The Diatonic Map.
The Three Patterns.
Every key in music includes a group of seven notes. These seven notes come from the first seven letters of the alphabet. Each key must include one form of each of these seven notes; whether the note is natural, sharp or flat. One can also refer to these groups of notes as scales or “modes”. There are seemingly endless mathematical combinations of modes to fit nearly every genre of music. However, in this article, we're going to simplify this inquiry by breaking things down to what I believe to be the easiest, most common modes, in the approach to improvisation in modern music. I instruct all of my students the following three scale (mode) shapes so that they can quickly learn how to play these scales in their efforts in practicing improvisation.
The Ionian Mode
The Ionian mode is quite simply, the major scale. It is the first mode in the major key. If you were to play chords in the key of "C major", you would use the C Ionian mode to play melody notes.
However, there are six other modes that you can also use, depending on your approach to the chord progression.
We will only be looking at the Ionian, the Phrygian and the Aeolian modes for this lesson.
In the image below, you can see the four-fret frame of the Ionian scale. Each note is color-matched to go with its Roman numerical placement in the scale. The major root note is the "I", followed by various colors for the other six notes in the scale. The Ionian mode is arguably one of the most popular scales to play in music as it is easy to remember.
Perhaps you've seen the movie "The Sound of Music"? In that film, Julie Andrews performs a song to teach the children how to sing a melody using the "Do Re Mi" method. The Ionian is the exact same scale as the one in the song.
The Phrygian Mode
Next, we have what I think of as one of the best modes to improvise in; as it also uses a four-fret frame. However, this mode moves the "Do Re Mi" scale to the middle of the frame. The Phrygian mode is the third mode and is considered a minor key, but we will look at it from the perspective of starting the major scale on the third note instead of the first.
The Aeolian Mode
Finally, we have the relative minor scale of the key. The Aeolian mode is the sixth mode and is also considered a minor key. Again, we will look at it from the perspective of starting the major scale on the sixth note instead of the first.
So, what are you supposed to do with these scales?
All three of these scales can be played anywhere on the entire fretboard. However, you will not want to fall into the rut of playing the same scale shape for every key. This is why you have three choices for improvising, depending on which key you are in and the locations of the root notes for each scale shape.
Practice each of these three modes as often as possible, and remember where the root notes are located for each mode. Apply what you’ve practiced by improvising over several different keys so that you can get more comfortable playing any of the three modes for any of the twelve keys in music.
Diatonic modes are "melody" scales, not blues - like the pentatonic scales. However, practicing both modes together will help you better understand melody improvisation for progressions in many forms of jazz music.
This image below is a visual of all three modes connected:
And finally...
Yes there are many modes available mathematically in music, but in the practical applications of modern music, you really don't need to know more than the three in this article; (and the occasional Mixolydian (fifth) mode used in blues).
Practice each of these three scales by piecing them together as you practice them to backing tracks or jam tracks. Improvisation takes a long time to learn. Try using these three modes to help you learn how to play them correctly.