Guitar Lessons ...with Patrick Scanlon

Welcome back again guitar fanatics, to this series of lessons by guitar player Patrick Scanlon, best known for his work with short-term Chicago outfit "R&R", and his significant contributions to the funky-electro-trip-hop vibe of East Londoners "Village T".

 

Lesson 6 - Modes

So far, everything I have shown you has been in the standard "major" mode. So what is the major mode? What is the minor mode? Are there any others?

I'm not going to get too complex about modes beyond the scope of this lesson, so to all actual musicians out there- please forget about natural, harmonic and melodic functions for modes for a while... pleasant, isn't it?

Anyways, to understand all the other modes, we need to know what the major scale looks like. Notice that piano keys are in the following pattern:

C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B  - play them in order, and you've got the "Chromatic Scale". Count them up, there's 12 of them altogether. Between the two C notes, the frequency doubles. Note C# = Db, A# = Bb, etc, just different notation.

Each one of these notes is regarded as a "semi-tone" or a "half-tone" higher than the previous one. A "whole-tone" or just "tone" is obviously two semi-tones. So for the C major scale, as most of you may know, we have:

C, D, E, F, G, A, B

Which is actually, when you think about it;

Tone, Tone, Semi-tone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semi-tone.

Remember The Sound of Music? Well, the Doe-Ray-Me song in the movie is just the C major scale.

Doe (C) a deer, a female deer, Ray (D) a drop of golden sun, Me (E) a name, I call myself, Far (F) a long long way to run, Sew (G) a needle pulling thread, La (A) a note to follow sew, Tea (B) a drink with jam and bread, that will bring us back to Do... (repeat until even your friends don't know if your "retro" music choices are still cool or not).

Above: Turns out it is a classic every family should share.

 

Now with a pretty good handle on the major scale, what about the minor scale then? Well, it's just this;

T, ST, T, T, ST, T, T, T

"But wait a minute Patrick, isn't that the same as playing starting at A and only using the white keys? Does that make A the Natural Minor of C?"

Correct.

In fact, with these facts in mind, I'm just going to straight up and tell you all the standard modes;

• Ionian Mode:   Major scale
• Dorian Mode:   Major scale starting on the 2nd note
• Phrygian Mode:   Major scale starting on the 3rd note
• Lydian Mode:   "    "   on the 4th note
• Mixolydian Mode:   "   "  on the 5th note
• Aeolian Mode:    "   " on the 6th note (the minor scale!)
• Locrian Mode:    "   " on the 7th note

Uses for mode knowledge:

• If in a recording/jam session, and someone tells you the piece they composed is in the "Mixolydian Mode". Wrinkle your nose at this and state "Are you certain? It sure sounds Ionian to me". If they laugh, laugh too... you're in.
• Used in conjunction with composing almost anything original/creative.
• Messing around with chord changes to get the right feel for the song you are composing.
• Understanding and hearing the difference between a musician who can play their instrument properly, and just another hack.
• Compositions in the Locrian Mode get you respect; because the mode is so close to the major scale, it can be difficult to remain in it. It is used a lot in Eastern music, that's why Eastern music can sound so much different to the good ol' West playing Helter Skelter out on the ol' back porch.
• Introduces us to minor chord arrangements!!

 

Lesson 7 -  ~MINOR~  Chords

Above: The undead are often fond of minor chords arrangements.

 

If you've ever seen a western where the good guy is in the saloon and the song on the piano is bright and happy, but then as soon as the bad guy walks in the piano suddenly sounds more mysterious and sinister- you are well prepared for the major to minor change.

Remember that some major chords looked like this:

EADGBe      EADGBe      EADGBe

133211       X13331        XX1343   ~ these are F, Bb and D# respectively

 

Well, minor chords look like this:

EADGBe      EADGBe      EADGBe

133111       X13321        XX1342   ~ these are Fmin, Bbmin and D#min respectively

 

Simple as! Play around with them for a bit. Notice how the major chords sound bright and happy, yet the minor chords sound a little bittersweet, perhaps even sad? Well, skillfully setting songs in minor keys can cheaply get you these emotional effects.

It is widely felt that Dmin is in fact the saddest of all keys.

Above: Spinal Tap's whistful ballad Lick My Love Pump was written in Dminor. 

Another example in Dmin is Sultans of Swing , though which type of Dmin is it? Perhaps another lesson later on can cover it.

And so onto learning a song with these new chords. With the chord positions you currently know, you can probably play at least half of the songs written in the past 50 years. Not very well, but you can still have a jumble around with them.

Here is a song that is relatively simple, but is also quite effective as well, and a good example of minor chord usage-

Creep by Radiohead;

G      B      C      Cmin 

Appropriate chord patterns:

G ( 3 2 0 0 3 3 )  or ( 3 5 5 4 3 3 )

B ( x 2 4 4 4 2 )

C ( 0 3 5 5 5 3 )

Cmin ( 0 3 5 5 4 3 )

Listen to the song for the timing of the chords. If you're getting super confident, try finger picking a bit instead of strumming to get closer to the actual sound Radiohead makes. Also something that may be useful is thinking about that girl/guy that turned you down whilst you play the song. Any tears will only add to the performance.

Repeat to fade.

Above: Pretty sullen lot aren't they? "..The first one of you punks who smiles is out of the band". My money is on the guy on the far right. He's nearly smirking I reckon.

 

As homework, try playing through each of the modes a few times until you can hear how each one sounds. the major and minor will sound obvious enough, but try to isolate the other ones too. Also, check out some tab sites and learn some more of your favourite songs. The tabs weren't usually written by the bands, so they can be/always are wrong, but most provide a good basis to work them out if you can't do it by ear.

 

Next week I may spend a little time analysing the Guitar Store Shop Assistant. Possibly I'll move onto sevenths if I think you're ready for them. But until that time, keep those guitars thumping away.

 

End of Lesson.