JamPlay Overall Rating:

JamPlay.com is hitting it big in the guitar world. Their website is a membership only service which broadcasts high-definition video guitar lessons. They have brought together guitar instruction with interactivity... even allowing you to ask questions to their video instructors. They feature 4-5 guitar instructors to give you a selection in teaching styles, which is a big plus.

They teach by "lesson set" instead of just dishing out a ton of small video clips. They start with the very basics like tuning your guitar, finger placement, and basic chords, and move on to finger-picking, palm muting, hammer ons, pull offs, and many more advanced topics. This methodical approach helps the guitar student from getting overwhelmed.

The other surprise is the low fee. Their monthly rate would not even get you ten minutes with most guitar teachers.

Visit JamPlay now for a free online lesson!

Modes For Guitar

Modes in essence are scales. The seven modes that are derived from the major scale are:

Ionian
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian
Locrian

If we use the key of C we get these modes:

Mode Name	Notes	Description
Ionian	CDEFGABC	Same pattern as the major scale
Dorian	DEFGABC	Same pattern as the natural minor scale but with raised 6^th note
Phrygian	EFGABC	Traditional flamenco scale
Lydian	FGABCDEF	Same pattern as the major scale but with a raised 4^th note
Mixolydian	GABCDEFG	Same pattern as the major scale but with lowered 7^th note
Aeolian	ABCDEFGA	Same pattern as the natural minor scale
Locrian	BCDEFGAB

Keep in mind, that just because we used the key of C to derive these modes, does not mean that we are still in the key of C. In other words, if we play notes from the C major scale but make D our tonal centre, we get a very different experience. It’s very close to a natural minor scale. We could use this mode against a G minor 7 chord.

Using a major scale to determine the notes of a mode is a handy way to figure out the notes. We could also just use the description above. It’s probably easier to just understand that a Lydian mode is like a major scale with a raised 4th. Most of us can already play major scales, so with a little tweak we can easily be playing a lydian or mixolydian mode.

Here are some extra guitar resources relating to modes.

No Comments