Chords and Scales
Scale Positions
Extended Scale Posotions
3 Octave Scales

Basics A
Basics B
Chromatic Intervals
Ionian Mode
Dorian Mode
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian
Lochrian

THE MAJOR SCALE

The first thing I want us to do is to explore the major scale and its inner components. I know that we might feel that we are treading over very familiar ground and I hear lots of little sighs of, “Oh no, I already know the major scale”. Do you know it all over the fingerboard in all the positions and all of the inner complexities? I’m still finding things after all this time of playing because the amount of melodic structures within the major scales is almost uncountable. I must stipulate that although scales, arpeggios and chords are the basis of all improvised music, there is more than one approach to the use of scales. The Lydian concept, The Mother chord concept and many more. Even with all of these concepts there are no substitutions for your inner creativity. I am trying to show you one of these approaches of improvisation, and at the same time I am trying to show you how to explore the fingerboard. Everything I am trying to impart to you is for you to use with your creativity to its fullest. The training process that we go through is to get your fingers, and mind, to work in coordination with your inner self, again, to let the creative process work to its fullest.

BASICS. A)

There are 7 modes within the major scale, each mode has a life of its own and can be used in many different ways. Firstly I will show you the basics, here we have the 7 modes and their intervals. I will explain how we get these intervals from the chromatic scale. There are 12 chromatic tones in the octave. Scales are made up from combinations of these intervals. As an example, in the Ionian mode you can see we have 2 chromatic intervals between the Root A and the second B. 2 between the 2^nd B and 3^rd C#. Only 1 chromatic interval between the 3^rd C# and the 4^th D. 2 between the 4^th D and the 5^th E. 2 between the 5^th E and the 6^th F#. 2 between the 6^th F# and the 7^th G# and 1 between the 7^th G# and the octave. If you count them you will see we have 12 intervals. All major scales have these components in their structure. :- Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone. Most scales are based on this principle, but the combination of the intervals will differ from scale to scale.

BASICS. B)

When we improvise the whole improvisation can be analysed and explained in a modal, scalic or chordal form. We use either part of, or all of, a scale, an arpeggio or a chord. Even one note is part of any of the former three. I find that when I improvise I know my fingerboard so well that I can forget about scales and rely totally on my imagination, this is because I know where to go to get what I want. This comes from knowing and studying scales, arpeggios and chords. I might add I still have a lot to learn and the more I learn the more I want to learn. It never stops and the excitement of new exploration keeps my mind active and alert. I hope you will get as much from me as I have from all my associates and friends over these last 40 years, keep practising.

Chromatic Intervals and the 7 Modes.

Notes

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

E

F

F#

G

G#

Intervals

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Octave

IONIAN

Root

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

Octave

A

B

C#

D

E

F#

G#

A

DORIAN

Root

2nd

b3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

Octave

B

C#

D

E

F#

G#

A

B

Phrygian

Root

b2nd

b3rd

4th

5th

b6th

b7th

Octave

C#

D

E

F#

G#

A

B

C#

Lydian

Root

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

Octave

D

E

F#

G#

A

B

C#

D

Mixolydian

Root

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

b7th

Root

E

F#

G#

A

B

C#

D

E

Aeolian

Root

2nd

b3rd

4th

5th

b6th

b7th

Root

F#

G#

A

B

C#

D

E

F#

Lochrian

Root

b2nd

b3rd

4th

b5th

b6th

b7th

Root

G#

A

B

C#

D

E

F#

G#

B) Here are the seven modes with the relative chords that correspond to each mode. The chords are found by using the Root, Third, Fifth and Seventh of each chord, staying within the confines of the scale you are working with. To get a basic major Triad just use the Root, Third and Fifth. It works in the same way for the minor chords.

Fig 2.

Major IONIAN Maj 7^th Root 3^rd 5^th 7^th

Minor DORIAN Min 7^th Root b3^rd 5^th b7^th

Minor PHRYGIAN Min 7^th Root b3^rd 5^th b7^th

Major LYDIAN Maj 7^th Root 3^rd 5^th 7^th

7th MIXOLYDIAN Dom 7^th Root 3^rd 5^th b7^th

Minor AEOLIAN Min 7^th Root b3^rd 5^th b7^th

Flat5 LOCHRIAN Min 7^{th b5} Root b3^rd b5^th b7^th

These seven modes cover a vast area for musical improvisation. If we only had these seven modes and nothing more we could still improvise on virtually any chords or melodic structure, using combinations of the seven modes in all the twelve keys, don’t forget that one chromatic octave holds all the notes for the twelve keys. The secret is to find combinations of notes that are hidden within the modal scales, to find these combinations we first have to explore one major scale, to simplify the exploration we will concentrate only on one scale all over the finger board. The basic 7 modes in notation and Tablature form starting on the A string.

CHORDS and SCALES.

The Major scale is a strange beast with :-

{ 7 Heads 7 Arms and 7 Bodies. }

{ 7 Notes 7 Scales and 7 Chords }

Each note, scale or chord is linked with each other by a Key or Tone centre. These centres can change, and do change, according to the expression of the music and the musician. Any combination of more than one note played simultaneously is defined as a chord. If we build a chord based on the Root, 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th, starting from the root note of each mode, we will find the chords that relate directly to the mode you are playing.

EXAMPLES 1.

EXAMPLE 2.

