Commonly used in today’s modern world of contemporary music are two modes of the major scale. Sometimes these modes can seem quite difficult to grasp. Have no fear, though, because you have come to just the right place!

If you learn to include them as you play your guitar, soon you will find that playing them can be easy and enjoyable.

Of course, anyone who plays regularly understands that your greatest solos are derived from the pentatonic scale. Well, jazz and classical hard-cases may disagree … and we’ll let them be wrong! Simple fact!

It seems that as people reach and intermediate guitar playing ability, they tend to look for some cool riffs away from the pentatonic scale. This is a mistake.

Just like ripples in a pond, so it is with intertwining music. You need not look away from the pentatonic scale to play new music. It’s simply not necessary.

In this blog, I’ll explain the two most frequently played modes. I’ll go into more detail about the Aeolian here, and save the Dorian for part 2. I’ll show you that you can pick up these pentatonic scales in no time, and with minimal effort, to start incorporating them immediately into your style of play.

Branching out into a more dynamic and compelling sound is a piece of cake as long as the pentatonic remains as your true center.

We’ll begin now with the A key.

Let’s take a look at the pentatonic A Miner scale -

E|——————————-5-8—————————–|
B|————————-5-8———————————–|
G|——————-5-7—————————————–|
D|————-5-7———————————————–|
A|——-5-7—————————————————–|
E|-5-8———————————————————–|

In the interest of simplicity for this blog, I’ll go over strings G, B, and high E. All the other strings will play off these note’s octaves anyway.

E|——————————-5-8—————————–|
B|————————-5-8———————————–|
G|——————-5-7—————————————–|
D|—————————————————————-|
A|—————————————————————-|
E|—————————————————————-|

So, we begin by taking a deeper look at the modes – the first one of course being the Aeolian. Many musicians see it as the normal minor scale. We’re going to simplify things even further buy utilizing the pentatonic.

We’re just going to put in three new note to the pentatonic scale shown above.

E|——————————-5-(7)-8————————|
B|————————-5-(6)-8——————————|
G|——————(4)-5-7————————————-|
D|—————————————————————-|
A|—————————————————————-|
E|—————————————————————-|

Notice that the new notes are shown in brackets.

Now, by playing all these notes in unison, you attain this scale:

E|———————————–5-7-8———————–|
B|—————————5-6-8——————————-|
G|——————4-5-7—————————————-|
D|—————————————————————-|
A|—————————————————————-|
E|—————————————————————-|

So play your solo as you usually do, but now try the new notes mixed in as passing tones. You see … now you’re rockin’ out with modes without hardly any effort at all.

The ultimate superstar in making this scale work fantastically is David Gilmour. He displays how it applies famously to any rock music built in minor.