Hi,
I know theres just been a thread on modes, but i just wanna clear something up about their use -
If im playing in A.
Do I take the major scale with the root note on A and then just do whatever mode I think complements the peice best?
Or
If say I wanna use phrygian, am I actually supposed to have the 3rd major scale note starting on the A?
Which one of those is the correct way of using em?
If you want to solo in A, but don't want to use the A major or A minor scale, then you could use a mode... so you could choose A mixolydian or A lydian if you wanted something that sounded like a major scale but a bit different, or you could use A phygrian or A dorian if you wanted a more minor sounding tone. Most people use parellel modes like this, it's a good way to create a different sound.
Locrian is rarely used and it's apparently only a "theoretical mode", in other words, rarely used in practice (although i'm not too sure if it's used much in jazz) but still technically a mode because it's built from the diatonic scale.
Of course, you can get even deeper then that and use harmonic minor (minor with a major 7th) or melodic minor (minor with major 6th and major 7th, or a major scale with a flatted 3rd)... naturally those scales have modes too, which makes the whole situation even more complicated, luckily outside of jazz modes aren't used too much.
I don't really like using modes too much, the exception being the dominant phygrian mode (5th mode of the harmonic minor), which sounds really cool. Other then that, I mostly stick to pentatonics, major and harmonic and natural minor: but i'm really interested in rock, metal and classical music styles as opposed to jazz which uses modes alot.
Steve-0
Ah ok thanks. that answered my question perfectly!
When applying modes to melodic and harmonic minor scales are the principles the exact same? ionian --> dorian --> phrygian etc? Or not?
I believe it is, but like I said I'm by far no expert... basically when something is a key... unless you want to change key, you should always use the scale in that key: so in A, you could use A dorian or any other mode you wanted to use.
Steve-0