MODE	CHORD	ROOT	3^rd	5^th	7^th
Ionian	Amaj7	A	C#	E	G#
Dorian	Bmin7	B	D	F#	A
Phrygian	C#min7	C#	E	G#	B
Lydian	Dmaj7	D	F#	A	C#
Mixolydian	E7	E	G#	B	D
Aeolian	F#min7	F#	A	C#	E
Lochrian	G#min7b5	G#	B	D	F#

Now that we can build chords with the Root 3rd 5th and 7th we can start to reorganise the structure of the chords. All we have to do is to put the 3rd up an octave and we have a very full sounding chord. The structure of the chord will now be Root 5th 7th and 10th. The 10th being the 3rd up an octave. If you count up a 2 octave scale you will see how 9th’s 10th’s 11th’s and 13th’s can be found. I will go into more detail later in the book, but first lets have a look at the way the chords look and sound with the 3rds up an octave.

Now we can see and hear how the chords and scales are developing. As we delve more into the relationship between the chords and the scales we see just how much of one is in the other and where on the fingerboard they are. If we now, as an exercise, use all the seven chords in arppegiated form across the fingerboard we will see that, as with the scales, they cover the whole fingerboard. First we have 1 Octave Arpeggios.

Now we can use the whole fingerboard and start on the 6th string.

If we now use a 1 octave arppegiated chord ascending and then descend with a scale we start to get some interesting combinations of sounds.

SCALE POSITIONS. As you can see from the above examples each of the chord positions that we have on the fingerboard has the Modes to go with them. These Modes have patterns to them and if we learn what the patterns look and feel like we will soon be able to apply them to our improvisation. The approach is to imagine that each scale is in a box and these boxes are up the fingerboard. The Graphic of my fingerboard shows BOX 1.

BOX 1 From 4^th Fret to 7^th Fret

BOX 2 From 5^th Fret to 9^th Fret

BOX 3 From 7^th Fret to 11^th Fret

BOX 4 From 9^th Fret to 12^th Fret

BOX 5 From 11^th Fret to 14^th Fret

BOX 6 From 12^th Fret to 16^th Fret

BOX 7 From 14^th Fret to 17^th Fret

Extended Scale Positions.

As can be seen by the above examples, all of the boxes run into each other. All that needs to be done is to change the fingering a little and we will be able to run from the bottom of the fingerboard to the top. What we have to realise is this fact, there are many ways to finger and play the transition from the bottom to the top of the fingerboard. This particular one uses the 1st finger to move up 2 frets at a time, therefore enabling the rest of the finger's time to get into place for the next transition. It is so important to realise that the minimum amount of effort enables us to maximise control over the instrument. What I mean is this, if we are pushing too hard on the strings or holding the guitar too tightly we are using unnecessary amounts of energy that could be used for other more important things. In the extra micro second it takes to release our fingers from a tight grip we could have moved 2 frets. We should use only the amount of energy that it takes to hold the strings down on the frets and to create a good sound from the instrument. NO BUZZES on the strings! When we are improvising we are using energy to create, to move about the fingerboard and to control the environment that we are playing in e.g. jazz, rock, blues, country, etc. I am not overly concerned with speed and too many notes, but I am concerned with precision and clarity. This aspect of our playing will show the clarity of our mind and our determination to be as near perfect in our playing as we can get.

Here is another graphic example, this time it is of the ascending 3 octave scale.

Here are a few different fingerings for a 3 Octave scale.

The 1st example uses jumps with the 4th finger and as you can see, on the graphic, the fingering slants across the fingerboard encompassing all of the boxes dealt with on the previous paragraph.

EX.1

A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A
1	2	4	4	1	2	4	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	3	4	1	2	4	4	1	2
6				5				4				3				2				1

The 2nd example uses jumps with the 1st finger.

EX.2

A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A
2	4	1	2	4	1	3	4	1	3	4	1	2	4	1	2	4	1	2	4	1	2
6				5				4				3				2				1

The 3rd example uses a combination of both of the previous examples.

EX.3

A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A
2	4	1	1	2	4	1	2	4	4	1	3	1	3	4	1	3	4	1	1	3	4
6		5				4				3					2		1

The 4th example is in threes across the fingerboard and up the first string.

EX.4

A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A	B	C#	D	E	F#	G#	A
1	2	4	1	2	4	1	2	4	1	2	4	1	3	4	1	3	4	1	2	4	4
6			5			4			3			2			1

EX.5

By taking the fingering of EX.4, up to the first string and then stopping, we have an example of a 3 finger stretch exercises. Some fingerings are 1-2-4, others are 1-3-4, I will let you work out the fingering for these exercises. You can see what fingers to use by comparing EX.4 with these exercises. Look at the patterns that these exercises make on the fingerboard and you will see what fingers to use, it is all quite logical. Also you will have noticed, I hope, that we are covering two and a half octaves and each pattern represents a mode. Back to the modes again, well I don’t think we ever left them, it just shows how much contents are in a simple scale.

IONIAN DORIAN PHRYGIAN LYDIAN

MIXOLYDIAN AEOLIAN LOCHRIAN

You will find that by using combinations of these fingerings you can play all over the fingerboard with fluency but you will have to practice the exercises and become familiar with them. You will be amazed how your technique will improve if you practice these exercises for only an hour a day. Also, all of these and the exercises that follow will be used at some time or other in our improvisations, so it would be wise to get these exercises mastered, it will become clear why at a later date. Also I will explain how to use these exercises with the hammering technique using right and left hands, SO GET PRACTISING.