Great lesson. Some of Andrew's comments reflect exactly how I felt. This cleared up a few key questions (no pun intended) for me, definitely. One of the best teachers on RUclips.
Being a sax player, I'm glad I came across this, this helped me a lot as I'm doing a extensive study of mode, with the book called Around the Horn. And deal with mostly Jazz standards.
really liked this video...glad you brought up modes. Guitar info can be confusing with words labeling ideas about guitar methods. Navigating through the info out there in the world of SERIOUS guitar players can translate confusingly sometimes. But it is simple if you have other players that can correctly interpret and keep you on the right thinking path with music, thanks for your contribution!
This clears up SO many things for me. This is a video every guitarist should watch no doubt. Even after years of playing this is very useful information. Thank you.
You sir are a GREAT teacher. I really like how you approach things. Been playing a loooooong time and I wish I had a teacher like you back in the day. Subscribed!
guitarblogupdate . hey Andrew h r u brother I am from Pakistan my name is Luke and I am many times trying to play guitar but I am disappoint because if I play F chord key in so I want to go till it's end chord so I can not judge to where going end . I mean I want to play with advance chord but I don't have idea that how to play and from to where play . and which key with start lead . thank you for your experience share with around the world GBU
I hada very hard time trying to find out Can't stop loving you from Van Halen they have these type of chord progressions. This helps a lot. Thank you Mr. Wasson
I'll explain a little bit of what he said: first of all MODES... Modes are this: Imagine you're using just the white notes of a piano, you'll be playing the major scale, which goes like this C-D-E-F-G-A-B.. These are the notes for the major scale or jonic mode scale, which are the same... The other scale that everybody knows is the minor natural, which uses basically the same notes of the major/jonic scale, but with the variation that the minor scale starts from A... It goes like this A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A.. You'll see the only difference is that I started playing the minor scale from A to A... The minor natural scale is also called aeolian scale... Those are the modes, are scales that uses the same notes but they start from different points...using the C major scale you'll have this: C to C: jonic scale OR major scale D to D: Dorian scale E to E: phrigyan scale F to F: lydian scale G to G: myxolidian scale A to A: Aeolian scale or minor natural scale B to B: locrian scale And then it comes the jonic or major scale again... The most used scales are the jonic and aeolian (major and minor scale), that's due to the facility for resolution, that's the explanation for the sensation of resolution in the C chord of the C major scale.. Need more information? Go Google tritone.. Now for the explanation of the borrowed chords: First the Ivm chord (fourth minor chord of any major scale), which in the case of the C major scale would be the F minor chord... You must know that the nature of the chords of a major scale is: I major, II minor, III minor, IV major, V major, VI minor, VII diminished That would be define in the C major scale this way: C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished Now, let's go back to the modes, remember that the modes (natural modes) all of them uses the same notes.. So, for example, if I'm on c major or jonic scale and I want the chords of the Dorian scale, I just have to move the starting point of the chords, but it will be the same order... That would be this way: Dorian mode chords I minor, II minor, III major, IV major, V minor, VI diminished, VII major.. See? Same chord nature for all the notes, but from a different starting point: D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished, C major It's all about perspective The the fourth note or chord starting from C, would be F... And the fourth note or chord starting from D would be G.. So about what he said of borrowing a chord, he meant that he used a chord from the parallel key of C major or C jonic... PARALLEL KEYS AND RELATIVE KEYS ARE NOT THE SAME THING... Relative keys are c jonic, D Dorian, e phrigyan, a aeolian, etc... THESE ARE RELATIVE BECAUSE THEY USE THE SAME NOTES BUT THEY START FROM DIFFERENT POINTS, ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT.. On the other hand, parallel keys would be C MAJOR or jonic and C Dorian or C minor.. They start with the same note, but the distance between notes are not the same, go Google note distance of the major and minor scales and you'll understand what I mean... Ok... Now, finally... The IV minor chord, which in c major scale would be F minor... It is called borrowed chord because it comes from the C AEOLIAN scale or C minor scale... Remember this C to C: jonic scale OR major scale D to D: Dorian scale E to E: phrigyan scale F to F: lydian scale G to G: myxolidian scale A to A: Aeolian scale or minor natural scale B to B: locrian scale