Drop 2 Chord Mode Map, Root Positions

As usual, I've been thinking a lot about modes, and how to use them over a given chord.

One thing that's been evolving in my playing for quite some time; I have had countless guitar teachers tell me that switching modes over chords is a mistake. I've never understood it; if you stick entirely to a key center, you're going to miss out on a number of harmonic opportunities in any piece where all the chords aren't diatonic to a given key, and even if they are, it'll prevent you from taking interesting turns in your phrasing, be it composed or improvised (i.e., playing the octatonic scale built off the third of a dominant seven chord...I mean, there is a diminished triad in a dom7 chord, why not make it shine?). In a piece that gets a little more interesting, sticking to a key center often boils you down to pentatonics with an occasional passing tone, and that's where I've seen many guitarists stay for the long term.

Nothing wrong with it, but me, I'm going to try and work with the underlying harmony as much as possible. Tones that are common to chords are of course important, for voice leading and such, but otherwise, I want as many colors in my improvisational palette as possible at any given time.

The first thing you realize when you go this way; you need to match chords to scales and modes. The more evolved version of this is, knowing where all the chord tones, and extensions, are, in a given mode as well. And then add ear and taste, so that you're not just burning through modes over chords all the time, and you've set yourself up with some work, to say the least.

To get it rolling though, you learn things like, "Well, over a minor 7 chord, at a fundamental level, I can use Aeolian (or Dorian, we'll start with Aeolian). Mind the 6th degree as it can destabilize the underlying harmony."

So, you know your minor 7 bar chord, fifth fret, all six strings. As it rings out, you play A Aeolian from the low E string root (fifth fret) to the high E string root (fifth fret again). Sounds great. Aeolian and minor 7. Easy. Fifth fret...fifth fret. Same registers, you know how your modes connect. Pat Martino eat my dust.

Enter drop 2, drop 3, open, quartal, and who knows what else, chords. Now you're playing chords all over the neck, and you're not even into the inversions yet. An A minor 7 chord, just root position drop 2 chords, can have the roots on three different strings, which puts them in three different parts of the neck (six if you count the octave). No more fifth fret...fifth fret.

Hmm...a little thought shows you that, hey I can still use the Aeolian form starting at the chord root, no matter where it is. Just remember how the B string tuning effects the pattern. Problem is, now you don't have the perspective of the whole neck, just a fragment of a pattern. It's a great step, and a necessary one, but losing site of the whole neck is frustrating, and frequently you find yourself jumping back to your familiar position, or locking into a key center again, or worse, just burning through some approximation to land on the tonic.

To that end, I decided to find out where, exactly, these pattern fragments fit into the standard vertical modes we all know. For example, say you're playing A minor 7 as a drop 2 chord, which means you have a 1,5,7,3 degree stack starting on the seventh fret of the D string. What's the entire vertical pattern? It's not going to be Aeolian. Yes, the fragment starting from the seventh fret on the D string will be. But what about the A and E strings, and what full horizontal mode patterns connect to the left and right?

Answer: The full horizontal pattern the Aeolian fragment is in, is Locrian, starting on the second degree of A Aeolian (so B). If you know your modes, that means that Aeolian is to the left, Ionian is to the right. Suddenly that little drop 2 chord is sitting in a very large and familiar area for improvisation.

What if you play the A minor 7, drop 2, root on the A string? Answer: Phrygian. Which again, sets you up for Dorian to the left, Lydian to the right.

Where do I get this? I mapped it all out on paper. I created a reasonably high quality version of the first one; drop 2 chords, root position, major7, dominant7, minor7, min7b5, dim7. For each, I show the chord form, then below it, where it plugs into the overall horizontal pattern, what mode that is, and what all the degrees are (with the chord degrees differentiated).

There's a lot of ways I can take this; instead of assuming Aeolian for minor chords, use Dorian (probably my next one). Instead of assuming Ionian for major chords, assume Lydian (though either of these become pretty obvious from looking at this chart, raise the sixth for dorian, raise the fourth for lydian). Then, do the inversions. Then, do the Drop 3s.

Do I plan on memorizing all this? Errr....no. The idea is really to give me starting points and clues, which over time, I'll internalize into an ever-expanding framework. But, writing it all down and adding it to the practice regimen has already proven valuable to me. I'm thinking about modes over chords, and scale degrees. Jazzy.

Learned some pretty interesting things too...did you know that Melodic Minor seems to be a straightforward scale to play over minor7(b5) chords?

Note 1: regarding Melodic Minor, I know there are names for all the modes. They seem to change depending on what you read or who you talk to, with the possible exception of Aeolian Dominant. To that end, for my personal sanity, I just think of Melodic Minor as a b3 version of the standard Ionian mode, and refer to the subsequent modes as "Melodic Minor Ionian" (root mode), "Melodic Minor Dorian" (second mode), etc.

