Chords for Understanding Modes Part 1: Introduction

So first of all, what are modes on a guitar?
I mean, if you think of modes in different walks of life,
it's a good thing to kind of segue into them.
Like for instance, a video game, right?
A video game has different modes of difficulty.
You can play it on easy, medium, hard,
super hard, stuff like that.
Now it's the same video game that you're playing,
but it's gonna be a totally different experience
depending on which mode of that you choose.
And musical modes aren't really that much different.
A lot of times people would show me a chart
that looks like this,
_ _ and I would have no idea what to do with that.
I think one of the things
that gets a lot of people hung up is
you try to have the modes and everything they can do
explained to you all at once, and it can be overwhelming.
So we're gonna try to break this down a little bit simpler.
So let's look at what a mode is and how it works.
Let's start off in a key.
Now a key is a group of notes that sound good together.
_ And most music that we listen to,
a key is seven different notes, right?
So in the key of C, for instance,
the notes are C, D, E, F, G, A, and B.
If you don't know how to get those notes,
I'll leave a link in the description
showing how you come about those notes through intervals.
Now, just like chords,
we've been doing a lot of chord videos,
any of these seven notes can become a different triad chord,
a different three-note chord,
either major, minor, or diminished.
Now, if you go one step further,
any of these notes can become a different four-note chord,
a seventh chord, right?
We've done those in a couple of videos too.
Now, another step further,
any single one of these notes can become a mode.
The names of the modes are kind of weird.
Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, _ Mixolydian,
Aeolian, Locrian, sometimes pronounced Locrian,
and then you go back again to the beginning.
Now, Ionian and Aeolian have two more common names,
major and minor. _
Now, I want you to think about modes as different scales
within one parent scale, so to speak, right?
So, the first mode in the key of C
would just [F#] be C, D, E, F, G, A, [G] B.
Now, it would sound like this.
C, D, E, F, G, A, [C] B,
and then end where it [G#] started, on another C, okay?
Now, the second mode would be D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D.
So, that would sound like this.
[E] D, E, F, [G] G, A, B, C, D.
[B] Now, this is kind of [E] like what we referenced
with that video game thing.
We played the exact same notes,
we just started on one note further, right?
So, the second mode in C is gonna be D's mode.
_ Now, the third mode in the key of C
is gonna be E's mode, E's scale.
E's scale is gonna sound like this.
E, F, G, [F#] A, B, C, [Em] D, E.
So, now you might already have an ear
for how these are sounding different,
kind of like the difficulty in the video game.
We're experiencing a different kind of musical feeling,
even though we're playing the exact same notes
in the same order, [G#] just one step through, right?
Now, [Fm] F's mode would be [G] F, G, A, B, C, D, [F] E, F.
[G] G's mode would be [A] G, [G] A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
A's mode would be A, B, C, D, E, [A] F, G, A.
[G#m] And B's mode would be [G] B, C, D, E, F, G, [B] A, B.
[C] And that brings us back to C, right?
Now, how does that help us?
The one distinction I wanna make is learning the modes
and applying the modes are two totally different things.
So, that's why I'm gonna make a few videos on this.
And the first one is just gonna be learning the modes.
And essentially, what we're gonna be doing
[N] is learning a different hand position
for each of the seven modes.
So, we're gonna learn seven different shapes. _
Now, I wanna start out with two very distinctive shapes
that you actually might already know.
And these are two modes, right?
The first mode and the sixth mode.
It might seem weird skipping from the first one
to the sixth one, but there's a reason for this.
And the reason is because we're really familiar
with both of these, right?
So, here's the first mode in the key of C,
which is called the Ionian mode,
otherwise known more popularly as the major scale, right?
So again, every finger gets its own fret
with your index finger starting on the seventh fret.
But the first note we're gonna play is your [C] middle finger.
So, middle [D] pinky, which is eight, 10, C, D.
Middle [Em] pinky, index, middle pinky, [Cm] index, ring pinky.
So, it's one octave of this mode,
this scale, the major scale, right?
[G] _ _ [C] _
Now, the other mode we're gonna use as a reference
is actually gonna be the sixth mode in the key of C.
So, if C is one, D, E, F, G, A.
So, A is gonna be the sixth note.
A is gonna be its own mode.
We're actually gonna kind of think of it as its own scale,
called the Aeolian mode,
[F] or more commonly referred to as the minor scale, all right?
So, if you root your [A] pointer finger on the fifth fret
of the E string, which is an A,
it's gonna go index, ring, pinky, [E] index, ring, [Am] pinky,
index, ring, [G] okay?
So, we have two of them right now.
We have the first mode, C, [Em] C, D, E, [C] F, G, A, B, C,
and then the sixth mode, which is A, A, [E] B, C, D, [A] E, F, G, A.
So, you might already be able [D] to pick out
the differences between them.
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [G]
And, _ well, [C] this one sounds kind of happy, I guess,
[F#] in a rudimentary way of thinking.
This one [E] sounds sad, [F#] somber, whatever.
Now, if you actually see the layout, the map of it,
you can see that they stack right on top of each other,
[B] and the top of one shape, when I say the top,
like if I'm looking down at my hand,
[C]
the side closest to the headstock,
_ _ [D#]
is actually the bottom of this shape, right?
_ [A] _
So, it's kind of like a puzzle.
We have seven different shapes,
and they're all gonna interlock [N] together and repeat. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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