Playing With Modes

Below are the modes from the major scale. There are other chords that outline the modes better, but these simple triads will work as well. In the beginning, we practice landing on the notes in a chord. After you get that concept down, you can work on landing on notes outside of the chord. There are no bad notes, but some notes are more tense than others. Eventually, one will have an understanding of all notes individually.

Here are the rules:

1. Only play the notes out of the C Major Scale, which are C D E F G A B C (C Ionian).
2. Pick a chord tone to land on at the end of a phrase. For example, play a few notes out of the scale and stop on the note E and let it ring. This is called targeting chord tones.
3. Come up with many different ways, using the techniques you know, and stop on the same chord tone.
4. Land on other notes of the chord in a similar manner.

Scale Name	Matching Chord (Triad)	Chord Tones
C Ionian	C major	C E G
D Dorian	D minor	D F A
E Phrygian	E minor	E G B
F Lydian	F major	F A C
G Mixolydian	G major	G B D
A Aeolian	A minor	A C E
B Locrian	B minor b5	B D F