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Comment by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on June 12, 2016 at 1:32am

Lots to learn there before I could make the connection to naming the key or mode but looking forward to learning it all. Definitely enjoying playing too though so all's good. I appreciate the video lessons and your taking the time to explain more. Thanks :)

Comment by Daddy Long Les on June 12, 2016 at 12:59am

Hi,

Couldn't have put it better than Jim.  Playing and enjoying your instrument is, for me, always the number one priority.  Over the years, I've lost count of the amount of schoolchildren who have fallen by the wayside when I tried to introduce any theory of music into my guitar classes.  

Understanding modes is important because sometimes the key signature can be misleading.  For example, you might see a Bb in the key signature and think "ok this must be in the key of F major or even D minor (its relative minor)".  Then on looking deeper you discover that the tune's "home" note is a C!!   In fact you are looking at a tune in C Mixolydian mode which uses the same notes as F major and that Bb is the crucial difference from C major (no flats or sharps).  See what I mean?

Hope this helps.  If you don't get it then it's really not the end of the world!!

Comment by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on June 11, 2016 at 9:02am

Started to make more sense today as I played around with a diddley bow and managed to memorise all but one of the mode names. The fact there are two Ls in there confusticated me and I couldn't remember Locrian by heart. Truly a video lesson that keeps on giving though. Thanks again Mr Les.

Comment by Jim Morris on June 11, 2016 at 4:49am

I think Professor Les may agree that the important thing is play and have fun with it!

Comment by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on June 11, 2016 at 2:41am

Thanks for explaining Jim. I think I'm happy to learn this stuff as through life I've learned I'm far better at the academic than the practical application of what I'm learning. Not always but I do enjoy learning. I'll try and remember some of the lesson and drink it in. As you say though, it's good to play away and not get too technical that I go crazy. Thanks again :)

Comment by Jim Morris on June 11, 2016 at 1:28am

Hey Dani and Bear, in truth there are many wonderful, skillfull  players who don't know any of this stuff and play music using these modes without knowing it. They are the gifted folks who can hear musical ideas in their mind and have the ability to transfer those ideas to the instrument. There are many other pretty good players who just want to know where to put their fingers to play a certain song and there's nothing wrong with that. That's how I and most of my students have learned. During a stint in a jazz group, which I wasn,t very good at, one of the sax players would tell me to "flat the 5 in that chord" and I realized I was clueless about where that note was. So, I was shamed into learning this stuff. The practical app of knowing modes is that you know what "toolbox"of notes are available to you. As I type this I'm looking at the 3 string chord chat advertised by CB Gitty. It's all dots showing where to put your fingers but you still don't know what the notes are. Again nothing wrong with that, But if you're asked to play a solo in D minor, which is usually D Dorian mode it sure helps to think " OK, those are the same notes as my C scale that I have to play around with" I hope this didn't muddy things up even more! The really cool thing about music is that you can play away and be really happy putting your fingers down where the dots show you or you can slowly go insane trying to learn all the intricacies of music theory. Help! I'm slowly going insane!

Comment by RTZGUITARS on June 10, 2016 at 2:57pm

Will this be on the Finals

Comment by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on June 10, 2016 at 10:56am

Definitely clearer and stuff I didn't know before. I'm probably going to sound really thick asking this but in what circumstances am I going to be able to utilise this info if I memorise it? Is this so I can capo and play along in any key or something?

Comment by Jim Morris on June 8, 2016 at 3:21am

Well that certainly makes it all crystal clear! Thanks for the great lesson but now my brain hurts just a bit.