DO THIS To Make Your Blues Solos WAY MORE INTERESTING!
- Do you like to play the blues?
- Do you like improvising in a bluesy or blues rock style?
If so, do you maybe also find that you’ve grown a little tired of the sound of the pentatonic scale?
Well you aren’t alone. The pentatonic scale is a great tool, but after a certain amount of time, almost every guitar player finds themselves wanting to venture into other, more interesting sounds.
But if you’re a blues player, you might think that you’re supposed to stay largely within the pentatonic when you improvise, because (read this in a judgmental voice...) that’s the sound of the blues, right?
I dare say: wrong!
Not only do great blues players seldom stick just to the pentatonic (I mean, go and listen to their solos...), the use of the modes is actually significantly more common than you might think!
("But Tommaso, on YouTube they told me that modes are hard and useless and they can give you shingles". Ah, you silly goose, you should't believe everything they tell you on the internet...)
However, and this is the key point that everybody somehow fails to mention, we need to learn how to use the modes effectively to stay within the sound of the blues, because if you aren’t careful, your playing might start to venture into jazz territory.
That's a great sound in the right context, but for your average blues jam, it may seem a touch too ‘learned’ or, like an acquaintance once told me, ‘wordlessly condescending’ (*)
So, how do you incorporate the sound of the modes into your blues playing without rustling too many feathers and sounding authentic and not going crazy with modal fretboard patterns? Watch the video linked below, and I’ll show you just how simple it can be!
(*) To which I answered "Well, just for you, I can spell it out if you need me to...". Hilarity ensued. Then I bought him a drink for being a good sport.
Want to know even more about the modes? There's only so much I can cover in a 10 minute video, but if you want to truly understand the modes inside and out, check out my Master of the Modes guitar course which will cover everything you need to know about playing the modes on the guitar!
Video Transcription
Hello Internet, so nice to see you! A student of mine asked me if we can play modes, the modal scales, over a blues progression and make it sound blues. Yes, yes, we can. Again, the important point is to make it sound blues and not like you are just a jazz player trying to play a blues.
But yeah, it is possible. The other problem, on the other hand, that my students was worrying about is we need to change modes. We cannot play the same modal scale all over the blues chord progression.
There is a change of key because blues naturally, and I'm talking about a dominant blues, blues naturally changes key in the chord progression. So the first important thing to know is that no blues player is actually sitting down and mentally recalculating the modes from first principle.
So whenever they're on the first chord, they play something and then they just recalculate the whole thing. There is very little math involved. Okay. So there is actually a trick to see what is the right mode to play on every chord of a blues progression.
And it's much, much simpler than it sounds. So let me show you what I've answered to these students and we're going to go through these step by step so you can follow and play your model scales over a blues.
I've learned the basic modes and I want to know if there's more. Well, yes, there is. Touch the touch, a little bit more. What style are you playing? Well, the style of music that I'm playing is blues rock, I guess you would call it.
Yeah, so let's say blues-based. But my modal practicing is not blues-based. It's based on this. Do you know how to use the modes in blues? Do you have an idea what you can do? I have some ideas. I have some ideas and have been able to put them into my playing, and that's what I'm particularly interested in.
So what are you doing right now? So for example, if I was playing in an E minor blues, I could easily go to a D mixolydian, which is going to work beautifully in E minor, yeah? Yeah? Good. Okay, so things like that.
Okay. Locrian works great there too. Locrian over. Those are the same notes as before. Sorry? Those are the same notes. There you go. So this is my question. Okay, okay, very good. Okay, okay, okay, okay.
One thing is the mode, and one thing is the pattern. Yes. The mode is always called depending on the key of the song or the root of the chord you're playing over. So if I'm playing an E minor or E minor 7th and you're playing D mixolydian, in reality you're playing a Aeolian or A minor.
That's what you're doing. Because nobody out there who cannot see your guitar can tell that you're playing that pattern. The notes are the same. So your ear concentrates on the root of the chord, which is E, on an E minor 7, and your ear interprets everything starting from that root.
So it's not D, it's E. Make sense so far? Yes. Now, if in your mind you want to think that's D-mixolydian, because it's an easier pattern to see, you can. There's no problem with that. But you have to know that this is not what people are hearing.
