Sooner or later in jazz guitar, you’re going to need to learn the modes of the major scale. They are an important part of improving your skills – and they aren’t as complicated as you might think.
As you improve, you’re going to want to have more control over the sounds you’re creating as you play solos. The tools you already have just don’t seem to be cutting it anymore.
And that’s something that modes can help you with… if you approach them the right way. Modes are essential jazz guitar scales that you need to know as you become more advanced.
But they can also be confusing to learn about. Here’s why.
When you hear people talking about the modes of the major scale, there tend to be 2 “camps” involved.
One group says you just have to start the major scale on different notes, and you’ve got yourself the modes!
While the other group says that each mode is a unique musical snowflake – with a special interval pattern that creates its unique sound.
And here’s the thing – they’re both right. At least in their own way.
Here’s where the problem comes up:
The people in the first camp (these days) tend not to sound all that great. They take the knowledge that you can just play the major scale from different notes to play modes, and mistake the knowledge for having developed the skill to do that.
The people who tell you to learn a different sequence for each mode and treat them differently from the major scale tend to sound better in their solos.
And so we listen to their advice – and it’s a lot more complicated to get going. There are endless patterns to memorize, and tons of names to keep track of.
But what if it didn’t have to be that hard? As usual when I come across 2 ways of doing things, my question is “why not do both?”
It’s really not that much work once you dig in. So I explored both of these perspectives on playing the modes of the major scale.
And here’s what I found:
You’ll be able to play and use modes a whole lot faster if you treat them as different starting points within your major scale patterns.
You just have to practice them the right way so you can actually use them as modes. It’s not a quick fix – it takes a lot of work up front. But it’s easier to understand, and a quicker path to playing the changes.
You’ll learn the modes on a much deeper level when you look at them as separate patterns.
You’ll have a much clearer picture in your mind of where your fingers need to go in order to create the sounds you want. And your ears will be more tuned in to the different modal sounds as you play.
So what’s the real answer?
Start out working on the modes as different starting points within the major scale. This approach is a more direct path to “playing the changes” and it’s fairly quick to get going with.
Once you’re confident with that approach to modes, try learning them as separate finger patterns on your guitar.
You’ll get the patterns more deeply ingrained into your fingers (and your ears) so you can call on them any time you need to.
Now before you freak out:
Here’s the dirty little secret about the modes:
No matter how you slice them – the finger pattern is still the same old major scale you can already play.
It’s really not any harder than that – so don’t make it harder than that. You already know this stuff – you just have to practice it from a couple of different angles.
The Easiest Way to Learn Modes of the Major Scale (And use them!)
The easiest way to get started is to learn your modes based on scale degrees. You’re using different notes of the major scale as “temporary root notes” to generate your modes.
I’ll often refer to this as the “quick and dirty” method with my students. You don’t get bogged down with a whole bunch of theory, but you’ll be able to play and hear all of your modes.
For me, I feel like this approach made life a whole lot easier for soloing and playing over chord changes.
Because you’re not thinking about a different scale shape for each chord you encounter, it’s easier to keep track of what you’re doing.
It also makes a lot more sense from a practical perspective.
When we talk about common chord progressions, we’re talking in terms of numbers as they relate to the major scale.
So why not use that to our advantage?
In a ii V I progression, you could be starting your lines from the 2nd note of the major scale for the ii chord, the 5th note for the V chord, and the 1st note for the I chord.
And you’d be playing the same thing as the other guy over there who just spent 2 months learning all of his modes as separate scale patterns.
(For a couple of decades, that other guy was me…)
I believe this is a lot closer in approach to the way the old school jazz guitar players did it. They didn’t have all of the same musical terminology as we do. They used terms that made sense to them, and it was different from player to player.
(I talk a little about this in the “voicings” section of the Ultimate Guide to Jazz Guitar Chords.)
In my lesson with Jimmy Bruno, this is exactly what he showed me to do – he said all the stuff I was learning in school was making me think too hard.
And here’s where I made my big mistake – I didn’t quite buy it until a decade or so later. I kept doing what I was doing and didn’t really investigate his approach until I was teaching a lot.
But he was definitely on to something, and it will make you a better jazz guitar player if you work on it.
Simplified Mode Formulas Using the Major Scale
To keep things simple in this section, everything will be labeled in terms of major scale tones. Here are the modes and their formulas to get you started:
- Ionian/Major scale: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- Dorian: 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
- Phrygian: 3 4 5 6 7 1 2
- Lydian: 4 5 6 7 1 2 3
- Mixolydian: 5 6 7 1 2 3 4
- Aeolian: 6 7 1 2 3 4 5
- Locrian: 7 1 2 3 4 5 6
Don’t get too hung up on the mode names – we’ll get more into that later. Check out the charts below, and then I’ll give you a simple exercise to do.
6th String Form: Modes in the G Major Scale
5th String Form: Modes in the C Major Scale
4th String Form: Modes in the F Major Scale
3rd String Form: Modes in the Bb Major Scale
2nd String Form: Modes in the D Major Scale
Modes of The Major Scale – Note Centering Exercise
Just knowing which note to start on isn’t going to cut it. You need to get your fingers programmed to start from different notes.
And you need to train your ears to hear these new potential notes as “home base.”
So here’s an exercise to work on:
Pick a note of the major scale (1-7) to focus on. With that note in mind, improvise freely. Don’t use a metronome or a backing track – just mess around. Listen to what you are playing.