Note 2: For the diminished 7 chords, you'll see two "7" indicators, one filled with grey. Because the symmetrical scales (whole/half and half/whole) have 8 notes (a bb7, which is a chord tone, and a 7), I differentiate the two by color. The grey one is the "extra" note.

The Drop 2 Chord Mode Map, Root Positions, can be found at:

http://www.tcoz.com/fretboardframework/Drop2ChordModeMap_RootPositions.pdf

As always, thanks for visiting.

Determing Scale/Mode Discussion

I posted this in response to a fellow student's question at Berklee, which was, more or less, "I know that using the V7 chord to determine scale works for major modes. How does it apply to other modes/scales?"

My reply, which was evidently well received:

----------

I'll take a stab at this, as I've toyed around with it a bit; the same logic you mention seems to apply. Look for the structures that are characteristic of the scale, particularly as they relate to the dominant and tonic chord within it (if they are present...they aren't always).

Major:
I ii iii IV V7 vi vii(b5)

Minor:
i ii(b5) III iv v VI V7

Melodic minor:
i(maj7), ii, III(#5), IV7, V7, vi(b5), vii(b5)

Harmonic minor:
i(maj7), ii(b5), III(#5), iv, V7, VI, vii(b5)

So, you look at the chord structures, then determine the possibilities. For instance, say you got into a song that vamps on an E7 for the lead for 16 bars. You might say, "that's a V chord of A major. So my improv is A major" (modally, E mixo, 5th mode of A major). That's correct, albeit predictable. Nothing wrong with that though, a good mixo solo is a great thing.

BUT...E7 is also the V chord of A harmonic minor. So, to spice it up, I'll start in E mixo, and hit a tone common to A harmonic minor (G# is a good one, it's the third of E7, and the seventh of A harmonic minor), then play in E phrygian dominant (the 5th mode of A harmonic minor), then before the end of the lead, pivot off the G# again and come out in E mixo. Very dramatic and sets you apart from the penta minor crowd.

Single chord vamps have a lot of possibilities though. Here's something more structured:

i, VI, V7, i.

It's got a minor chord as the resolution; lot of possibilities there. But, I see it has a major chord on the VI, and a dominant chord on the V7. Look at the diatonic structures we know; that's harmonic minor (play that progression; you'll hear it loud and clear).

Alter it to this:

i, vi(b5), V7, i

And it's not harmonic minor anymore, because harmonic minor doesn't have a min7b5 chord on the vi...melodic minor does though. If you play this one, again, you'll hear it loud and clear (and might recognize it as a VERY common jazz progression...go 4 beats on the i, and 2 beats on the vi(b5) and V7).

So the original thinking is valid, you just keep applying it.

But what if no tonic, and/or dominant chord, is visible in the arrangement? For instance, one I frequently see the hippies get wrong:

Amaj, Bmaj (Fire on the Mountain).

I see this played in either A or B Ionian all the time. Both are basically wrong, because neither chord is the tonic. Two major chords in a row...that could be a few things, but straightforwardly, that's a IV-V progression. So, E f g A B...E major. To use the roots of the chord, use either the fourth or fifth mode; A Lydian or B Mixolydian. The hippy-in-the-know knows that Lydian was Jerry's favorite mode (the #4 is a huge part of Jerry's spacey lead style), so, you go for A Lydian. It sounds great. Don't try to explain it at the jam though.

Another example...two Dom7 chords in a row.

A7, B7.

What scale, diatonically, has two dom7 chords consecutively?

Melodic minor (on the IV7 and V7). So, if you hit a song that is just two dom7 chords like this in a row (or is mostly those two chords), you know that you E melodic minor is a possibility, even though no tonic chord is visible.

Everything is subject to interpretation, and the ear rules all, but as far as I understand it, this is the basic mechanics of making these kinds of determinations. Powerful stuff for the improviser.

Work out all drop 2 and drop 3 7th chord inversions of any quality (maj, min, min7b5, dim) without remembering shapes or where the roots are.

Came up with an interesting one here. I wanted an easy way to be able to compute drop 2 and drop 3 inversions up the neck (if you're not familiar with drop 2 and drop 3 voicings, you'll have to google it, it's a technique for building chords used heavily at Berklee), so that if I forgot a seventh chord shape, I could easily figure it out. From there, I could add the 9th, change it to an open chord, whatever; the idea is to get to the base 7th chord quickly and then do the extensions or alterations.

There are 12 basic inversions of a drop 2 chord available --per octave--. Drop 2 voicing are across four consecutive strings (no skipped strings), so the root of the chord can be on the low D, A, or E strings, and there's four inversions per string; that's 12 shapes. If the B string was tuned consistently, you'd only have to remember four, because they'd repeat from string to string...but that's not the case, so you have to know all the fingerings.

