So why is there such fetish amongst guitarists with modes?
Very little pop / rock music is actually modal. The only song I have played that I would consider modal is Have Nagila which was a request at a Jewish wedding.
I know a ton of great horn player.
They can all read music, improvise over jazz changes, play by ear.
They don't have any interest in modes, nor see modes as an approach with any particular value. This includes an alto sax player whose band was nominated for a Mercury prize.
All these players are play far more harmonically complicated music than virtually all guitarists play.
I recently asked this question to a customer who is a lecturer in jazz at a London college. This guy plays tons of session on a wide variety of fretted (and indeed non fretted) instruments including guitar. He was also totally baffled by guitarists fetishes for modes too.
Can anybody help?
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they aren't .just lots of those that are don't get them. so ask lots of questions which makes it feel like modes are very popular.
modes are easy once you find the sound, then you forget about all the theory nonsense and get the sounds out...
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It doesn't always work, but I like the idea of a listener being able to remove the backing chords I'm playing over and still be able to hear them subconsciously because the notes I play emphasize the key components of those chords..
For instance
As for Mixolydian, nothing really springs to mind for me. Ionian and Aeolian goes without saying.
I need to spend more time with it, I was always told that you can use modes over an appropiate static chord but a modal progression is the key to understanding them. The chords should really be harmonised from that mode.
I spent a bit of time on it years ago but didnt really see the benefit for me then. I think if I invested more time into it and harmonised the appropriate chords. Then it'd sink in better.
I think guitarists lust over modes, as they perhaps see it as some short cut to playing more scales? For instance I'll fudge a Lydian mode over an Add9 or even a Major7, I don't feel i'm strictly playing in a lydian mode. I've just fudged it for myself.
I'm a big advocate of listening to new sounds instead, that works better for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZpeYO3iat8&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLFBZlIo53dQ4mdwSqjrJOggCLioPlJdbU
My YouTube Channel
I think it's one of those "if the only tool you've got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail".
But I look forward to reading the responses
Firstly, rock guitarists are not normally grounded in the classical tradition of musical upbringing.
Scondly, rock guitarists do not generally read or use sheet music, and TAB and chord names are the prevalent notation systems.
Thirdly, although it is tuned to the key of E minor (or G major), the guitar is inherently a key-agnostic instrument, mainly due to the barre chord. Pick any note on a piano and you can instantly name it; pick a random string and fret in the middle of the guitar and most guitarists can't.
For these 3 reasons, most guitarists' journey towards musical theory and understanding takes a completely different route from pianists, violinists, brass and woodwind players, who need to build their theoretical knowledge at the right pace to accompany their palying ability, so they can operate within the classical context. Classical musicians go through a well-defined path intended to ground them with a thorough understanding and language of how music really works, following something akin to this rough sequence:
Notation and naming basics
Major and minor
Keys and scales
Time signatures and rhythms basics
Reading music
Key signatures and ornaments
Harmony and chordal context
Melody writing
Transposition
Harmonic modulation
4-part writing and figured bass
Style recognition and composition
Obviously this is a totally valid approach for guitarists too as any guitarist with grade 8 theory will tell you, and nobody who's embraced it and gone through it successfully would say it stifles music making or creativity! But it's not fundamentally necessary for playing guitar in bands or orchestras. Guitarists tend to come at theory after reaching a certain playing standard. Therefore the journey is not theory-driven or even theory-parallel; rather the theory is used as a rear guard to vocabularise the playing, hence it tends to be very pragmatic and customised to individuals' advancement. Furthermore it is more informal and unstructured, and often more non-standardised - guitarists often develop their own ideas and language around theory rather than being taught the traditional theory.
Thus a typical journey might be:
Basic chord keys - E, A, G, C, D
Major and minor
I, IV, V and other popular chord progressions
Pentatonic scale
Circle of 5ths
Reading TAB
Basic chord extensions, 7ths, sus, 9ths, etc
Advanced chord extensions, b5ths, b9ths, etc.
Reading chord notation
Diatonic modes
Other scale families and their modes (melodic minor, harmonic minor)
The classical tradition bypasses modes because the thorough, key-specific grounding in harmony and melody doesn't really utilise the concept. Modes are a convenient, easy, key-agnostic way of describing scales, and are closely linked to the I, IV, V-type of approach, which is also key agnostic and doesn't require musical notation.
Guitarists tend to land on modes as a more advanced part of musical theory.
IMO.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Except most guitarists approach to theory that's more often Numberwang, Wangernum or a cryptic rhyme off Ted Roger's 3-2-1.
The blues was an aural tradition and rock comes from that, so does jazz largely - in the early 80s guitar magazines came along and added mystifying stuff with modes to that aural tradition - now up and down the land at open mic nights and in the intervals at gigs... striving guitarists practice reciting this aural tradition, garnered from the worthy tomes that gave them the tab to ape their heroes.