
actually compound that by adding the one
two three four five six the six no all
right so as to see now I'm going to add
that C on top of my 40 right now if I do
this
I'm really making me totally different
chord it's actually C major seven but we
don't even need to think about it that
way we're just adding another note in
this mode to a chord that we're already
really familiar with so if we just take
a minor and we go back and forth between
adding the C and adding this F we get a
really dissonant Phrygian sounding riff
chord inflection whatever you want to
call it
now if we go across two octaves it's
gonna sound like this we're gonna have a
F G a B C F G a B C D now these are just
when you're playing open chords all the
notes in the C major scale but we're
starting with an E and of course the
Phrygian mode right now I want to do
this in one more position because a lot
of times when you learn something with
the open strings you take them for
granted and now they're helping you
write so we're going to route the
Phrygian mode on the e on the a string
which is seventh fret right here ok so
the first octave is going to be minor
with a flat two so one two and then just
continue on through the minor scale so
here's E minor starting here
you frigid so again minor frigid and now
again kind of how we talked about in the
last video you can see this mode hidden
inside of another one the one we started
with the Ionian with the major scale the
C major scale is right here c d e f G a
B C now if we just start on the e here C
D E right let's pretend this is our
first note so if you learn the C major
scale two octaves through which we
already did you can just start on E and
finish that one scale therefore you're
kind of alleviating some of the
memorization that comes with it right so
again here so we did our first arpeggio
our first try out our minor triad
starting on the one now we're not going
to use the flat two for this one because
one three five right regular minor triad
arpeggio now if we wanted to add the
seventh note this is also going to make
another minor seven chord just like it
did in the Dorian mode and just like it
did in the Aeolian or the minor mode
none of the minor modes it in any key
have a different they all have the same
seven they all have a minor seven so
they all end up making the same minor 7
arpeggio right so one three and minor
third of five and a minor 7
so so that's the E minor 7 arpeggio and
you can start linking these together
with the other ones in the key right so
we know that E is the fringy mode we can
do its arpeggio we can go back to the
Dorian mode which is D and then go up to
a which is the minor mode
so those are three minor 7 arpeggio is
that in this instance are all right next
to each other if we started on a you
just go down a string to the DIA and
then go up to the e now these can be
used as replacements for any minor chord
a minor 7 arpeggio