F major modes medley

Community Recordings Originals (Not Covers)
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Firstly why have I only found this section of the community now? Some great stuff in here, look forward to digging through more!

This isn’t a song, more unfinised bits of ideas, which in hindsight I should now maybe expand into their own tracks.

It was born out of the riff at the start. I was thinking of the riff as in G dorian which is a mode of F major scale, as is C Mixolydian which I used for the 2nd section and then F major for the 3rd section. The goal was to see if I could transition between different flavours inside the same notes “seemlessly”

So technically I’m playing the same notes the whole time which just shows how the bass, underlying harmony and the way you play the notes gives the flavour to the notes. I find all the theory stuff fascinating

For the lead/melody bits I just improvise from the respective scale/mode or triad/arpeggios until I find an idea I like then I’ll work on a few bits till I’ve got them down.

The drums ideally I would have keep the same tempo but maybe change the groove throughout but I’m still very new to programming the drums and I find it hard to get what I want from my head into the DAW, more time required.

I’m aware this is maybe a bit niche but hopefully it’s at least tolerable to listen to as I hope to get into instrumentals as I’m no singer :sweat_smile:

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Sounds cool Neal. Nice work.

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Hehe… pretty much my approach, too. :wink: I often record short pieces I proudly call ‘etudes’, involving recording a chord progression of my choice and then improvising over it using scales/arpeggios I learned, and it happens that something interesting comes out of it; by ‘interesting’ I mean more musical than just a piece of a practice routine. You obviously succeeded in creating something that’s certainly more than ‘tolerable’…

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Thanks Coda. I’m certainly finding the more I do this the more ideas come to me and the quicker I can get them out. Great fun!

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Hey this is cool, this still is a GUITAR forum! :smiley:
btw, very enjoyable to listen to! Valuable study method to explore the flavors over a same vamp to paint with the feelings. Nice!

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That was more than tolerable Neil. Interesting and flavorful. It reminds me of the soundtrack to the 1972 movie Superfly scored by Curtis Mayfield.

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That was excellent, Neil, lovely chimey melodic jazzy vibes.

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Thanks for kind words people.

@LievenDV it’s the opposite! The vamp changes but the notes stay the same. Same end result with the change of flavours :ok_hand:

I’ll maybe try one where I just play over a drone note but change the scale/mode for each section!

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admitted, I was listening while doing something else but still, you got me properly bamboozled :smiley:

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@Enky08 good job. I’m on a bit of a modes journey with my playing (bass mainly). I listened to your piece once with the objective of whether I could tell when you’d transitioned to the next mode. I could tell when you were in each section, but there wasn’t (to my ear at least) an obvious transition point. So I think you achieved your goal of seamless transitions.

Coincidentally, the online bass lessons I use, asked us at the back end of last week what theory we wanted (presumably for a new course). I asked for some guidance on doing pretty much what you’ve done here. Moving between modes without necessarily using the new root as the 1st note in the transition. The example I used were the same modes as you’ve played to but in a different order;C major (C Ionian) to D Dorian via G Mixolydian, then back to C major.

I’ve heard Mike Stern play at Ronnie Scott’s a couple of times. I think he’s considered in jazz circles as being highly skilled at transitioning seamlessly between modes. The 2 bass players I’ve seen him play with (Janek Gwizdala and Hadrian Feraud) also have solo / composer / band leader type careers and I suspect they are similarly skilled in the art. I can feel a playlist featuring the 3 coming on :grinning_face:.

Good job again and thanks for posting.

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Hey Simon thanks for the compliment and the reply.

I kind of outlined the coming change with an arpeggio in advance, with mixed success I think. And obviously the bass note changing from G to C then to F is like moving in fourths, so not crazy jarring.

I think I jazz they change mode or scale for every chord that passes, they have to be so fluent playing the changes. I can barely keep up with a Blues shuffle changes :joy:

I’ll check out Mike Stern, thanks :ok_hand:

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Hello Neil,

really nice tune. The theory you explain behind this is much above my current level, but as for listener - I did not hear there any drastic “unreal” change in flow, so I think you really made that seamless transition and I really like that. :slight_smile:

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This makes me smile - modal explorations.

Yes. Without harmonic context, modes are scale notes that may, with care, be made to sound modal. The harmony surrounding the notes is a vital part of the musical universe when playing modes.

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