Hi folks!

Some years back, I thought I wanted to get more into jazz. There was a guy around here who was a very talented jazz guitarist. Couldn't play rock n roll for crackers, but a good jazz player.

He tried to teach me a few things and the first thing he laid on me was stop thinking in terms of the Aeolian, Dorian, Phrygian etc and just go by the numbers. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII.

Thinking of the modes in this fashion more closely correlates with how we think of chord progressions anyway. Even so, I still couldn't get it. He's say play the II scale against this progression and I'd go "huh?".

A couple of years later, I was still trying to learn the darn things when I hit on something that worked for me. I recognized a few patterns that helped me get them into my fingers. A few years ago, I put up a website for other people having trouble with modes. http://www.geocities.com/modalman2000 It was my first attempt at using Flash as a web authoring tool, so it's pretty rudimentary - someday I'll redo it, but it's functional for the moment and gets the point across. Of course it's meant strictly for guitarists.

What was I talking about? I forget...

Oh. I was going to say learning the modes definitely opens up a world of improvisational possibilities. But I have found that in the end, you can really play just about any note you want to over any chord or progression. What makes it good are the choices you make. The idea is to get to a point where you can play what hear in your head.

ramble ramble ramble...

hobes

hobes

"Every time I sit down to write a lyric, when I stand up I feel three pounds lighter" - Alan Jay Lerner