A different method of comming up with modes - Is this right?

[Kev Brigden]

==Disclaimer: I've only been learning theory for a year and a half and this was passed onto me and im just checking if its right==

This is something my guitar techer told me that from what I can see has not been mentioned on here:

The trick here is to be able to build triads like JEM7wh taught in his lessons. I was taught that doing this for every note in every scale was called 'harmonising a scale':

Basically in the key of C, if we use the I, III, and V notes of the C major scale for every note in the scale, we get seven different triads:


C major = C, E and G
D minor = D, F and A
E minor = E,G and B
F major = F,A and C
G major = G, B and D
A minor = A, C and E
B minor = B, D and F

And henceforth playing a C major scale pattern over:

C major produces : Ionian
D minor produces : Dorian
E minor produces : Phrygian
F major produces : Lydian
G major produces : Mixolydian
A minor : Aeolian (natural minor)
B minor : Locrian

Is this right?? I think it is... :idunno:

[Pryde7]

well, seems pretty right, but in the case of the B note, you have to remember that F, in relation to B, is the flattened (diminshed) 5th. so it wouldn't be a minor triad, it'd be a *diminished* triad, which is essentially a minor triad with a flattened (diminished) 5th, hence the name.

if you played C major over a straight 1-3-5 B minor chord (B-D-F#), there would be a strange tension between the F you're playing and the F# in the accompaniment.

but other than that, i can't see anything else wrong, good job. now harmonize every other major scale in all 12 keys! NOW! LOL

a good practice to apply these is to learn em on piano. if you take the same 1-3-5 triad shape and played it over all the white keys, you'd get those 7 chords you played. then try a key close to C major (F major, one flat in the key signature only, or G major, only one sharp in the key signature) and harmonize those in root position triads (1-3-5). keep doing it in all keys till you get to a key like C# major where its pretty much all black notes.

now if you are hopeless at piano (which i sorta am LOL), you could just play these triads in every key on the neck, but say the names of each note you're playing, and the degree of the scale its in. like you hit a D minor triad in the key of C major, you say "D, F, A: D minor, 2nd degree of the C major scale" and so on.

this is just one silly exercise i just came up with now, but if you want to try other things, perfect. learning another instrument like piano helped me alot, because it made the guitar make more sense, but if you don't, that's fine as well. steve vai said he was always hopeless at keyboard playing too... but i guess that was more incentive for him to become a freak on guitar :biggrin:

either way, good luck, and don't forget to ask questions, because this stuff might seem easy, but it takes a little while to internalize and become instantly accessible.

-Pryde

[Jason Stone]

This looks right to me too, but I don't understand the connection you're trying to make between the triads and the modes. *Looks like this is just a way to learn the modes in a relative way (C Ionian, D Dorian, E Phrygian, etc.) as opposed to leaning them in parallel (C Ionian, C Dorian, C Phrygian, etc). *I'm not sure I see how the triads help you do that, rather than, say, simply harmonizing each degree of the scale within the key you're working with. *

J

[Kev Brigden]

I think that's probably what I meant to say, but I'm always a bit ahead of myself when it comes to music so my terminology probably makes bugger all sense