gilcarleton says:
Honestly, I am amazed that most of the melodies I want to play can be played with only 7 notes of the major scale
Well, I certainly hope so! Considering the Major/Ionian scale only
has 7 notes. ;)
I've broken this post in half
Right, so it seems to me, that you not fully grasping the concepts of scales and modes; or the difference between the two.
Instead of linking you to a million lessons, I've brought the lessons to you:
A Quick Glance at Modes
An interval is the distance between any of those notes. There are two basic intervals, "whole step" and "half step". A whole step is the equivalent of two frets on the fretboard, a half step, one fret.
There are seven modes in every major key. Take C major. Each note in that key is the root note for a mode in that key.
The modes in any major key, in order, are Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. Now, sticking with C Major, you have C Ionian (also known as the C major) as the first mode in the key. Now you go from there:
C Ionain (a.k.a. C Major Scale)
D Dorian
E Phrygian
D Lydian
G Mixolydian
A Aeolian (a.k.a. A Natural Minor Scale)
B Locrian
You ask, what determines the order of the modes or what determines which note in a key will be the root note of a mode? The answer is simple. Each note in a key corrosponds with a degree.
Degress are the numbered order of the notes in a key/scale. So, take C major:
C - 1st degree
D - 2nd degree
E - 3rd degree
F - 4th degree
G - 5th degree
A - 6th degree
B - 7th degree
All the modes in a major key will have the same notes. The notes will always go in order of the Alphabet. Each mode will start with the root note of that mode, i.e. D Dorian will start with D and
not C even though it is in the key of C major.
C Ionian C D E F G A B
D Dorian D E F G A B C
E Phrygian E F G A B C D
F Lydian F G A B C D E
G Mixolydian G A B C D E F
A Aeolian A B C D E F G
B Locrian B C D E F G A
All of the above modes are in the key of C major, thus, they all contain the same notes.
Learning how to play the modes is easy. Learning how to comprehend the modes is a little harder. I've sorted out the intverals for each mode so you can go ahead and build your own.
W= whole step H= Half step
(Numbers will refer to the degrees in each scale)
Ionian W W H W W W H
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
Dorian W H W W W H W
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
Phrygian
H W W W H W W
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
Lydian
W W W H W W H
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
Mixolydian
W W H W W H W
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
Aeolian
W H W W H W W
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
Locrian
H W W H W W W
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
And... Just to show you what the hell all of the above is, here is an example:
Key of G Major
G Ionian Scale
(Remember, the numbers refer to the degree in the scale)
W W H W W W H
/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \
G A B C D E F# G
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
Go ahead a practice building your own scales now. Remember, while it might be easier just to memorize the patterns or pictures of every mode, it is very good practice and a helpful learning aid to memorize the intervals for every mode as well.
gilcarleton says:
If I am playing in the key of G and playing in the G pentatonic scale, can I change to the G major scale and everything work out? I mean will it still sound in key?
First, are you playing the G
Major Pentatonic or the Pentatonic minor?
Since you are talking
major - so will I talk major.
Let's start to answer your question by building some scales that are relevant to your question:
G Pentatonic Major
G - 1st Degree
A - 2nd Degree
B - 3rd Degree
D - 5th Degree
E - 6th Degree
You'll note that I skipped the 4th and 7th degrees. That is because pentatonic scales are, 1) Built from other scales (The G Ionian Scale in this example) and 2) Pentatonic denotes a scale made of
5 notes.
That being said, let's take a look at G Ionian:
G Ionian/Major Scale
G - 1st Degree
A - 2nd Degree
B - 3rd Degree
C - 4th Degree
D - 5th Degree
E - 6th Degree
F# - 7th Degree
Now, you should be able to see clearly where you got your G Pentatonic Major from.
This really has little to do with what key you are in. You can maneuver into G Ionian from Gmaj Pentatonic simply because they are the same scale...
Now if you were using G Pentatonic
Minor it is sorta the same in that you can maneuver easily into another scale, however, it wouldn't be G Ionian.
From Gmin Pentatonic, you can slip into G Aeolian. Now G Aeolian is very different from G Ionian. G Aeolian belongs to the key of A# Major.
Take a look:
A# Major:
A# - 1st Degree
C - 2nd Degree
D - 3rd Degree
D# - 4th Degree
F - 5th Degree
G - 6th Degree
A - 7th Degree
If you read through the above lesson, this next step should make sense:
A# Ionian - A# C D D# F G A
C Dorian - C D D# F G A A#
D Phrygian - D D# F G A A# C
D# Lydian - D# F G A A# C D
F Mixolydian - F G A A# C D D#
G Aeolian - G A A# C D D# F
A Locrian - A A# C D D# F G
No we are going to isolate G Aeolian and compare it with G Pentatonic Minor:
G Aeolian - G A A# C D D# F
G Pentatonic Minor - G A# C D F
You can easily see how they match up.