How does one practice in all 12 keys every day?

[Asher S]

And again, don't ever trust people who trot out "for a progression of Amin7 to D7 to G use A Dorian, then D Mixolydian, then G Ionian". That TOTALLY obfuscates the fact that those three chords DEFINE a G major key center and using the G major scale is the what ties them together....

100% correct of course, AND understanding harmony and what modes are allows you to know and hear the obfuscated fact of what the key center is, so you don't need to ask JTE to work it out for you for each chart...

So expanding on John's example, if you have a ii-V progression such as Amin7 (ii) to D7 (V), the key center is G major (I).

What that means is that you can riff/walk within the G major scale over those ii-V changes and you will be diatonic. Try it out and hear it for yourself.

But you won't know that unless you understand the major scale, it's intervals, and how the modes are constructed from that.

 

[ZonGuy]

Bahama Bass is right on track. I used to write columns on music theory in "another bass forum", now defunct.

Working modes servers many purposes including ear-training, pasttern recognition, and knowledge over the finger board. At a higher level, you take songs and dissect them into their component parts. Can you recognize the chord and supply the next chord for the following?:

Cm7, F7 .....???


Bm7b5, E7b9......???

Did you know where to put your fingers? If you practice the modes properly, this will be a sleep walk.

When started out on bass, I had the Jaco Pastorius DVD plus a great bass instructor who started me out on "Autumn Leaves". We worked on that song for a month; developing walking lines and understanding what was going on. There is a lot deep foundational work that one needs to go through with modes..

 

[Fergie Fulton]

I'm an acknowledged opponent of how modes are generally taught, and I question the utility of putting much time into modes before you understand harmony. And this is a great example of why
.
But I'm getting way far away from the topic here. Sorry for the rant.

In summary, to make the modes sound differnt you have to HEAR the difference in your head. Just running the scales, modes, arpeggios, etc. without your brain and your ear engaged isn't practice. It's at best physical training, but the music HAS to come first.

John

I'm with you on that, and that's where we had an earlier disagrement, but you have stated my point that modes are a physical training and therefore learning them as C ionian, D Dorian, is a good way to train your hands if you go through all the modes in this manner, but pointless for the ear in order to learn harmony, but great for the ear for melody, and the fretboard. Once again it's application that i find lacking, that's why player go stale, bored or lost.
So good rant and i think its very "on topic" as the two run side by side, just wish more teachers and players would realise this.

You can only play what you know, and its about choices....Good player make good choices from their knowledge on what to play, bad players make bad choices from their knowledge on what to play. Having lots of knowledge is not bad, it gives you more choices, it's up to the player to apply those choices.

 

[Rudreax]

What I usually do is walk over a series of ii-V-I changes starting in one key, such as F. So, I'd walk a bar in Gmin, then a bar in C7, and then two bars in Fmaj. Then I go straight in a bar in Fmin, followed by a bar in Bb7, and then 2 bars in Ebmaj, and so on, following the circle of fourths. I run through this a couple of times without stopping, letting the whole process repeat itself. I then go into minor ii-V-I changes, going through the whole process again. Once I think I've gotten both systems down in my ears, I move a fourth up and do everything again so I can cover different chords in different tonalities.

 

[BahamaBass]

most important thing in playing bass is playing the chords tones. generally the most powerful which will outline a chord and lay down a solid foundation for the rest of the instruments to play on top.... the meat and potatoes so to speak is 1 - 3 - 5. With 7 or add9...6 or whatever if that is the chord you are playing being the coloring of the chord.