A Simple Way to Understand Modes for Guitar – Part 2
In Part 2 of her series on “A Simple Way to Understand Modes,” Beth Isbell walks us through the use of modes to specifically outline simple chords.
Are scales important for playing guitar? You bet! They are the cornerstone of a few things you absolutely need to know: such as chords and solos. But you don’t have to be a music theory expert to get this stuff. Start here with the beginner lessons and work your way up – we’ll teach you everything you need to know about scales and modes.
In Part 2 of her series on “A Simple Way to Understand Modes,” Beth Isbell walks us through the use of modes to specifically outline simple chords.
Everyone seems to have his or her own “Aha!” moment when it comes to modes. Guitar Noise welcomes Beth Isbell, who kindly shares her modal method with our readers in this multi-part series
The nature of bass chords is they sound a bit muddier. In this example, we’ll play a Dm instead of a C because it sounds good with the whole progression.
We’ve been playing the C ionian or C major sound with chords whose melody notes sit on string 1 or string 2. Let’s try out some C Io chords that cover all twelve frets.
Last issue we covered diatonic (within a key) C major chords whose melody notes lay on string 1. A natural progression for us this time would be chords for string two.
We’ve been exploring modes, the C Ionian mode in particular. Now let’s take a look now at moving from one position to another, as we stick to making the C Ionian sound.
We’ve used chords and arpeggios to convey the C Ionian sound, and have started on using scales to convey that sound. Let’s continue our exploration of modes.
So far we’ve been looking at how to get a C Ionian or C major sound through arpeggios and chords. Now let’s look at different ways to convey those sounds.