Dorian is the s*%t

Hi everyone.

I still haven't gotten around to jamming/improvising in all different scales, but lately I found an A Dorian backing track and opened the scale finder and starting improvising.

Man does that scale sound bad ass!

I can't believe it took me this long to discover it. My next post in the listening section will definitely be an A Dorian improvisation.

Anyway, have any of you already gotten some good use out of this scale?

~Rusty

Originally Posted by: bbzswa777
Anyway, have any of you already gotten some good use out of this scale?

Absolutely!

Dorian is the sound of a lot of classic rock. The scale forms some neat symmetrical patterns in just the right way to fit around the minor pentatonic box.

Have fun jamming with it!

Yeah, I noticed it shares many of the same shapes/notes as the pentatonic scale.

As far as building chords that sound good to this, is the best way to simply build triads off certain notes? (I went back to that triad lesson you shared). Or is there also another method?

Originally Posted by: bbzswa777
As far as building chords that sound good to this, is the best way to simply build triads off certain notes? (I went back to that triad lesson you shared). Or is there also another method?

There many ways of looking at & solving the problem. But they all come down to using notes of a scale(s) or mode(s) played together in certain combinations to support the composer's desired melody & harmony.

You can look for triad shapes that you know inside the pattern of the scale. You can write down the notes of the scale & build triadic (or other!) harmonies & figure out how to play those notes together.

Or you can just have a bass line playing the root note of a scale or mode while you try to build a melody on top of it. Then as the melody evolves, change the bass notes to different notes of the scale to match! Usually you will find that those notes outline chord changes, or are polyphony lines (melodies in their own right that use the same scale or mode).

Have fun!

Okay I think I got it now. Thanks!