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173 | C Relative Modes - Guitar Chords
Do more with just a few chords
December 14, 2022
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Learning chords is cool, but you can do much more with just a few chords than you might think -- using modes.

Modes give you a powerful way to expand your palette as a songwriter. Each one has a different sound -- a unique feel -- that you can use to inject variety into your music.

Each mode is just a permutation of the others. So they sound similar, yet distinct. And each is derived from a key's major scale.

For example, take the C major scale, which has 7 motes:  C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Starting on each respective note, you can come up with 7 different modes.

Each begins and ends on a different note (or what's called the "tonic") of the mode. This is the tonal home base of its respective pattern.

In this example, the tonic of C Ionian is C ... while the tonic of D Dorian is D, and so on.

When you play these patterns simply as notes, they sound nice. And again, each is somewhat similar since they all contain the same notes ... because they're all derived from the same source scale (in this example, the C major scale).

But what's cool is that these same modal patterns can also be played as chords.

For example, if you focus on the C major scale (a.k.a., C Ionian, or the first mode) and instead of playing it as a simple sequence of notes, you play the mode as chords -- the 7 chords in the key of C -- it looks (and sounds) like this:

The C Ionian mode sounds good fleshed out as harmonies like this -- because it's basically the major scale pattern on steriods.

But what's nice is that these same 7 chords can also be rearranged into other permutations -- just like the notes -- to make the 7 modes in harmonic form. Like these three patterns, for example:

Of course, this same idea applies to all of the other chords in this key, as shown here....

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An explanation and PDF is in the following post (354b).

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350 | Extended chords explained

Extended chords are easy to understand -- once you know about the Circle of Thirds.

Essentially, fancy extended chords are built by adding notes incrementally from a key's Circle of Thirds. By including ever more intervals of a third, you can play increasingly more complex harmonies.

Had I only known this in the beginning!

Without the Circle of Thirds, exotic chord names seem mysterious and complicated. WITH the Circle of Thirds, however, everything clicks into place.

🎥 This short video gives you the gist.

For more details on the construction of these chords, check out Lesson 17 in the course: https://mikegeorge.locals.com/post/6051473/296-lesson-17-pdf-video

And the PDF referenced is ChordBook 2 here: https://shop.mycolormusic.com/products/colormusic%E2%84%A2%EF%B8%8F-guitar-chordbook-modebook-bundle

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345a | Theory Course LIVE - heads up

Hey! Join Sunday's stream for the first in the Theory Course LIVE series.

We'll be going through the course lessons page-by-page, playing the exercises, etc. -- with questions, answers, and sidebars along the way. It's a new and insightful look into music theory.

(The live stream link referenced in this video is actually in the NEXT post.)

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363 | Daily Dose

Here's a snapshot of the C Mixolydian mode -- in both pitch space (circular format) and on the guitar fretboard -- which you can play in any octave.

Mixolydian's b7 note gives the pattern a distinctively cool sound, as you can hear when you play it.

The QUESTION is, what is the source scale of this particular mode?

(Hint: Mixolydian starts on the fifth scale degree of its underlying source pattern.)

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361 | Color notation (technical knowledge)

Hey, all -- question for you:
Do you have any thoughts on ways to colorize notation?

Folks regularly ask about software to use. And because we have engineers of various types in our community here, I'm hoping some of us may have ideas, or technical know-how.

I think creating an open source tool for community members is an excellent project! It will be very powerful for dissecting and composing songs. With a tool like this, our collective knowledge will rise exponentially.

See this post for context -- and please tag us if you're interested:
https://mikegeorge.locals.com/post/6059027/hey-all-mikegeorge-ive-been-really-loving-your-lessons-ive-worked-my-way-through-12-of-them?cid=8082688

356 | Harmonic Concept

POLL: If you could master one harmonic concept, which would it be?

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365 | Theory Course LIVE - Session 6

Join us for the sixth session of the theory course live. Today, where we're talking about the visible relationships between notes and intervals. These are fundamental concepts that every songwriter MUST know.

⏰ Time: THURSDAY, May 15 at 6:00 p.m. (UTC-6)

🔗 Link to join:

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364 | Cascading Fourths

Great chord progressions are informed by the circle of fifths / fourths. By simply playing chords of successive fourths in sequence, you can make excellent music.

Weezer's song, "Island in the Sun" is a nice example.

The song cycles through a simple pattern of:  Em - Am - D - G (or chords vi - ii - V - I in the key of G). Within the circle of thirds, you can see that these harmonies progress through states of stability (vi), change (ii), tension (V), and stability once more (I).

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362 | Theory Course LIVE - Session 5

This week, the Theory Course live stream is on *THURSDAY*.

Join us for the fifth session, where we're talking about notes and intervals -- the true essentials of music theory.

Time: THURSDAY, May 8 at 6:00 p.m. (UTC-6)

Link to join:

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