There are 8 basic inversions of a drop 3 chord available per octave. Drop 3 have a set of top 3 strings, then skip a string, and the root is on the next string (the low string). So, the root can either be on the low A string (skipping the D in the chord), or the E string (skipping the A in the chord). Four inversions per string, 2 possible strings to put the root on; 8 shapes.

And that's PER CHORD QUALITY, and we're just talking seventh chords (so major 7, dom 7, minor 7, min 7 flat 5, dim 7). Do the math:

- Drop 2 7th chords: 12 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 60 SHAPES.
- Drop 3 7th chords: 8 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 40 SHAPES.

Technically, because diminished shapes are symmetrical, there's only three drop 2 shapes, and two drop 3 shapes, to memorize. Even then, you're still dealing with dozens of shapes to remember. That sounds really hard...and it is. Interestingly, this seems to be how most guitar players try to do it (ergo the haphazard chord knowledge of your typical guitar player).

There has to be a better way, and I came up with this: note there may be different ways to describe the steps, but these steps are the ones I find easiest to visualize.

Drop 2: 1573. Move second degree from top, to bottom. Move new top degree, to bottom.
Drop 3, 1735. Move the second degree from the top, to the bottom. Switch the order of the new top 2 degrees.

Let's try it:

The drop 2 first inversion voicing for any chord quality is 1,5,7,3 (your starting point). It can be any quality, it doesn't matter, so we'll use minor 7; In E, that'd be E, B, D, G. That's 1, 5, 7, 3.

Apply the formula (algorithm really): Move second from top, to bottom. Move new top, to bottom.

3-3-5
7-5-1
5-1-7
1-7-3

Do it again, second inversion (over the fifth).

5-5-7
1-7-3
7-3-1
3-1-5

Do it again, third inversion (over the 7th).

7-7-1
3-1-5
1-5-3
5-3-7

That's four inversions, which incidentally, you can call, "573 over 1, 715 over 3, 137 over 5, 351 over 7"...which reveals more relationships, like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string in a drop 2, is always a 5th, and 5ths are always perfect unless they are altered, like a min7b5 or dim chord). Move the drop 2 form down a string (so start with first inversion voicing on A string) and start the formula all over again to get the four inversions on that string. Move down to the E string, repeat: 12 inversions.

For drop 3, let's start with the first inversion voicing of E minor 7 on the A string, and work the formula: move second-degree-from-the-top, to the bottom of the stack. Switch order of the new top 2 degrees. The starting degree order is 1, 7, 3, 5 (remember, drop 3...you are skipping a string).

5-5-7
3-7-5
7-1-1
1-3-3

Do it again to move from second to third inversion:

7-7-1
5-1-7
1-3-3
3-5-5

Do it again to move from third to fourth inversion:

1-1-3
7-3-1
3-5-5
5-7-7

Again, you could call these, "735 over 1, 157 over 3, 371 over 5, 513 over 7", which reveals relationships like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string, is always a 7th of one kind or another).

Now...how do you remember exactly what fret each inversion starts on (what's the inversion root?).

Fortunately, the answer lies in something you probably already know if your still reading, and it applies to both drop 2 and drop 3 voicings: interval stacks.

All interval stacks for 7th chords (chords are built in intervals of thirds, so these are stacked thirds):

- Maj7: maj, min, maj.
- Dom7: maj, min, min.
- Min 7: min, maj, min.
- Min 7 b5, min, min, maj.
- Dim: min, min, min (symmetrical).

In terms of frets:

Any major third is 4 frets away (5, if you include the start fret).
Any minor third is 3 frets away (4, if you include the start fret).

Take E maj 7, which is E, G#, B, D#. Start on first inversion; your are playing chord/root (chord over root). You want to:

- Start on E.
- move to second inversion (chord/3rd). The first interval in a major chord is major third...four frets away. You'll be on G#
- move to the third inversion (chord/5th). The second interval is a minor third....three frets away. From G#, you'll be on B.
-move to the fourth inversion (chord/7th). The third interval is a major third...four frets away. From B, you'll be on D#.

Take diminished chords. The interval stack is minor 3rd, minor 3rd, minor 3rd (symmetrical). Start with first inversion voicing (chord/root).

- Start on E.
- Move up a minor third. G.
- Move up a minor third. Bb
- Move up a minor third. Db.

Put it all together, let's take A maj 7, which is A, C#, E, G#:

- Start with a drop 2 first inversion, 1573. This is chord/root (so you should be fretting an A on the bottom string).
- First interval of a maj 7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (C#). The formula for drop 2 gives you 3715. So you've already got the third fingered, and you know what string to find the root on, so finger that A. Now just work out the 7th and 5th.
- Second interval of a maj7 chord, is a minor third. Move up three frets (E). The drop 2 formula gives you 5137. You already have the fifth fingered, you know what string the root belongs on, so finger that A, then work out the 3 and 7.
- Third interval of a maj7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (G#). The drop 2 formula gives 7351. You already have the 7th fingered, and know what string the root is supposed to be on, so finger that A, and work out the 3rd and 5th.

