- Find your current favourite track for jamming along to, or whatever… (Or perhaps record a nice chord progression to practice with)
- Play it on loop
- Go to the Interactive Circle of Fifths
- Figure out what key your song or jam track is in, and position that key name at the top of the circle
- Try playing the different major scales as labelled from “lydian” through to “locrian”
- Whilst playing the modes, bear in mind whether you are in a minor key or a major key. Try and get a sense for which modes feel right and which ones don’t.
- Sometimes a particulare mode will only sound right if you concentrate on particular notes. Try bending into these notes, rather than just hitting them every time
- Notice how sometimes a major mode sounds better than a minor one, depending on whether you are in a minor key or major key
- Also notice that some modes sound better than others depending on which chord is being played at the time
- When you’ve spent a decent amount of time exploring the different modes for one backing track, move onto another. Try and make it a track in a different key. Also, try and make sure that each time you choose a new track to practice with, that they differ in chord structure and progression. i.e. Don’t always choose simple 1-4-5 major or minor blues tracks, although these are great for getting started. One of my personal favourites at the moment is “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd. You can switch between a minor scale, minor penatotinc, minor blues, Dorian, and with a little more careful precision, Phrygian, Lydian and Myxolidian.
- It’s all very well learning the names of the modes, but the real trick is in familiarising yourself with the different shapes* and when to use them.
- *Remember that the modes are different in shape with repect to your default root scale, but they are in fact simply major scales pinched from different keys. So you can spend ages learning a load of different shapes, or a little less time (in my opinion), learning the circle of fifths (or fourths) and where each mode can be found in relation to the root.
- What’s the best way to do this? Well, I’m not sure if there is a “best” way, as everyone learns differently. But, IMHO, The Interactive Circle of Fifths is a pretty good option.
I hope you enjoy using The Interactive Circle of Fifths. Any feedback is more than welcome and best provided via the Contacts Page.
Tags: circle of fifths, modes
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