Originally Posted by: shred3The more I read about modal theory the more confused I am becoming. I have memorized all the modes, and "quizz" myself with them, and move them around up and down the neck.

The problem is that I'm starting to feel clostrophobic about them now. Like in an above post Dev is mentioning playing an A mixo scale, but his notes are running into the G lydian box. So can I play G lydian as well as the A mixo ?

As long as the scale format for mixo falls on the A, can I play anywhere on the neck such as Ionian in C?

Just be careful not to confuse a "position" with a mode. Playing second position G major (starting on the 5th fret) is how most folks start recognizing the modes, you start associating the major scale position with the mode that shares the same root. In other words 2nd position G maj becomes A dorian.

This is fine for starting out, but it's important to realize it's not the position you are playing that makes it a A dorian, it's that you are playing the notes from the G Major scale, where ever they might be.

So although people do have a habit of associating positions of the root major scale to a mode, (2nd is Dorian, 3rd is Phrygian, 4th is Lydian, 5th is Mixo, 6th Aoelian, 7th Lociran) the whole point to understand is that if I play the notes from G major in any of these positions over a chord progression that emphasizes A minor, I am playing in A Dorian.

Even if the chord progression is a ii-V (Santana style) of A minor - D Major. If you play these two chords for the same amount of time per measure your ear will hear the A minor as the emphasis chord and therefore even when you play G major notes over the D major chord it will still feel like A Dorian, unless you spendmore than a measure on each chord then it might start sounding like you are changing modes each measure. If you change that progression and attempt to emphasize the D major chord in your progression perhaps by playing D major first and playing it for twice as long as the A minor chord you ear might be fooled into hearing the emphasis as being on the D major, which should now mean if you play the notes of G major over this progression it will sound like the Mixolydian mode.

This is really simplifying it obviously, you *still* have to take care to pick your notes out of the G major scale to suit the chord you are playing over. Dorian for instance really starts to shine when you play that #6 (when you play a F# on the 7th fret B string) against an A minor chord. This is because there's only a single note difference between true minor (Aeolian) and Dorian, and it's *that* note. So learn which notes are misplaced from the scale that you'd normally associate with the chord you are playing over, and practice emphasizing not only the notes of the chord, but this other note that might not even be in the chord at all.

Other examples:
Lydian - #4 from true Major
Mixolydian - b7 from true Major

Some of the fun of modes for me is to find the least number of chords I can use to tell the listeners ear what mode this is before I play a single note over it.

Like my favorite Dorian progression is still a ii-V.
Mixo - IV-V
Lydian - V-IV

and you'd be surprised at how many of your favorite solos end up being over these simple 2 chord progressions.

Hope this is helpful to someone, and hope I'm not a whacko that has a completely weird way of looking at this stuff lol.