Guitar Heat

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After learning about how to construct the modal formulaes, lets learn about the Chords usage while playing Guitar Modes. For those who are not aware of how chords work and how they are formed, refer back to these two chords lessons. 1)Basic Chord Theory,  2)How Chords Work. With all said, lets start with how you can apply these Chords in different Modes.
Now, there are four different types of triads, and these are:

Major 1 3 5
Minor 1 b3 5
Augmented 1 3 #5
Diminished 1 b3 b5

Modes and there Classification
1)Major Modes(3)
2)Minor Modes(3)
3)Diminished Mode(1)

Lets talk about the Major Modes first. As you can see in the major triad(1 3 5), when you compare this with all the modes and see their interval, we see that there are three modes which have the same interval as the major triad(ie 1 3 5).

Ionian Mode          1 2    3   4   5    6   7  1
Dorian Mode         1 2   b3  4    5   6  b7 1
Phrygian Mode     1 b2 b3  4    5 b6 b7 1
Lydian Mode         1 2     3 #4   5   6   7  1
Mixolydian Mode 1 2     3    4   5   6  b7 1
Aeolian Mode        1 2    b3   4   5 b6 b7 1
Locrian Mode        1 b2 b3   4  b5 b6 b7 1

To find the modes which are major, we need to find which ones have a Major 3rd (3) and Perfect 5th (5) interval in them. This is easy! There’s only 3 modes with 3 and 5 in them.

Ionian
Lydian
Mixolydian

Now the Minor Modes(ie 1 b3 5)

Dorian
Phrygian
Aeolian

Now the Diminished Mode
Locrian is a weird one. If we look at the 3rd and 5th intervals, they are both flattened (Minor 3rd and Diminished 5th). So which triad does this mode fit under? We already know it can’t be a Major triad, and we know it can’t be a Minor Triad. Therefore, it can only either be Diminished or Augmented. If we look at our augmented triad, it has a Major 3rd and an Augmented 5th. So this can’t be it. We need a triad which has a minor 3rd and diminished 5th. The only one which has these two, is the diminished triad. Therefore, Locrian is a Diminished Mode.

I am breaking the modes lesson in different parts, so that it will be easy for the first timmers to digest all the information. Remember slow and steady wins the race! In the next lesson we will discuss how you can extend your chords to the major, minor and diminished modes, also what all chord progression you can use.

All your comments and questions are Welcomed. Stay tuned for the next lesson. Until then ROCK ON!!!

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