the aeolian relative scale of the C major scale starts from the note A.. It goes like this A-B-C-D-F-G-A Remember also the chords nature starting from the c major Or C jonic scale C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished If we change the starting point to the A aeolian or minor scale you'll have this A minor, B diminished, C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major So if you replace the notes for numbers of the aeolian scale chords, you'll have this order I minor, II diminished, III major, IV minor, V minor, VI major, VII major So what we have here is that the fourth chord of the aeolian or the minor scale is a MINOR CHORD, and not like the fourth chord of the major or jonic scale which is a MAJOR chord... So that's where we got IV minor chord or the F minor chord of the c major or jonic scale... We start playing naturally in c major... And it is like that for a moment, we change the sense of the key to what would be the C minor or aeolian scale, which is the parallel key of the C major... And since the fourth chord of the AEOLIAN or minor scale is a minor chord, we transform the F major to F minor... It is like cheating with the ear... Same goes for the last progression.. The one that goes A major, C major, G major and D major... Since the feel of resolution if found on the A major chord, we can assume that any chord played (diatonic chords are the ones whose notes belongs naturally to the scale, non diatonic chords uses notes that do not belong to the scale) that has notes from outside the A major scale are borrowed chords... So it was like this A MAJOR chord is diatonic, then he borrowed the C major chord from the AEOLIAN or minor scale of A.. The same with the G major.. It is the VII of the AEOLIAN or minor scale of A... The D major is diatonic, it is the V major of the A major or jonic scale.. I'm not mentioning here the sharps or flats... But just for you to know... A MAJOR chord has the notes A, C sharp and E... There's no natural C on the A Major scale, but in the AEOLIAN scale of A, there's the C natural, so that's why he used the C major chord and not the C# major chord.. And that's why it is called III flat major chord.. Same explanation for the G major chord... It is the natural VII major chord of the A minor scale, but from the perspective of the A major scale, it is a flat VII major chord... I hope this will help you
I am not the stage where I can make this stuff on top of my head, but these are some great ideas to free up my playing and to get my brain to start making connections. :3
Great! At 13:30, regarding the switch from A major, I lack the reason / know how to know that I should use A Natural Minor.....what do need to look into further to know what to use and understand this more?
You just have to think about both the major and minor chord scales (from the same root note) at the same time. A Major chord scale = A Bm C#m D E F#m G#dim A (natural) Minor chord scale = Am Bdim C Dm Em F G So the progression is A C G D. The A and D are from the key of A major, and the C and G are from key of A minor.
Parallel minor means the minor with the same root/tonic. eg. C major scale and C minor. Relative minor means the minor that has the same notes as the major scale 3 half steps up. eg. A minor and C major.
Andrew thanks a lot for your videos, I‘m at the beginner level so this lesson was like trying to understand japanese, wish I knew where to start with all the concepts :/
That second example sounds a lot like Louie Louie by The Kingsmen which I look at as A major with a minor v chord. That solo sounds like A minor pentatonic or A blues scale and sounds pretty cool to me. Chords would be be I IV v with simple A blues soloing. Its the only song I know that sounds like that.
You said you can play both the Em pentatonic or A pentatonic for the Em D A progression. Would you want to play the Em pentatonic only at first and then A pentatnonic when resolving, or does it not matter?
Andrew could you please do a video explaining what chords are good for verses and what chords are good for chorus bridge etc. I can't get my head round how to use tonic, diatonic etc. Thanks
The tonic is the chord or note you're beginning on. Diatonic means "two-note". Dia meaning two, tonic meaning note. Many types of progressions sound great, like a simple 1,3,5 or a 1,5,minor6,4. The bridge is normally a reversal of the chords, kind of a rundown backwards through the progression, not all the time but sometimes. The chorus can use any chords in that key (to keep it simple). It's really a lot to do with the emphasis you put on the, like playing some open chords opposed to barre chords to make it sound bigger. The idea is to use chords from that key or the relative minor key to be simple and mess around with what you like. There's no wrong way to do this, just stay in or around that key and you should be fine.
Regarding modal interchange, is it simply in a you have A, Bm, Cm, D, E, Fm and G dim. And you simply use the 6th degree of A, the relative minor, then run the sequence from that?? Is it that simple?? Any help guys , would get me outa a rut over here in London!
