We all love the minor pentatonic scale. It’s easy to get under your fingers and it never fails to sound amazing. Many of our guitar heroes built entire careers off of this one scale. But what can you do when you want to make your solos and licks stand out from the crowd? Well, one of those ways is to use modes. The modes of the major scale aren’t nearly as scary as you think they are, and Kent is here to show you just how easy they can be to understand.
We’ll be covering three of the seven most common modes on the guitar in this lesson. These modes are Dorian, Phrygian, and Aeolian, which are the three minor modes. We’ll be playing all of these scales rooted at the fifth fret, but just like with any scale, you can feel free to move the shapes up or down the fretboard to play in any key you want!
A Dorian
This is the second mode of the A major scale and it’s commonly used in blues and rock music.
A Phrygian
Phrygian is a more mysterious-sounding mode that gets used frequently in metal music.
A Aeolian
You’ll probably notice that this scale looks a lot like the natural minor scale. That’s because they’re the same scale! Aeolian is just a fancy word for the natural minor scale. Check out the scale diagram.
See! Modes are not as scary as you thought. If you enjoyed this lesson, be sure to grab your 7-day free trial to the Guitareo Members’ Area where you’ll find Kent’s full course on modes: Guitareo 7-Day Free Trial
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