guitar modes

Same as the uses of scales. But you have to think about them the right way, and that's where most guitarists get lost.

Play a short solo using the A natural minor scale. Now play another one using A harmonic minor.

They sounded different, right? But they both sounded like A minor.... just a slightly different flavor.

Do it again, but instead of using G# (to get the harmonic minor), play the natural minor but sharp all the F notes.

You just used the A Dorian mode. And that's what modes are: a slightly different take on a scale with the same root note.

This is the only way I know of to make sense of modes. I learned the other, more popular way first (the 'relative scale' thing'), but I found it incredibly frustrating. Once a different teacher showed me playing modes in parallel to major and minor scales, they all made sense.

Ionian = major scale
Dorian = natural minor with #6
Phrygian = natural minor with b2
Lydian = major with #4
Mixolydian = major with b7
Aeolian = natural minor

Locrian really isn't used much. But if you want to use it, learn to use the Phrygian first.... then learn the Locrian as the Phrygian with b5.

Wow.... that works...

What one needs to do is just memorize:

Ionian = major scale
Dorian = natural minor with #6
Phrygian = natural minor with b2
Lydian = major with #4
Mixolydian = major with b7
Aeolian = natural minor
That, and the rest is easy.

You can play for example the Dorian mode of C as long as you arent playing G# in there. When you say natural minor with #6 its the same thing as natural minor with the maj 6th right ? ( A )

Wow Modes arent THAT complicated when you say it like that.

Everyone knows the chord sequence Maj, min, min, Maj, Maj, min, dim for each of the notes in a scale. These are the triads, created by each of the modes.

http://freenet-homepage.de/greybeard/Modes.htm

Here's some video's that touch on the use of them

like getting an "Eastern sound"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0_GKBzeC44

This one talks about using hammer-ons with the scale
(there's also one for pull-offs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz9EYyu8bDo

Here's one on how to use bends to go up to another note in the scale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZigRWP-YbJs

And here's one using tapping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znNCQo95W8E

This video gives some examples of how to use modes to go from chord to chord
and might be what you were asking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i_PsY4-zew&feature=related

I would think using the different modes gives the song a different 'feel' (ie, blusey, Eastern, country, etc)

what i know about mode is that its a scale but it starts from root note or other notes in the same scale
a minor scale
( A ) aeolian mode starts from the note a and play a scale
( E ) phrygian mode is A minor scale starts from e note the 5th note
( d ) dorian mode is a A minor scale starts from 4th note of it D
any one can correct me
Ionian = major scale
Dorian = natural minor with #6
Phrygian = natural minor with b2
Lydian = major with #4
Mixolydian = major with b7
Aeolian = natural minor

you mean if we are playing a minor scale and we are going to use dorian mode then the scale will be ( A B C D E F# G A )???
AND phrygian will be ( A A# C D E F G A ) ?????
is that what you mean???
please discuss it clearly

In your two examples:
you mean if we are playing a minor scale and we are going to use dorian mode then the scale will be ( A B C D E F# G A )???
AND phrygian will be ( A A# C D E F G A ) ?????

You got it right, except you technically want to call that "A#" a "Bb" instead.

Try giving this a read and see if it helps:

https://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/a-la-modal/

Hopefully, you'll find this to be clearly explained in a step-by-step fashion.

Peace

thats like
a minor scale changing to a harmonic minor scale
let me see that i understand it well
if a song in A minor scale than we can use all the modes of the scale or one mode only i mean mix modes together
by the way is harmonic minor a mode of natural minor

The problem with the way you're looking at it: E Phrygian is not the A minor scale. It's not the C major scale either. It's an E scale... and if you have to think about a scale with a different root (A or C), you have trouble using the correct root (E) as the tonal center of your melody. And it's the tonal center that makes one 'related' mode different from another.

Yes, you can mix the modes - just as you mix scales in the melodic minor (#6 and #7 going up; Aeolian mode down).

by the way is harmonic minor a mode of natural minor

No, it's a modification of the natural minor. (the 7th note is sharped)

E Phrygian is not the A minor scale. It's not the C major scale either. It's an E scale... and if you have to think about a scale with a different root (A or C), you have trouble using the correct root (E) as the tonal center of your melody. And it's the tonal center that makes one 'related' mode different from another.

i understand u but another question please:
if a song in E phrygian thats mean its in the key of A minor but with another tonal center or its in the key of E?

E Phrygian is not the A minor scale. It's not the C major scale either. It's an E scale... and if you have to think about a scale with a different root (A or C), you have trouble using the correct root (E) as the tonal center of your melody. And it's the tonal center that makes one 'related' mode different from another.

i understand u but another question please:
if a song in E phrygian thats mean its in the key of A minor but with another tonal center or its in the key of E?

Not necessarily. E Phrygian could mean either Am or CMaj - Am is the relative minor (and Aeolian mode) of CMaj. E Phrygian is an E minor scale with a flat ii - and you should consider it as such - it is not, as Noteboat says, either Am or CMaj. You are playing a modified Eminor scale over an Am or CMaj tune.
As long as you consider E Phrygian to be either Am or CMaj, your tonal centre will always remain either A or C.

After playing for 28 years, I don't use/teach modes anymore although it's good to understand the intervals within each mode for discussion purposes. After studying with Jimmy Bruno (famous jazz guitarist) he just focuses on the current key and adjusts notes if necessary. Take the following progression:
I VI ii V
Cmaj7 Am7 Dm7 G7 often analyzed as C Ionian, A aeolian, D dorian, G mixolydian. You can practice 4 modes if you want OR

play in the key of C with the 5 CAGED shapes but target chord tones say on strong beats (1 and 3).

Let's say we change the Am7 to A7. Then we just play a C# over the A7 chord instead of C but stay within our 5 shapes in key of C. The modal way would be to play a mixolydian b6 mode (mode of melodic minor).

Within a fairly short passage I can add a variety 'outside' notes that would be traditionally analyzed as a combination of modes, which tends to overcomplicate things.

Will

After playing for 28 years, I don't use/teach modes anymore although it's good to understand the intervals within each mode for discussion purposes. After studying with Jimmy Bruno (famous jazz guitarist) he just focuses on the current key and adjusts notes if necessary.

Will

That is what I"ve always said and taught as well. Modes, in my mind, complicate what is easy for no good reason. They are largely not understood well by guitarists, even quite a few very famous ones, because guitarists largely don't understand theory very well. I suspect that's in large part because guitarists don't think in terms of notes as pianists, horn players, and classically trained string instruments do, but in terms of shapes and patterns.

Modes aren't important. Master the basic scales in terms of the notes on the fret board: major, minor, diminished and augmented; and then start learning modifications such as harmonic minor and melodic minors, and suddenly "modes" are just scales. Once the mystery is gone, once they aren't seen as some sort of esoteric knowledge, once they're just scales, then there's no mystery in how they're used.

Within a fairly short passage I can add a variety 'outside' notes that would be traditionally analyzed as a combination of modes, which tends to overcomplicate things.

I think only guitarists would analyze a short passage as a combination of modes :)

Traditional analysis just looks at the notes played against the key. If you use a variety of outside notes, standard theory would either look for a non-diatonic scale (which can't be a mode), or would look at the outside notes individually as appoggiatura, passing tones, etc.