+Thochi Rengma Depending on which scale you have in mind, you can do different things. The chord qualities for the major scale are: 1M,2m,3m,4M,5M,6m,7dim. big M = major, small m = minor, dim = diminished. The key of D has 2 sharps, F# (3rd degree) and C#(7th degree/leading note). So that's why he has E minor and A major.
hey man thanx for this. i've been struggling for years i tell people all the time "i can run scales all day but can't make music" really pissed me off when i'd see a pro guitar player at a concert knowing the scales he's playing but not being able to do what he does just because i really just don't understand how it works. ex why does this note work on this chord and not this one if it's the right scale? you explained it well...i'm still a lil confused but i'm gona save this vid for later and watch it over n over till i figure it out haha
Thanks for your great videos Andrew. I'm in Winnipeg as well. I've played for many years and have a good handle on modes but still find myself confused to the actual key "signature" of a song. When i look at a song like Sweet Home Alabama for example i see the key center as G and the progression as 5, 4,1 but i had the sheet music for it and the sheet music has it written in D major so the progression from that perspective is 1, b7 and 4. The chords are really the 1,4 and 5 chord from G major. Shouldn't the key signature be G major? That's my confusion. I understand that if D is the 1 chord than the progression is mixolydian and if G is the 1 chord it's ionain. I know that G ionian and D mixolydian have the same notes. Why is the sheet music in D major and not G major? How is the Tonal center and the key signature different? Shouldn't they be the same? Thanks again for the videos but if you can take the time to answer this question i would appreciate it.
Randall Thomas Bergman I often have this problem as well. The way I have been looking at it recently is that if the chord progression is stating that the 5 chord is the 1 chord (Mixolydian) then I wouldn't sweat it too much, I'd still "see" the progression as 5 4 1 in G but perhaps just be aware that the the song resolves to the 5 chord. If the song is in fact in G major (pulling to G major) then perhaps the sheets are wrong? but this seems to happen a lot, and to constantly shift my focus away from the parent major scale is cumbersome for me. I'm even starting to see natural minor progressions as vi ii iii instead of i iv v. I don't know if this is exactly what your issue is, but perhaps it helps.
Casha Ward I'm personally going to have to say, if it's not close to your own personal level it will sound confusing. He's pretty solid at what I've seen, but when learning guitar there are so many routes to take it is hard as fuck to know what you've learned, and what the "next level" you should try to reach is. There is no road map to music, even if it sounds like there is. I don't mean it to sound condescending, but I think with the understanding that one is supposed to have prior knowledge of the modes when watching this video that his focus is on getting information out there rather than to entertain.
Hey!... I would at least like to learn how to play/follow along playing basic rhythm guitar parts!!! Can you develope a series of such lessons emphasizing a sort of 'gut-level' understanding of chord progressions, and rhythm patterns and music styles! (I'm especially interested in Surf Music, (= I love the clean pure chords, and wet reverb tones!), and secondly I love Rock/Blues ( Moody Blues, Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, Beatles, Chris Isaak, etc!) . Thanks! ; D
nice videos. I have a few that really push me forward with music theory. I can read a staff now and able to find the notes on my guitar. Guys that wanna learn progression's etc. I would go to wiki. copy the major minor board. from tonic to Dominant. I did that today. Major is happy and minor is sad. to help understand that look at star wars Imperial March in G # and then listen to G Major. It helps with progression to as far as when to use minor or major in a progression. I did that today to. I wanted to share that. I am still learning. But being lazy want help you achieve your goals. It seems like once I learned. I have not practice more theory. so I need to decipher classical pieces in order keep skills sharp and to b able to site read which I am a good ways from.
When it comes to writing a song, the song is the song. Players write in the natural progression, song writers write a song, it doesn't always make chordal sense, it just makes sense to the song writer. Just play the song. :)
I don't get how he's playing those chords how he is? I know that you can change chords forms from their basic fundamental chords, but I'm not there yet in my learning process.....hallllp! Please :)
Are you confused about the barre chord shapes? When he plays that A barre chord that looks like an F major shape it's essentially the upper half of the regular a barre chord shape. It does get confusing when you start using different inversions and changing the chord voicings. There are some videos on inversions you can check out to change the shapes of the chords to more unconventional versions. It's nice to be able to jump away from your basic open shapes with 5th and 6th string barre chords. But after you want to move away from those E, A and Am shaped bar chords you look to inversions.
There is actually a danger of knowing too much, & then being a slave to it all & not being able to restrict & restrain yourself in order to create good songs! Jerking off like Stevie Ray V may impress guitar elitists, but it totally disconnects listeners. Complex songs go nowhere. Except down your pants!! But the best songs are the ones where careful restraint is demonstrated. It's not dumbing down for the masses; it's purifying your expression into selective parts. Which is more powerful? Translating poetry into as many languages as possible for an hour or simply saying "I Love You"? All these Guitar fanatics often forget that music is the communication of thoughts, feelings & experiences. NOT an exhibition of your ego!
