As a learner, I found it helpful to think of scales and modes like this. I don’t think understanding all this will automatically make you a better player – all I’m trying for here is to satisfy those who have a healthy curiosity and a desire to learn. The only prior knowledge you’ll need is:
· A basic knowledge of note names
· An understanding of what is meant by a semitone interval (“a one fret step”
, a whole tone interval (“a two fret step”
and an octave interval (a twelve semitone gap between two notes that share the same name - the higher one, incidentally, being twice the frequency of the lower).
Now, here’s a challenge for you. You have to play notes on your bass, following these rules:
1) You have to play eight notes.
2) The first and last note must be an octave apart.
3) You must make each note you play higher than the last one.
4) You are only allowed to use semitone and whole tone (often abbreviated just to “tone”
steps or intervals.
If you meet all these requirements, we’ll call what you’re playing a scale (more about modes in a bit). There are some scales that use different rules, but we don't need to get into that until a bit later.
There are quite a few ways to do successfuly tackle this challenge. Here’s one very common one, starting on C and just playing the “natural” notes (no sharps or flats).
C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C
We have a scale! In fact, this is the very familiar major scale - the C major scale, as we're starting on C. The pattern here as you go up in pitch is tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. Of course, you can continue further in pitch by starting again, but this time keeping going to make a two octave scale:
C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C
Notice that the pattern of tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone happens between the first C note and the second, and again between the second C note and the third.
Now, look at what you get if you play a selection of notes from this sequence, starting on the second and ending on the ninth.
D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D
We have another scale! Eight notes, covering an octave interval, using just whole tone and semitone intervals. But it sounds very different to the first scale we played. This is because we have a different pattern of intervals (tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone, tone). Because we're starting on the second note, we can call this scale the second mode of the first one – we’re playing the same notes (still no sharps or flats), but we’ve changed the pattern of intervals and this makes it sound very different.
Okay people, you’ve no doubt already worked out that we can make other scales using these same notes. We could start on the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, or 7th note of our original scale to make the following modes from it:
E-F-G-A-B-C-D-E
F-G-A-B-C-D-E-F
G-A-B-C-D-E-F-G
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A
B-C-D-E-F-G-A-B
None of these have the same pattern of tone and semitone intervals found in our first or second examples in the post above. So now we have seven different ways of playing a scale that meets the rules we set out earlier – that is, seven different modes, all based on the C major scale. They sound different to one another because they all use a different sequence of semitones and tones to climb one octave in eight notes.
The modes all have names, just to give you more stuff to learn! They are as follows:
First mode of this scale – Ionian
Second mode of this scale – Dorian
Third mode of this scale – Phrygian (this has a nice Spanish Flamenco sound to it)
Fourth mode of this scale – Lydian
Fifth mode of this scale – Mixolydian (quite a bluesy sort of sound to this)
Sixth mode of this scale – Aeolian (the “natural minor” scale)
Seventh mode of this scale – Locrian
We have seen that we have seven different ways (so far) of covering our one octave range in tone and semitone steps. What makes each of these ways or MODES different to the others is the order in which we play the tone or semitone steps. For reference, the order of steps for each mode is summarised here, in abbreviated form (T=tone, S=semitone):
Ionian - T, T, S, T, T, T, S (our usual “major scale”
Dorian - T, S, T, T, T, S, T
Phrygian - S, T, T, T, S, T, T
Lydian - T, T, T, S, T, T, S
Mixolydian - T, T, S, T, T, S, T
Aeolian - T, S, T, T, S, T, T (the “natural minor” scale)
Locrian - S, T, T, S, T, T, T
The next important thing to understand is that we could choose to play any of these patterns using any note as our starting point. For example, if we played the first pattern of tone and semitone steps starting from the note A, we would have the scale A Ionian (or A major). Again for reference, here are the notes for each mode when starting on A. Notice that in each one, we use all the note letters A to G and then add sharp signs or flat signs to get our correct sequence of tone and semitone intervals in each case.
A Ionian – A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A
A Dorian – A, B, C, D, E, F#, G, A
A Phrygian – A, Bb, C, D, E, F, G, A
A Lydian – A, B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A
A Mixolydian – A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G, A
A Aeolian – A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A
A Locrian – A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A
So, there we have seven (so far) different ways of getting across the octave interval from A to A using tone and semitone steps. Seven different modes, each one sounding different to any of the others because it has
a particular pattern of intervals between the notes in the scale.
As you play these patterns on your bass, you’ll notice that each one has its own sound or "musical flavour". And each one also has a particular set of patterns in terms of the fingering used. This can help you to learn the modes in a way that enables you to play any of them from any starting point. But do remember what I pointed out earlier – just being able to play different modal scales all over your bass won’t make suddenly turn you into a great player. I do think, though, that understanding all this can help you work out which notes are likely to create the lines you want to play, but we still have a little way to go before we can start to look at how this stuff can be applied in that way.
A quick question, in your original post speaking about C and modes, your notation as you moved down (?) the modes also changed the note; i.e. C D E F G A B C, then you moved and said, D E F G A B C D. You had me there very well.
However, in the discussion above about the A modes, you kept A in your notations all the way through. Why the change? And, is there a difference?
Nope - no difference. I changed the starting point in the first set of examples to show how
the different patterns were all derived from the original C scale.
But in the second set, I started each one on A, just to emphasise that
you can start any of them on whatever note you like and don't have to start from a particular point. So, there was some method in my choices and I hope this answer is clear enough for you to see what I did and why. You may find a really careful re-read of the first bit of this helps at this point, especially in the light of what I just said here.