For improvising, say you can't work out the "remaining two" quickly; you still have the fundamental tone of the inversion you want to hit, and the root. You can comp that all the way up and down the neck over a given chord voicing. That's snazzy.

Anyway, I've been working with this, and it's paying off, so I decided to write it out, and if you find it helpful, cheers. Chords are starting to naturally look like collections of intervals with harmonic possibilities. And of course the more I do it, the more automatic the fingerings will get, and I'll internalize the order of degrees instead of having to apply the formula. This seems to be a path to where I want to get; seeing the neck as one pattern that applies to everything.

As always, thanks for visiting.

Work out all drop 2 and drop 3 7th chord inversions of any quality (maj, min, min7b5, dim) without remembering shapes.

Came up with an interesting one here. I wanted an easy way to be able to compute drop 2 and drop 3 inversions up the neck (if you're not familiar with drop 2 and drop 3 voicings, you'll have to google it, it's a technique for building chords used heavily at Berklee), so that if I forgot a seventh chord shape, I could easily figure it out. From there, I could add the 9th, change it to an open chord, whatever; the idea is to get to the base 7th chord quickly and then do the extensions or alterations.

There are 12 basic inversions of a drop 2 chord available --per octave--. Drop 2 voicing are across four consecutive strings (no skipped strings), so the root of the chord can be on the low D, A, or E strings, and there's four inversions per string; that's 12 shapes. If the B string was tuned consistently, you'd only have to remember four, because they'd repeat from string to string...but that's not the case, so you have to know all the fingerings.

There are 8 basic inversions of a drop 3 chord available per octave. Drop 3 have a set of top 3 strings, then skip a string, and the root is on the next string (the low string). So, the root can either be on the low A string (skipping the D in the chord), or the E string (skipping the A in the chord). Four inversions per string, 2 possible strings to put the root on; 8 shapes.

And that's PER CHORD QUALITY, and we're just talking seventh chords (so major 7, dom 7, minor 7, min 7 flat 5, dim 7). Do the math:

- Drop 2 7th chords: 12 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 60 SHAPES.
- Drop 3 7th chords: 8 inversions per octave, 5 chord qualities. 40 SHAPES.

Technically, because diminished shapes are symmetrical, there's only three drop 2 shapes, and two drop 3 shapes, to memorize. Even then, you're still dealing with dozens of shapes to remember. That sounds really hard...and it is. Interestingly, this seems to be how most guitar players try to do it (ergo the haphazard chord knowledge of your typical guitar player).

There has to be a better way, and I came up with this: note there may be different ways to describe the steps, but these steps are the ones I find easiest to visualize.

Drop 2: 1573. Move second degree from top, to bottom. Move new top degree, to bottom.
Drop 3, 1735. Move the second degree from the top, to the bottom. Switch the order of the new top 2 degrees.

Let's try it:

The drop 2 first inversion voicing for any chord quality is 1,5,7,3 (your starting point). It can be any quality, it doesn't matter, so we'll use minor 7; In E, that'd be E, B, D, G. That's 1, 5, 7, 3.

Apply the formula (algorithm really): Move second from top, to bottom. Move new top, to bottom.

3-3-5
7-5-1
5-1-7
1-7-3

Do it again, second inversion (over the fifth).

5-5-7
1-7-3
7-3-1
3-1-5

Do it again, third inversion (over the 7th).

7-7-1
3-1-5
1-5-3
5-3-7

That's four inversions, which incidentally, you can call, "573 over 1, 715 over 3, 137 over 5, 351 over 7"...which reveals more relationships, like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string in a drop 2, is always a 5th, and 5ths are always perfect unless they are altered, like a min7b5 or dim chord). Move the drop 2 form down a string (so start with first inversion voicing on A string) and start the formula all over again to get the four inversions on that string. Move down to the E string, repeat: 12 inversions.

For drop 3, let's start with the first inversion voicing of E minor 7 on the A string, and work the formula: move second-degree-from-the-top, to the bottom of the stack. Switch order of the new top 2 degrees. The starting degree order is 1, 7, 3, 5 (remember, drop 3...you are skipping a string).

5-5-7
3-7-5
7-1-1
1-3-3

Do it again to move from second to third inversion:

7-7-1
5-1-7
1-3-3
3-5-5

Do it again to move from third to fourth inversion:

1-1-3
7-3-1
3-5-5
5-7-7

Again, you could call these, "735 over 1, 157 over 3, 371 over 5, 513 over 7", which reveals relationships like, the interval from the root of the inversion to the note on the top string, is always a 7th of one kind or another).

Now...how do you remember exactly what fret each inversion starts on (what's the inversion root?).

Fortunately, the answer lies in something you probably already know if your still reading, and it applies to both drop 2 and drop 3 voicings: interval stacks.

