Practicing Modes.
A great finger-stretching exercise too!
Learning how to play melody notes and how to improvise on your guitar, ultimately helps you become a better rhythm player. Scales, modes, notes - all of that can be a little intimidating - unless you actually practice them on a regular basis. Let’s take a look.
Everyone loves music, even the non-musicians.
Why? People turn on their music and sing. They sing while they are cleaning the house, they sing while they are driving in their car, and they sing because it just feels good to the soul.
Playing notes on a musical instrument is just another way of singing. What may come natural to you as a singer, might feel a little unnatural as a practicing instrumentalist.
Believe me, I know musicians who can shred on the guitar. They can play ultra-fast scales and seemingly fly all over the neck of the guitar - but they can’t sing a single note to save their life. They try, but they know that there are much better singers for the band.
Singing melody notes comes from scales and modes. Everyone who ever went to kindergarten learned, “Row, row, row your boat.” or “Mary had a little lamb” or “London bridge”. These elementary school songs are easy for children to sing because the melodies are easy. Think of all of the Christmas songs you know. In all honesty, all of those songs could literally be played and sung in one specific key: The key of “C major”. Why? My guess is that most kindergarten teachers are not musicians, but they can probably play all of the “white” notes (C major), on the piano.
Musicians must learn keys and scales.
Practicing scales also improves your ear-training, your improvisational skills and creativity; and it also helps with stretching your fingers so that you can practice with proper techniques. This is SO very important!
Below is the key of “A major”, also know as the “A Ionian” mode.
The notes in this exercise all exist between frets 4 and 7. Think of it as a four-fret frame, like a square or box. That means that your first finger plays all of the notes on the 4th fret, your second finger plays all of the notes on the 5th fret, your third finger plays all of the notes on the 6th fret, and your pinky plays all of the notes on the 7th fret.
This is non-negotiable! Hence, the the word “exercise”. Proper technique is vital.
Below is another way to look at the exact same scale as above, only from the perspective of the “Roman numerical” placements on the fretboard.
If you notice in the above diagram, there are no minor notes or flat notes. All of the notes in the scale are of “Major” placement in the scale:
I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII.
Study this because it will be important to know as we move on to other modes in the next articles.
Here is how you practice this scale.
Make sure you set your metronome at 60-70bpm to start. As you get better with the scale, slowly increase the tempo until you can play it clean and correct at 90bpm. Remember to use the proper finger placements for technique.
Stay tuned for more articles on modes and scales coming soon.
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Dave