Modes

Ok, here we go. A question in tact before I turn in for bed. Out of curiosity, i was wondering... Instead of using the A minor pentatonic over an A major I-IV-V pattern, I read somewhere that one was allowed to use the A Minor Dorian scale with a flattened sixth instead of the A Minor Pentatonic. The Dorian minor looks like the Minor Pentatonic with the exception of a few notes, but there's a slight problem: A major's Dorian is in B. That's a whole step above! What do I do now when I want improvise with Dorian in mind(1 4 5 blues)? Use it in A minor penta's place with the needed flattened sixth's? Or scrap the Minor penta with it's additional notes from those tricky sevenths from the Major scale and move up a whole step to B dorian?

Guh, back to the books! See if you can shed some light :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by: ShootaMcgavinInstead of using the A minor pentatonic over an A major I-IV-V pattern, I read somewhere that one was allowed to use the A Minor Dorian scale with a flattened sixth instead of the A Minor Pentatonic.[/quote]
1. The dorian mode has a major 6th degree, not a minor 6th. It is the only difference between a minor diatonic scale and dorian. So it sounds fine when you play it over a blues; the major 6th (F#) of the A dorian mode is the major 3rd of the IV chord (D7).

2. You are "allowed" to play anything you want. :)

The real issue is: what sound are you trying to create?. In other words, which scale (or mode of it) best suits your musical intentions?
[QUOTE=ShootaMcgavin] The Dorian minor looks like the Minor Pentatonic with the exception of a few notes, but there's a slight problem: A major's Dorian is in B.

This tutorial covers the basics of the modes:

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=370

I recently posted in depth about the modes here:

http://www.guitartricks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29705

I agree with Christopher. In all honesty, no book will ever make you sound great. When you are actually playing, your ears will do the work and you will find that you make almost any note work (within reason) if you truly believe it's sound will achieve you what hear. This comes with a wealth of practice. One thing I often practice is to loop a droning single note and to play every other note against that single note. This will help you truly hear each interval and at that point you can begin to express yourself your own way.

We all know though that every style has it's own trends interval wise. With blues, you never want to play a major 7. That is about all I know to be true in my experience. However, you can do whatever you want as long as you make it work. Experiment on your own and don't let books and theory run your life.

Best of luck!

Originally Posted by: ShootaMcgavinbut there's a slight problem: A major's Dorian is in B.

This is a source of a lot of confusion.

A Dorian is not in B at all. A Dorian is A major with some changes.

It happens to be the case that A Dorian scale has the same notes as G Major scale (not B, you went in the wrong direction).

It can be useful to know this. If you know what the "Dorian" sound is like, and you want to achieve that sound against A chords, then you can actually play the notes from "G major" scale and guess what, you will be playing A Dorian.

A Dorian: A B C D E F# G A

G Major: G A B C D E F# G

However, it's not so simple - you still need to know what you are doing. If you play G major scale, focusing attention around the notes that make the key G major - the 1,3 and 5, which are G, B and D, then it won't sound much like an awesome A Dorian solo, it will sound like a fool playing G Major over A chords.

To get the A Dorian sound you would need to focus on the 1, b3, 5 and 6 (since 6 is what is special about Dorian). These are A, C,E and F#.

Notice how all those notes are from G major, but not the ones you'd normally emphasise in G.

BTW, if you are interested in a quick way to experiment with what does each mode sound like, I recommend this you tube video.

Make sure you close your ears when he says "modes will make you into a star". However, his description of how to quickly "experience" each mode is maybe the best I've seen.

HTH

GaJ