All interval stacks for 7th chords (chords are built in intervals of thirds, so these are stacked thirds):

- Maj7: maj, min, maj.
- Dom7: maj, min, min.
- Min 7: min, maj, min.
- Min 7 b5, min, min, maj.
- Dim: min, min, min (symmetrical).

In terms of frets:

Any major third is 4 frets away (5, if you include the start fret).
Any minor third is 3 frets away (4, if you include the start fret).

Take E maj 7, which is E, G#, B, D#. Start on first inversion; your are playing chord/root (chord over root). You want to:

- Start on E.
- move to second inversion (chord/3rd). The first interval in a major chord is major third...four frets away. You'll be on G#
- move to the third inversion (chord/5th). The second interval is a minor third....three frets away. From G#, you'll be on B.
-move to the fourth inversion (chord/7th). The third interval is a major third...four frets away. From B, you'll be on D#.

Take diminished chords. The interval stack is minor 3rd, minor 3rd, minor 3rd (symmetrical). Start with first inversion voicing (chord/root).

- Start on E.
- Move up a minor third. G.
- Move up a minor third. Bb
- Move up a minor third. Db.

Put it all together, let's take A maj 7, which is A, C#, E, G#:

- Start with a drop 2 first inversion, 1573. This is chord/root (so you should be fretting an A on the bottom string).
- First interval of a maj 7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (C#). The formula for drop 2 gives you 3715. So you've already got the third fingered, and you know what string to find the root on, so finger that A. Now just work out the 7th and 5th.
- Second interval of a maj7 chord, is a minor third. Move up three frets (E). The drop 2 formula gives you 5137. You already have the fifth fingered, you know what string the root belongs on, so finger that A, then work out the 3 and 7.
- Third interval of a maj7 chord, is a major third. Move up four frets (G#). The drop 2 formula gives 7351. You already have the 7th fingered, and know what string the root is supposed to be on, so finger that A, and work out the 3rd and 5th.

For improvising, say you can't work out the "remaining two" quickly; you still have the fundamental tone of the inversion you want to hit, and the root. You can comp that all the way up and down the neck over a given chord voicing. That's snazzy.

Anyway, I've been working with this, and it's paying off, so I decided to write it out, and if you find it helpful, cheers. Chords are starting to naturally look like collections of intervals with harmonic possibilities. And of course the more I do it, the more automatic the fingerings will get, and I'll internalize the order of degrees instead of having to apply the formula. This seems to be a path to where I want to get; seeing the neck as one pattern that applies to everything.

As always, thanks for visiting.

Chord Tone Targeting Shortcut (sorta)

Chord tone targeting means, while playing a lead, you land your musical thoughts on a note in the chord you're improvising over. So, if you're improvising over a Cmaj triad, you'd target C, E, G.

The importance of practicing this, and getting really good at it, is extreme, for the same reason that when you are speaking, you don't just suddenly stop

Looks like a typo doesn't it? Although you can still get what I'm trying to say, the thought is clearly unfinished. If I was to train a few more sentences like that together, you'd eventually become confused as to what I'm trying to say.

Leads are no different. You're chaining together musical thoughts. Many of the same rules as speaking, or writing, apply; tell 'em what you're going to say, say it, tell 'em what you said. Stay on topic. Make every word count. And so on.

"Staying on topic", and "make every word count" are probably the ones I'd relate chord tone targeting to the most. If you consider the harmony (chord) to be the topic, and the topic is C major, then you can present your points as you like, as long as you come back to C major chord tones. Expanding on this basic soloing principal, to me, shows the wit, thoughtfulness, and experience, of the player. But just like somebody speaking, if they do nothing but tell jokes, offer personal insights, or talk about the old days, you'll probably stop listening.

Anyways, I've been working pretty hard on this, and along the way, came up with a practical way to make sure you do this without having to constantly be thinking about the notes in the chord.

It's all about knowing your five octave positions, and where they fit into the mode you're playing in. If you haven't yet, take a look at my CAGED, PMAID, 45123 article. What it discusses is how the five Caged octave patterns relate positionally to the five most commonly used modes, and the five pentatonic positions. I give enough in this article though to get you through it; as long as you more or less know the notes all over the fretboard, and know some basic positions (like a major scale, a minor scale, and your pentatonics), you can use this tip.

Here's a diagram showing the five octave positions. If you don't know this, you really, really should. It's an easy way of finding every place on the fretboard you can play a given note.




Here's the basics for an A blues jam (so an A7 vamp, making A mixolydian, and A pentatonic major, good candidates for improvising). Remember, when you just see a 7 with no other indication, it's a dominant chord (a lot of people call it a "blues" chord).

So...A7. You know right off the bat it's got an A in it. If you know a little about chords, you know a dominant 7 chord, is the same as a major 7 chord, but with a flatted 7th. So, A7 is A, C#, E, G (an Amaj7 would be A, C#, E, G#). You can also just play the chord and see where your fingers are, but it's good to know how basic chords are built.

