Drop 2 Root Position Chord/Mode Map

That's a mouthful, then again, when isn't a discussion about chords and modes.

Although you probably already know it, within every mode you play lies the basic chords that represent the underlying harmony. The reason I'm betting you already know this, is at some time when you were trying to figure out a chord, you probably did something like this:

"Hmm...I know I'm trying to make an Amaj7 (add 13). Let me see, if I fret it this way with the root on the 7th fret...yeah, all those notes under my fingers are in the A major pattern I know..."

That doesn't necessarily mean you have the chord right, but it probably does mean you're trying to figure out the chord based on the scale you already know. I think this is a good signpost along the way to really understanding how chords and modes relate. But, as was pointed out to me by one of my Berklee professors, it's a visual way of making the association, as opposed to aural. You should know what things sound like, and how they sound over other things, as opposed to trying to figure things out visually.

I studied martial arts for years, fairly seriously. I remember when we were learning to do backflips. The behavior is almost always the same; as soon as the never-backflipped-before student starts to turn over, the instinct is to turn the head to see the ground; you have no internal sense of your orientation, and you instinctively try to find it. This of course will not be a pretty backflip, and you'll probably not land daintily on two feet; that's because you're not supposed to have to look, you should just know where you are in the air at all times, ultimately being able to do it blindfolded. But you have to get that internal orientation started somehow, and if your instinct requires you to look at where you're going a few times, don't fight it; just remember not to stop there. You should be listening. Try closing your eyes when you finally get the chord right, and really listening to it, then try to play a couple of notes around it, maybe slide the seventh to the root (you know it's only a half step in a major 7 chord). Try playing the nine..."hmm so that's what the nine sounds like over a major seven hmm what if I play dominant same note but hmm...". Simple stuff, but it gets you moving in the right direction.

With that said, here's a document I call "The Drop 2 Root Position Chord/Mode Map", or "The D2RPCMM" (I've never actually called it that). What it does is, first shows a given drop 2 chord diagram, e.g. "Maj7", then, superimposes the basic harmonized mode shape it. For instance, the drop 2 A7 played using the D string as the root (so you're playing A on the 7th fret as the root) shows the Aeolian mode shape superimposed on top of it. This is because, on the fifth fret, you know the mixolydian shape and you probably use it over your A7 chords with the root on the low E string (A7 at fifth fret). But if you play an A7 higher up on the neck, do you always know the mode shape to play over that voicing of the chord...or do you run back down to the fifth fret to your familiar root shape? Why? You know the next mode position up from AMixo fifth fret, is A Aeolian 7th fret. If you know where the chord falls in that shape, you can hit the chord tones and so forth without moving positions. You also have access to the shape up from there, which is Ionian. And you have the familiar shape two frets back. Now you have a bigger area of the fretboard to work with. And so on.

Using this map, you can get a feel for playing an entire lead that moves with the harmony of a given chord structure, without changing position. For instance; you're playing an Amaj, fifth fret. So there's Ionian. You go to the IV chord, so Dmaj7. Are you still playing in A Ionion? That would give you G#...which is not in the Dmaj7 chord. That would in fact be a #11. Is that ok? It depends...how's it sound? Not sure? Then maybe you shouldn't play it. Have time to think about that when improvising with your friends? Probably not. But if you know, that a Dmaj7 chord at the fifth fret can have A mixolydian played at the fifth fret, then you have a guide to avoid it altogether.

Eventually, you memorize the sequences; for instance, I know that over a standard I7 IV7 V7 bluesy jam thing:

- I7 5th fret = mixo 5th fret
- IV7 5th fret = Dorian 5th fret
- V7 7th fret = Ionian 5th fret.

And by experimenting with this using a looper and whatnot, I learned that, if I play Mixo over the I7, then switch to the IV7, I drop the third of the Mixo down a half step (so I'm playing the C# on the high E string, then drop it down to C on the chord switch), it sounds great, and, I'm now in the third of the Dorian shape. So I run down Dorian to the third of D7 (F#), and I have a great, stable line over the harmony. To funk it up, throw in the beepop note, use an approach note, tap up an octave, hit your whammy bar, whatever.

Point is, I know it SOUNDS good. But I did indeed learn it visually. I'm not a pro player, on a good week I can probably find 10-12 hours to really practice, and these days it's been more like 5-6. I'm sure most pros play that much within a day or two tops. La dee da for them ;p

As always, thanks for visiting, here's the link to the map.

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