They're not hearing D-mixolydian. They're hearing E minor. Then, all the patterns who have the same notes are the same mode. Yes. Okay? But they're different patterns. That's the difference. Okay? So if you play D mixolydian, A, E, Aeolian, F-sharp, Locrian, G, Ionian.
Yes, exactly. It's the exact same mode if I'm playing, because you're playing them over an E minor 7th or E minor, whatever. They're all Aeolian. Make sense so far? That's the difference. It makes sense so far and why I use that is because then I can be in different positions on the fretboard.
That's my advantage. But yes, same notes. Exactly. So that's the difference. The mode is the sound. The pattern is what your hands are doing. Okay? That's the difference. It's important to know it, but that's it.
Okay? Good. So now, do you want to learn more about the patterns or do you want to learn more about the modes? Meaning, do you want to change the position in which you play on the guitar so you can find some other places where you can play?
Or you want to change the sound that you make with the guitar but still fit the chord? I don't know. It's the answer to that question. See? That's a very good answer. That's a very good answer. I like when people don't go confidently in this.
Could, could. So why don't we try changing the sound and see if you like it. Okay. Do you know either the Dorian or the Dorian or the Ionian shapes, the patterns? You know them. Okay, so before you were thinking of this as if you were playing D-mixolidian.
Okay, so I'm playing an E minor 7, and you play your D-mixolydian, and then you get a specific sound, which is the E aeolian. Play that. Anything. Can you play a D major or D-Ionian instead? What's the note of the strings?
They're not the same. They're not the same. Exactly. Exactly. One SC, one SC sharp. So now, stay on the top two strings. Okay? Because if we start from the bottom... It takes a long time to get that time.
In general, for everybody here, it's better if you study your scales from the high strings, not the low strings, because literally nobody ever will start soloing, right? You will start here. It's better if you start thinking of them that way.
Okay? So, let's just play the top two notes. Of one and then the other. Okay, so if you play the top two notes, the top two strings of... Which one is this? That is the D major that I... The D major, which will create the E Dorian sound.
Play that again. And stop on the C sharp. That's the different sound. Now play the D mixolydian, which will create the E aeolian sound. Then stop on the C. It's a dissonance. I wouldn't stop on that note, on that chord, but that's the difference.
So they sound slightly different. I mean, you can stop, but I will stop on the C sharp. That's a nice sound to me. I will not really stop on the C. I will wait the court to go somewhere else, stop on the C.
I can pass by the C. Yeah. Okay. But that's the difference between the two of them. Make sense? It makes great sense. And I've got to say that if I'm soloing live and ionian I can smash it out pretty quick without thinking too much about it.
And it sounds pretty good. Yeah, and there it is. So we're talking about minor blues, right? Yes. Minor blues, minor blues in E, you're going to start with E minor. You're going to get to an A minor at a certain point, the fourth chord, right?
On that, you will play the E Ionian or A Dorian, which is the D mixolydian. I know, it sounds like math, I know. But it's really not that hard. Okay? So, on this one, again, play your D Ionian. D Ionian.
Ionian. Ionian. So with the C sharp and the F sharp. When I change chord, it's the same but with the natural C. Because now the natural C is in the sigma, in the A minor chord. I mean, if you were playing a C sharp here, but...
Now. I mean, unless you play Jazz. Okay, so in that case, you hit the C. Okay, so let me come back to the E minor and open the C sharp. Switch to the scale. That would be our first change, okay? Now, if you were to take all the modes and order them from the one with the, all the modes with the same root, okay?
So either you do it in E or in D, doesn't really matter. Okay, but if you're doing it in E and you order them from the one with the most sharp to the one with the most flats, so you'll have E lydian, E Ionian, E mixolidian, E Dorian, E aeolian, E phrygian, E locrian. And every time there will be one note of difference between the modes. That's called the order of brightness. More sharp is brighter. Less sharp, it's darker. You are shifting one space in this order of brightness because you're playing E dorian, E aeolian.
So the modes are stacked on top of each other. You can imagine the modes are stuck on top of each other. Again, from the same root. That's the important thing. The order is always going to be the same.
Lydian, Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian, Locrian. I mean, you don't have to remember it by heart. Just write all the modes. Okay? Stack them up. When you go from the first chord to the fourth chord, you want to step down in this order by one step.