If 7th chords aren't in your bag of tricks yet, just stick to A major (A, C#, E), and work with the third (C#)...keep reading.

Anyway, I've often read that the most important chord tones are the third (which determines if a chord is major or minor), and the 7th (which determines a lot of things, like if the chord is dominant, diminished, adds a major or minor 7th to create chords like Amin(maj7), etc.). This seems to pan out, because if you take any seventh chord of any kind, and cut out all the notes but the third and seventh, you can still hear the character of the chord (that's a great comping technique btw). If there's no 7th, play the root and third, or third and 5th. Extensions make it more interesting, but let's stick to the basics for now.

Based on that, let's target the third. So, A, C#, E, G....we want to target the C# in our lead phrases. Every time we play this note, it will sound very much "in", because it's "on topic".

Let's use A pentatonic major to get started (the number at the top is the starting fret of the diagram, R = root, so in this case A, and the numbers indicate the number of the note in the scale, NOT the finger or fret number). Remember that in pentatonic major, which is a five note scale, there is no 4 and no 7.

4
- R - 2 - 3 -
- 5 - 6 - - -
2 - 3 - - - -
6 - - R - - -
3 - - 5 - - -
- R - 2 - - -


Now, find an easy C# in that scale. Everybody knows that C is the third fret on the A string, so C# would be the fourth fret. If you look at this diagram, you see it pans out; the fourth fret is where the third note of this scale pattern is located. You probably play it with your index finger when playing this pattern. Note that, no matter where you play this scale pattern, the third (and all the other tones) will ALWAYS be in that same position relative to the root of the scale.

So, now look at the octave chart. Based on that, you should be able to see that if you play a note on the A string, you can find the octave of that note on the G string, two frets over. So, up two strings, over two frets, there's your first octave. You can also see that if you play a note on the G string, you can find the next octave up two strings and over three frets. Look at the diagram again, you see it works.

If you memorize the five octave positions, you can just find the note you want, anywhere, and your fingers will show you the octaves on their own, making it easy to find everywhere you can play any note on the fretboard.

So, play A string, 4th fret; G string, 6th fret; E string, 9th fret. You've played three octaves of C#.

Now, starting anywhere in the scale (the root is a good candidate, so start on A), play up the scale (or down it) until you get to one of those three C#. Try to make the C# land on a beat. Voila, you have just exercised chord tone targeting.

What if you wanted to target the flatted 7th (remember, A7 = A, C#, E, G). Well...there is no 7th in a pentatonic major scale, so in this case, no G. That doesn't mean you can't add it though; in fact, many, many guitar players have built their sound around using pentatonic scales with the correct 7th degree added, creating a 6 note scale.

Here's the pattern again with the flatted 7th added (this is building up to the mixolydian mode btw...). Note that we now start on the third fret so we can get that nice low G in there:

3
- R - 2 - 3 -
- - 5 - 6 7 - -
- 2 - 3 - - - -
- 6 7 - R - - -
- 3 - - 5 - - -
7 - R - 2 - - -

Look at the octave diagram again; you see if you play a note on the low E, you can find the octave two strings up, two frets over. From there, you can find the next octave 2 strings up, three frets over. So, E string 3rd fret, D string 5th fret, B string 8th fret. These are all Gs.

Do it again; start anywhere in the scale, land on any of the newly added G notes. Bam, you are now targeting the b7, which sounds great in leads over dominant chords.

Get creative from there; do a run to G, then from that G, go up to a C#, then from that C#, do a run to an A. You've chained three thoughts, targeting the b7, 3, and root. Once you can do that consistently (and one day, without really thinking about it at all, just because you've done this so much you just know where they all are), you're really well on your way to "staying on topic".

That's the basic mechanics, and you'd be surprised how just sticking to that can drastically improve the quality of your solos; you'd also be surprised how many people don't practice this; imho, it's one of the most important things that separates a player from the wanker. Of course you can experiment with landing in different places, or use really long thoughts that don't resolve exactly when expected, but remember, if you just ramble on and never get back to the topic in any way, people will stop listening (unless you can fool them into thinking your some kind of savant).

Have fun with that. As always, thanks for visiting.

The Marshall JVM410h Head with Vintage Modern 4x12 cabinet.

This is what I've been playing out of nowadays. Holy moly. The reviews I've seen speak favorably of the head; the ones I've seen that slag it with "noisy" or "muddy", must be playing out of a bad cabinet or with bad tubes or something, I just can't find anything not to like about this amp head, and coupling it with a Vintage Modern cab is working out really well for me. I'm not going to compare it to older standard Marshall's, because for the most part, I always found the production ones somewhat limited in areas, preferring the sounds from custom spec'd or reworked ones. I always ended up using distortion and other EQ stuff to get the tones I wanted.

