Mastering Improvisation — How To Use Modes

Photo: Alexandre Cardoso

If you have been reading this blog for long enough, you will know that I am a strong proponent of keeping things simple when it comes to improvisation. And with `keeping things simple’ I mean limiting the scales that you use for soloing to just the minor and major pentatonic scale, initially, and then view more complex scales and modes as adding notes to the basic pentatonic scales. (See my post “The Secrets to Mastering Improvisation: Connecting to the Fretboard”)

But, in your quest to mastering the guitar, you will one day want to learn more about scales and modes.

What’s the difference between a scale and a mode?

The most fundamental question you can ask is, “what’s the difference between a scale and a mode?”

Let’s start off with defining what a scale means. Take a note, any note. Call this your root note. Now take the note that is an octave above the root note. Now select any number of notes that lie between the root and the octave: it could be one note, it could be two, three, etc. Play these notes in order, from lowest to highest, starting at the root, and ending an octave above. This sequence of notes is called a scale.

As an example, let’s take our root to be an E. Let’s play it on the high E string. The note that is an octave above is the E that is played on the 12th fret. Now, I am going to select the notes G (3rd fret), A (5th fret), B (7th fret) and D (10th fret). There are 5 notes in total excluding the top E. So, my scale consists of the notes: E, G, A, B and D — which happens to be the E minor pentatonic scale.

Once you’ve played these 5 notes, you end up at the E that is an octave higher. You can now continue playing the scale again, higher up the neck. It’s exactly the same scale, because it consists of exactly the same notes, just played an octave higher.

So what about modes?

Now, let’s play this scale again, but instead of starting at the root, let’s start at the second note, or G in our example. We play the notes in sequence, and end at the G an octave above: we play G, A, B, D, E, G.

Note how we used exactly the same notes as our initial scale, with the only difference being that we started at a different note than the root, E. We have played a mode of the scale.

We could construct a different mode of the scale by starting on a different note, say A, or B, etc. So, in our example, there are 5 different modes (one for each of the notes in the scale) of E minor pentatonic, if we treat the original scale as a mode of itself.

What are modes useful for?

Now comes the interesting bit. Notice how a mode is itself just a sequence of notes starting at some note and ending at the note an octave above. So, we can treat a mode as a scale itself. If we do this, we shouldn’t really be calling it a mode anymore, but a scale.

You might have heard of modes being called Locrian, Mixolydian, and other esoteric sounding names. There are seven of these, and they are the modes of the major scale (in C, this would be: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C). They are probably the most well-known of the modes, and people have given them names because of this. Collectively, they are called the diatonic modes.

Now, these modes can be seen as scales in their own right, as I’ve just described. So, what are they useful for?

Well, the diatonic modes have several uses. One of them is that you can use certain modes over certain chords, to improvise.

Another use, which I find a bit more intuitive is that each mode has a certain feel to it. The Ionian mode, for example, sounds happy. The Lydian mode has a harmonious, but maybe slightly mysterious feel to it. In other words, you can change the mood and feel of your solo, by selecting an appropriate mode.

Example from a master

To really drive home my point, here’s a video of a guitar master, explaining how he uses modes to add a certain feel and mood to a melody. I hope it gets you excited about how you can use modes to enrich your lead playing.

If you liked this, you might also like:

• The Secrets to Mastering Improvisation: Connecting to the Fretboard
• How To Solo: Scale Choice Confusion?
• The Secrets to Mastering Improvisation: Your Inner Jukebox
• Cool Jazz Trick: Spicing up the V-I Cadence
• How To Play What You Hear: Perfect Pitch versus Relative Pitch