I went to the guitar lesson yesterday pretty uninspired… I hadn’t found time to do my real homework, writing a new solo, so we didn’t really have anything planned. I was about to cancel, but decided to go anyway. It turned out a deep dive into modes with a lot of practical application!
I had written this riff:
PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM
S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S
E||---------------------------------------------|
B||---------------------------------------------|
G||------------------------4--------------------|
D||--------4-------5---------------4-------5p-4-|
A||--2--2----2--2----2--2----2--2----2--2-------|
E||---------------------------------------------|
After my groovy Maiden experiments I wanted to make a harmony of thirds for this riff, and merrily moved the riff three notes in the scale (aeolian) to D on the A string. Only one problem: sounded like crap. Disharmonious. The problem: when my riff is played on the fifth fret on the A string it becomes a D minor riff, but D minor isn’t part of the key B minor like the first riff. Solution? Playing a D major riff seems smarter, but why?
Well, B minor is the same key as D major. B minor is chord number vi in the key, and for every chord number there’s a scale, or a so called mode. For chord vi there is the aeolian scale (the regular minor scale) – so for the original riff I’d hit the right spot. I’m not going to call it blind luck, but it was a combination of luck and music ear. D is chord I in the key, it’s scale is the ionian (the regular major scale). The first riff plays the notes 1-1-5-1-1-6-1-1-8-1-1-6-5 of the B minor eolian scale, so therefor the third harmony plays the same note numbers but from the D major ionian scale. Which looks like this:
[sourcecode]
PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM PM
S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S
E||———————————————|
B||———————————————|
G||————————7——————–|
D||——–7——-9—————7——-9p-7-|
A||–5–5—-5–5—-5–5—-5–5—-5–5——-|
E||———————————————|
[/sourcecode]
Suddenly it sounds good! I’m sure it’s dull as hell staying with this strict rule in every occasion, but it’s always better to understand things than just guess/test your way until it sounds good.
