Modes

Guitar modes have a reputation for being complicated, but the idea is simple: play the notes of a major scale, treat a different note as home, and you get a new mood. This chapter explains modes for guitar without the jargon and shows you how each one actually sounds.

You start with what modes are, playing the C major notes from different starting points and hearing why the chord or bass note underneath decides the mode. Then you meet them one by one. Dorian is the cool, smooth minor of funk, soul, jazz and Santana-style rock, with its signature minor-to-major vamp. Mixolydian is the major scale with a flat seventh, the loose sound of blues-rock, country and classic rock riffs. Finally Phrygian brings the dark, Spanish and metal tension of the flat second, while Lydian floats with its dreamy sharp fourth.

Every tab exercise plays in the browser with a click. Strum each vamp first, then play the lick over it, and you'll hear the color one note can bring.