There are more than one way to say I love you. Maybe there is more to it than a simple "I love you" but rather an intricate story full of wonderful details. A great musician who plays at his or her best, is simply telling a great story. I don't think it has much to do with ego. Or is it jealousy on the listeners part. And even if it is ego, who cares, it's his story to tell. On an other not, I personally do not find SRV to be jerking off with overly complex material. In fact I consider him one of the more basic guitarists/band I enjoy listening to. It comes down to personal taste.
Brian Kelly "Art is the perfection of nature & life through the artist; who has supreme control of technique & is thereby liberated from it." If the only thing guiding your art is how good your technique is, you are a slave to it. And your art will only get more & more entangled, harder to understand & less about feelings & more just an exhibition of your ego. Nick Drake's picking technique was just flawless. And yet in his song "Know" he is deliberately holding the fret loosely, twanging 4 repeating notes, & "crying into the night" with despair as it were. To a stuffy old elitist, this is worthless. But to a human being, the perfection of nature, it's a stunningly emotional song; Direct, potent & raw. Now I'm not saying that all songs must be basic & simple! By all means.. Play as technically astute as technique permits! But if you can't discipline that technique to play simple & pure.. there are no contrasts to give the complex material any reference. And there's no control you have to navigate a story through the song.
***** Yeah well I'm not talking about "The most Skilled Guitarists". I'm talking about artists who want to create the best music in their entire career. About song writing, & learning to put your ego away so discipline is established for the good of the song. Most guitarists I know & hear tend to end up just creating a half ass backing track for them to jerk off over; there's hardly a single moment where they shut up long enough to let the song ramify. Practicing hard to play an instrument well goes against the point of art if you suck at everything BUT playing the guitar well!
Joe Satriani is a very unique guitarist, but a bad song writer. His "Always With Me, Always With You" is a classic example of his ego taking over, & being hindered by the technique. The song starts with a shaker for rhythm, the other instruments begin to play a looped sequence, it soon becomes a backing track for his jerking off, & when he's finished, he just puts the guitar down & the song doesn't even end - it just fades out! The song never has the opportunity to develop. To me, that isn't an example of a great song. It's a great performance. And to claim that a guitarist can play what ever is in his head is rather injudicious when you consider the limitations of range, polyphony, chord reach & just the general lack of variety in sound - another aspect that the guitarist sacrifices in order to show off technique. It's as if John Williams couldn't shut the brass section up. There'd be NO room for the contrasts of all the other aspects of the piece to flourish. A song that does this perfectly is The Cinema Show.
***** I get what you're saying about Satriani. I feel that way about may solo artists. Amazing guitarists with very boring songs. But I don't think this comes down to knowing too much. You can never know too much, it's knowing what to do with it that counts. Mozart is arguably one of the best music writers ever, and it would take you a decade to learn the theory that this guy understood. So by saying too much theory is counter productive would be the same as saying that learning too much grammar is counter productive for a writer. So, I think it simply comes down to how it's being used. Obviously more theory dose not make you a better song writer but it does give you more options.
Main key in that case is D. That's why chords are D - Em - A. That's why we have E Dorian (2nd degree of D major scale) and A Myxolidian (5th degree of D major scale). Just as simple as that. Remember 1-4-5 steps of a scale are always major and 2-3-6 are always minor. 7th is diminished. So, in the key of D we'll have next main chord progression: D - Em - F#m - G - A - Bm - C#dim. Speakin' about modes, you'll have in that case: D Ionian - E Dorian - F# Phrygian - G Lydian - A Mixolydian - B Aeolian - C# Locrian.
You're such great teacher I've been subscribing to a lot of teachers lately, but non of them is as perfectly able as you are in explaining this chord progression lesson and other lesdons with such simplicity and ease. You guys need to subscribe right away.
There's only 6 chords on the guitare, how do you do the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. I have an idea about it but not clear about making chords and stuff. Also that tonal thingy is way level 80 hardcore lol. If you started with guitare with music theory, piano theory is easy as fuck (theory but practically finger gesture need a lot of training still).
