Modal Fingerings And Chord
Matrix

By
Mike Ridenour

 

Improvising effectively
with modes has caused great confusion and frustration for many guitar
players. Modes can add “spice” to your playing however
many players do not know how to correctly utilize them over chords
and progressions. The following lesson will acquaint you with the
different modal fingerboard patterns as well as the triads the scale
degrees of these modes create.

The following are the modal fingerings. These all have “C”
has the root note starting on the sixth string. When you learn
these, move them around to different root notes on the sixth string.
For example, once you learn C Ionian, move the same fingerboard
pattern to the 10 fret, sixth string and play D Ionian. Also,
learn to connect these patterns together. For example, after you
practice C Ionian move to the second scale degree of C major,
which is “D,” and play D Dorian. You then can keep
going up the C Major scale to play E Phrygian, F Lydian, G Mixolydian,
A Aeolian, and B Locrian. Learn these patterns in all keys.

Click
Here for Modal Fingerings PDF

Once you get
acquainted with the fingerboard patterns and start to connect
them in all the keys, you can see what triads the scale degrees
of each mode create. Understanding these triads will help you
build your own chord progressions and improvise over them with
the correct mode. When you look at the matrixes, the numbers down
the left hand side represent the scale degree of each mode that
is named along the top. Capital letters represent a Major triad.
Lower case letters followed by an “m” represent a
Minor triad. Lower case letters followed by a “dim”
represent a diminished triad. The letter in the upper left hand
corner represents the root note of the corresponding mode. Build
progressions with the chords these modes create and use that corresponding
mode to improvise over them.

Now
that you have the triads down, here is a quick reference guide
that shows you what modes fit over certain chord extensions. This
will help you choose the appropriate mode(s) when improvising
over these chord types.

Have
fun!!!