How I usually run the rig is, cabinet in stereo with 2x 8ohm inputs from the head, with a Line 6 M13 Analog Modeler run into the FX loop on the head with a 50% wet setting (the FX loop on the JVM410h has a dedicated FX level knob in the back). I run my wah, whammy pedal and POG2 octave harmonizer in front of the amp. No distortion pedals, just the amp, and believe me, I'm not a "bluebreaker-distortion-is-best" player at all.

The head has 4 channels, each with three gain modes (green, orange, red), and dedicated reverbs, as well as reverbration and presence (one is basically bass response, the other treble). Each of the modes adds another gain phase to the signal chain. You switch them with the fairly heavy duty footswitch that comes with it. You can program recalls from the footswitch for amp settings, and they'll transfer to another JVM410h head since they get stored in the footswitch's memory, but to be honest, that makes me sorta nervous. Footswitches get beat on, drinks spilled on them, etc. We'll have to see how this pans out.

Lot of people say they have no need for 12 total gain and tone modes; I'm finding use for almost everything except OD2 in red mode. What I do is, enable the FX loop for one clean and one dirty channel, leaving the other two with just front-of-amp pedals and reverb. My overdrive and distortion pedals, even my compressor, are all on the shelf, all the gain comes from the amp. I might incorporate a fuzz face or some such in the future, but right now I've got plenty to keep me happy, and I really want to get to know the gain tones of this thing.

- Ch1: Tone-then-gain (unusual for Marshall, which is always gain-then-tone). This gives a very fender, old-school clean signal. I have the FX loop enabled on this channel, the green mode with the post delay and mods is amazing; the green mode has no gain stage and takes the volume out of the circuit. The orange and red modes add one gain stage each, but still with tone first. Really pure and basic clean tube tone, refreshing for Marshall.

- Ch2: Gain-then-tone, which spans Marshall JTM1959 and JCM800, depending on the gain setting. Green is very "real" (JTM1959), orange is classic JCM800, red is like a hotrodded JCM, but NOT exactly, it's a little more modern, having something to do with the amp perhaps, but also the fact that I'm not playing through a default 1960. I use this channel mostly for raw clean and punchy blues rhythm and leads, with the Fx loop disabled. Great blues channel, just a little reverb and front-of-amp effects, and the volume/tone settings of the guitar.

- Ch3: Gain-then-tone, each mode adding gain stages. Orange sings amazingly. Red is a little, but not too, over the top. Again no FX loop on this channel, just front-of-amp effects and reverb. This is my primary solo and crunch rhythm channel.

- Ch4: GAIN-then-tone built for modern metal, with a scoop in the mids, but I turn down the gain levels and turn up the mid to be comparable to Ch3, and enable the FX loop, so I get a virtual copy of my lead channel (3), with all the time based effects, and a little more push to compensate for any signal sap. Really technical sound on this channel. The metal monsters would probably curse the way I use it (nu metal basically saps out all the mids), but meh that's not my bag. Having a stereo echo in the FX loop let's me get some really fantastic overdriven effect sounds here, and since I'm not using the gain full out, I don't get any noise (the M13 also has a noise gate in it that I keep active). High end Satriani-Vai like ballad leads for the taking.

As I mentioned, for the cabinet, I didn't go with the 1960a/b, which is what everybody is putting with the JVM410h by default; I wanted Celestion Greenbacks, which seem to sound better at lower volumes and have subtle tone characteristics that respond more to what I'm trying to get at, and these are available in the Vintage Modern cabinets. I demo'd a Vintage Modern half stack, and remember loving the tone characteristics of the speakers, but finding the head somewhat limited in options, and I'd read about people trying different cabinet and loving it with the JVM410h, so I decided to pair one of the Vintage Modern 450a cabs; for, me it paid off huge.

It's a lot of fun, and extremely satisfying to hear a tone in your head and be able to nail it. I tweak my sound endlessly, but right now am really satisfied. The JCM410 head is an amazing piece of tech that should fascinate anybody looking for a high-end tone and gain palette.

Quick Trick to Remembering Mode Structures

Here's a trick so that you'll never forget the interval formula for building any of the seven standard major modes.

It does require that you know two things:

- The order of the modes
- The interval formula for the major scale (which is the same as the Ionian mode). You can think of this as the "starting formula".

It's really simple, I find it hard to believe that every book on the topic doesn't lay it out this way. I haven't read every book, but the ones I've got, don't.

Anyway, here it is:

The order of modes:

Ionian
Dorian
Phrygian
Lydian
Mixolydian
Aeolian
Locrian

I used to remember this by saying, "I don't play lame music any longer". The first letter of each word is the first letter of each mode.