I'll explain a little bit of what he said: first of all MODES... Modes are this: Imagine you're using just the white notes of a piano, you'll be playing the major scale, which goes like this C-D-E-F-G-A-B.. These are the notes for the major scale or jonic mode scale, which are the same... The other scale that everybody knows is the minor natural, which uses basically the same notes of the major/jonic scale, but with the variation that the minor scale starts from A... It goes like this A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A.. You'll see the only difference is that I started playing the minor scale from A to A... The minor natural scale is also called aeolian scale... Those are the modes, are scales that uses the same notes but they start from different points...using the C major scale you'll have this: C to C: jonic scale OR major scale D to D: Dorian scale E to E: phrigyan scale F to F: lydian scale G to G: myxolidian scale A to A: Aeolian scale or minor natural scale B to B: locrian scale And then it comes the jonic or major scale again... The most used scales are the jonic and aeolian (major and minor scale), that's due to the facility for resolution, that's the explanation for the sensation of resolution in the C chord of the C major scale.. Need more information? Go Google tritone.. Now for the explanation of the borrowed chords: First the Ivm chord (fourth minor chord of any major scale), which in the case of the C major scale would be the F minor chord... You must know that the nature of the chords of a major scale is: I major, II minor, III minor, IV major, V major, VI minor, VII diminished That would be define in the C major scale this way: C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished Now, let's go back to the modes, remember that the modes (natural modes) all of them uses the same notes.. So, for example, if I'm on c major or jonic scale and I want the chords of the Dorian scale, I just have to move the starting point of the chords, but it will be the same order... That would be this way: Dorian mode chords I minor, II minor, III major, IV major, V minor, VI diminished, VII major.. See? Same chord nature for all the notes, but from a different starting point: D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished, C major It's all about perspective The the fourth note or chord starting from C, would be F... And the fourth note or chord starting from D would be G.. So about what he said of borrowing a chord, he meant that he used a chord from the parallel key of C major or C jonic... PARALLEL KEYS AND RELATIVE KEYS ARE NOT THE SAME THING... Relative keys are c jonic, D Dorian, e phrigyan, a aeolian, etc... THESE ARE RELATIVE BECAUSE THEY USE THE SAME NOTES BUT THEY START FROM DIFFERENT POINTS, ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT.. On the other hand, parallel keys would be C MAJOR or jonic and C Dorian or C minor.. They start with the same note, but the distance between notes are not the same, go Google note distance of the major and minor scales and you'll understand what I mean... Ok... Now, finally... The IV minor chord, which in c major scale would be F minor... It is called borrowed chord because it comes from the C AEOLIAN scale or C minor scale... Remember this C to C: jonic scale OR major scale D to D: Dorian scale E to E: phrigyan scale F to F: lydian scale G to G: myxolidian scale A to A: Aeolian scale or minor natural scale B to B: locrian scale the aeolian relative scale of the C major scale starts from the note A.. It goes like this A-B-C-D-F-G-A Remember also the chords nature starting from the c major Or C jonic scale C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished If we change the starting point to the A aeolian or minor scale you'll have this A minor, B diminished, C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major So if you replace the notes for numbers of the aeolian scale chords, you'll have this order I minor, II diminished, III major, IV minor, V minor, VI major, VII major So what we have here is that the fourth chord of the aeolian or the minor scale is a MINOR CHORD, and not like the fourth chord of the major or jonic scale which is a MAJOR chord... So that's where we got IV minor chord or the F minor chord of the c major or jonic scale... We start playing naturally in c major... And it is like that for a moment, we change the sense of the key to what would be the C minor or aeolian scale, which is the parallel key of the C major... And since the fourth chord of the AEOLIAN or minor scale is a minor chord, we transform the F major to F minor... It is like cheating with the ear... Same goes for the last progression.. The one that goes A major, C major, G major and D major... Since the feel of resolution if found on the A major chord, we can assume that any chord played (diatonic chords are the ones whose notes belongs naturally to the scale, non diatonic chords uses notes that do not belong to the scale) that has notes from outside the A major scale are borrowed chords... So it was like this A MAJOR chord is diatonic, then he borrowed the C major chord from the AEOLIAN or minor scale of A.. The same with the G major.. It is the VII of the AEOLIAN or minor scale of A... The D major is diatonic, it is the V major of the A major or jonic scale.. I'm not mentioning here the sharps or flats... But just for you to know... A MAJOR chord has the notes A, C sharp and E... There's no natural C on the A Major scale, but in the AEOLIAN scale of A, there's the C natural, so that's why he used the C major chord and not the C# major chord.. And that's why it is called III flat major chord.. Same explanation for the G major chord... It is the natural VII major chord of the A minor scale, but from the perspective of the A major scale, it is a flat VII major chord... I hope this will help you
Great lesson. Some of Andrew's comments reflect exactly how I felt. This cleared up a few key questions (no pun intended) for me, definitely. One of the best teachers on RUclips.