Focus on centering your playing around the note you chose. Here’s how to do it:
- Start and end all of your phrases there (you can play whatever you want, but keep your focus on that one particular note)
- Play your focus note more often – keep coming back to it over and over
- Try to only pause on your focus note – if you need to think, try to make it back to your chosen note and pause there
So if you chose 2 as my mode, you would start on that note, play it a lot, and try to make sure you only pause on that number, as much as possible.
This is going to really get you into the sound of the major scale starting from 2. And you’ll start to be able to come up with melodies based around that note.
And then you’d pick another note to focus on.
I like to do this exercise as a warm up – spending a little time improvising based around each scale tone to get my fingers and ears ready to play for the day. It doesn’t have to take long, once you get used to it.
Chord-Scale Relationships
Knowing the mode names is nice, so I’ve included them in the charts above.
But they’re not really practical unless you’re in theory class. Or trying to explain modes to somebody.
What is really more helpful is knowing what chord goes with each scale tone you’re building off of.
Here’s a chart of what chord symbols go with each of the modes we’ve created based on our scale tones:
| Mode Name | Major Scale Formula | Chord Type | Chord Symbol |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Ionian | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | Major 7 | Maj7, ∆7 |
| 2. Dorian | 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 | Minor 7 | min7, -7, m7 |
| 3. Phrygian | 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 | Minor 7, Suspended b9 | min7, -7, 7susb9 |
| 4. Lydian | 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 | Major7 #11 | maj7#11, ∆7#11 |
| 5. Mixolydian | 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 | Dominant 7 | 7 |
| 6. Aeolian | 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 | Minor 7 | min7, -7, m7 |
| 7. Locrian | 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Minor 7b5, Half Diminished 7 | min7b5, -7b5, ø7 |
Get comfortable with the modes of the major scale using the methods we’ve talked about so far. For the majority of jazz guitarists, this will set you up for success.
Once you’re comfortable with the exercises and patterns you’ve learned so far, move on to the rest of this article.
Teaching Modes Based on Interval Structures
If you really want to understand modes of the major scale beyond what we’ve talked about so far, great.
If not, the exercises you’ve already done are a great foundation to build on. So keep working on them. You’ll have a usable template to generate the mode sounds you need at any given moment.
That being said – I feel like working on the modes of the major scale as separate patterns is an important step towards mastery.
By working on the modes of the major scale this way, you’ll:
- Gain more control over the sounds you create
- See the mode patterns more clearly under your fretboard
- Imprint the sounds of each different mode into your ears
- Automatically recall the correct scale shape for any chord symbol
Sounds pretty good, right?
It’s also not any harder than the work you’ve already done. We’re just looking at it from a different angle – and your muscle memory developed so far is going to make the job easier for you.
Always remember – It’s just the major scale.
Let’s take a look at the modes a slightly different way – with each mode coming from the same root.
6th String Form: 7 Modes in G
5th String Form: 7 Modes in C
4th String Form: 7 Modes in F
3rd String Form: 7 Modes in Bb
2nd String Form: 7 Modes in D
The Mode Interval Formulas
If you’re going to dive into the music theory aspect of this, it’s a good idea to have a handle on the interval formulas of each mode.
You can find them in the scale charts above, and in this table:
| Mode Name | Mode Interval Formula |
|---|---|
| 1. Ionian | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
| 2. Dorian | 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 |
| 3. Phrygian | 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 |
| 4. Lydian | 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 |
| 5. Mixolydian | 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 |
| 6. Aeolian | 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 |
| 7. Locrian | 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7 |
Parallel Modes Exercise
This exercise is going to help you really hear the difference between the different modes. And sometimes that’s more than half the battle.
Our ears are really comfortable with certain sounds – the major scale (Ionian mode), natural minor scale (Aeolian mode), and we’re ok with the Mixolydian mode.
You might find yourself flinching a little bit when you play some less comfortable sounding notes in the Dorian, Lydian, and Phrygian modes.
Those are the points where your ears will trick you into playing something more familiar – and in this case incorrect.
You don’t want to be accidentally autocorrecting everything you play to the major and natural minor scales. So we have to make our ears comfortable with the new patterns.
I’ve had a couple of students who have a hard time hearing the modes… especially in the context of our earlier exercise. Everything just sounded like the major scale to them.
Although usually when we dig deep enough – it’s because they really didn’t do the centering exercise above. But that’s a different problem.
And even in these cases, this next exercise helps.
Here’s what you do:
- Pick a scale form (6th string, 5th string, etc.)
- Pick one fret to start from – 3rd or 5th fret are usually good starting points
- Using that note as a root, play each of the 7 mode patterns
Hearing all of the different modes coming from the same root is a great way to dig deeper into this area of theory. Just keep using the charts as a reference so you can keep your fingers and ears honest.
And remember – it’s just the major scale.
If you don’t think too hard about it, your muscle memory will help you out with some of the patterns.
Modes of the Major Scale: A Next-Level Tool
While they’re kind of important, the modes of the major scale aren’t magic. They’re a creative tool – one that can be developed after you’ve learned the basic jazz guitar scale patterns that they come from.
I downplay their importance a little bit on purpose – too many students look at modes as some kind of holy grail. Instead of practicing their basic scales, they try to learn their modes before they’re ready.
When you look at them as starting from different notes in the major scale pattern, modes can be a great tool for improvising over chord changes.
And when you really dive into the specific sequences, the modes of the major scale can open your ears to new melodic possibilities.
But at the end of the day, it’s important to remember – It’s still just the major scale.
Be sure to check out our complete guide to jazz guitar scales to learn more.