Nowadays I just have the order memorized without any gimmicks, mostly because I practice my mode fingerings as a warmup every day, and as I move through the different modes up and down the neck (all seven modes connect to each other in this order, so if you know the fingerings well, creating runs in any key up and down the neck is easy), I actually say the mode out loud to reinforce it.

Next, you know the formula for the major (Ionian) scale:

W W H W W W H

If you don't know what that's about, I suggest you go back to the basics of the major scale and don't worry about modes until you really understand how the major scale is built, but in a nutshell, "W" is a whole step interval, or two frets, "H" is a half step interval, or one fret. So, if you were to play C major (C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C) all the way up the A string, starting at the third fret (which is a C), you would find, if you followed the WWHWWWH formula, that you would end on the next C, one octave up (15th fret). The distance from C to D is "W", D to E "W", E to F "H", F to G "W", G to A "W", A to B "W", and B to C "H"). This works for any scale; start at the root, follow the formula, you'll end at the root again.

So, what's the trick? As you move along the order of modes, Just revolve the intervals by taking the first one off and putting it at the end.

Written out:

Ionian - W W H W W W H
Dorian - W H W W W H W
Phrygian - H W W W H W W
Lydian - W W W H W W H
Mixolydian - W W H W W H W
Aeolian - W H W W H W W
Locrian - H W W H W W W
Back to Ionian - W W H W W W H

It's handy to know for a number or reasons, not just passing a theory test; for instance, you know that the final interval before the root, if you are playing a major lead, is a half step (scales start and end on the root). So, anywhere you can find that root note on the neck, you know that you can play the fret immediately below it and be in key; sliding up from that fret to the root gives a real nice major resolving sound (in theory speak, you are resolving a major 7th to the root). In minor terms, you probably mostly play the Aeolian mode (which is the same as the natural minor scale). Same logic; you know that the note immediately before the root is a whole step, so anywhere you can find that root note on the fretboard, you know that you can play the note two frets below it; this is a great opportunity to bend that note up a whole step, resolving the bend at the root.

The more you know these structures, the easier it is to move around the fretboard at will, but, at least for now, this is an easy way to memorize those structures.

As always, thanks for visiting.

Practice Your Upstrokes!

Quick post on an exercise I've created for myself that I'm finding to be helpful in my quest to master alternate picking.

BTW, that's been going well. It was tough at the outset; if you read my last post on alternate picking, you know that I decided to tear my technique apart and start all over, because I'd been watching too many Steve Morse and Paul Gilbert instructional clips on YouTube.

It's been worth it; in just a couple of months, I've found my reapplied techniques starting to emerge naturally in jams and rehearsals, which is gratifying, because I find that, even if you're nailing a reworked technique while you practice at home, it's really hard to stick to it when you get to rehearsal. You're paying attention to the band and your song, so 100% of your attention isn't focused on the technical aspects of your playing, so it's easy to slide back into habits you're trying to break.

One area in particular I discovered needing some strengthening was my upstrokes. Although I was hitting the notes in my runs effectively, I did find that, at higher speeds, my pick wasn't really cleanly executing the upstroke, I was depending a lot on the fretting of the string and a sort of implied half-pick to get the note. You really couldn't tell unless you were listening closely, but I decided to brand it sloppy and lazy; I mean, if I'm trying to get harmonic minor runs Steve Morse clean, it's all gotta be there.

Anyway, so as part of my regimen, I started playing scales and runs that I normally use alternate picking on entirely in upstrokes.

For example, ascending and descending up and down the Aeolian shape (start at any fret, but always try to know the key, for instance, if you start this at the 5th fret, you're playing A natural minor, or A Aeolian):

-R-xx-
-xx-x-
xx-x-
-x-R--
-x-xx
-R-xx-

Play it all the way ascending, then all the way descending, using upstrokes, all of it, first and last notes included. No downstrokes at all. Play it cleanly, to a metronome a few times, and then rubato (flexible, not entirely on the beat, but still resolving on the 1s properly). It's not as easy as it sounds.

I also work it with some simple arpeggios, like this A major one, starting with the 1, 3, 5 Ionian shape, and then just repeating the shape at the octaves (in this case, the roots are all A tones):

4
-----x--x----------
------R------------
--x--x-------------
---R---------------
x--x---------------
-R-----------------

This has a number of benefits:

- You are practicing you upstrokes.
- When switching strings, you are getting used to shifting your pick all the way over the last one, to the upstroke position of the next one. Being conscious of where your pick is at all times can be difficult to focus on, because so many of us take our picking for granted, so any exercise that makes you do something unusual with your pick hand will force you to focus on it.
- Upstrokes can give you a different tone than downstrokes; you can get a really sharp, staccato sound from upstrokes that is difficult to duplicate with downstrokes, which tend to be more legato (for my anyway). More options in tone is a very powerful tool, as it adds interest and variety to your playing.
- You're playing guitar, and thinking about it while you're doing it. That's good.

Have fun with that. As always, thanks for visiting.