Very clear and good presentation of an important skill for understanding music!! :) Good job!
Best lesson I've come across for quite some time for me. Now I know what to focus on for a few weeks and make sense of music.
Being a sax player, I'm glad I came across this, this helped me a lot as I'm doing a extensive study of mode, with the book called Around the Horn.
And deal with mostly Jazz standards.
really liked this video...glad you brought up modes. Guitar info can be confusing with words labeling ideas about guitar methods. Navigating through the info out there in the world of SERIOUS guitar players can translate confusingly sometimes. But it is simple if you have other players that can correctly interpret and keep you on the right thinking path with music, thanks for your contribution!
This clears up SO many things for me. This is a video every guitarist should watch no doubt. Even after years of playing this is very useful information. Thank you.
You sir are a GREAT teacher. I really like how you approach things. Been playing a loooooong time and I wish I had a teacher like you back in the day. Subscribed!
This video helped me a lot as i was confused on soloing over a progression like this,not knowing when to do minor or major...thanks !
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guitarblogupdate . hey Andrew h r u brother I am from Pakistan my name is Luke and I am many times trying to play guitar but I am disappoint because if I play F chord key in so I want to go till it's end chord so I can not judge to where going end . I mean I want to play with advance chord but I don't have idea that how to play and from to where play . and which key with start lead . thank you for your experience share with around the world GBU
Awesome lesson Andrew! For guitarist that mainly chords, those scales and modes can help me to understand whne and where to put in riffs.
Very good lesson. I already new this stuff, but this will be very helpful to a lot of folks. You explained it perfectly.
I hada very hard time trying to find out Can't stop loving you from Van Halen they have these type of chord progressions. This helps a lot. Thank you Mr. Wasson
This was a wonderful lesson! Also made me think more about creating "non-standard" chord progressions. Thanks so much!
I'll explain a little bit of what he said: first of all MODES... Modes are this:
Imagine you're using just the white notes of a piano, you'll be playing the major scale, which goes like this
C-D-E-F-G-A-B.. These are the notes for the major scale or jonic mode scale, which are the same... The other scale that everybody knows is the minor natural, which uses basically the same notes of the major/jonic scale, but with the variation that the minor scale starts from A... It goes like this
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A.. You'll see the only difference is that I started playing the minor scale from A to A... The minor natural scale is also called aeolian scale... Those are the modes, are scales that uses the same notes but they start from different points...using the C major scale you'll have this:
C to C: jonic scale OR major scale
D to D: Dorian scale
E to E: phrigyan scale
F to F: lydian scale
G to G: myxolidian scale
A to A: Aeolian scale or minor natural scale
B to B: locrian scale
And then it comes the jonic or major scale again... The most used scales are the jonic and aeolian (major and minor scale), that's due to the facility for resolution, that's the explanation for the sensation of resolution in the C chord of the C major scale.. Need more information? Go Google tritone.. Now for the explanation of the borrowed chords:
First the Ivm chord (fourth minor chord of any major scale), which in the case of the C major scale would be the F minor chord... You must know that the nature of the chords of a major scale is: I major, II minor, III minor, IV major, V major, VI minor, VII diminished
That would be define in the C major scale this way:
C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished
Now, let's go back to the modes, remember that the modes (natural modes) all of them uses the same notes.. So, for example, if I'm on c major or jonic scale and I want the chords of the Dorian scale, I just have to move the starting point of the chords, but it will be the same order... That would be this way:
Dorian mode chords
I minor, II minor, III major, IV major, V minor, VI diminished, VII major..
See? Same chord nature for all the notes, but from a different starting point:
D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished, C major
It's all about perspective
The the fourth note or chord starting from C, would be F... And the fourth note or chord starting from D would be G..
So about what he said of borrowing a chord, he meant that he used a chord from the parallel key of C major or C jonic... PARALLEL KEYS AND RELATIVE KEYS ARE NOT THE SAME THING... Relative keys are c jonic, D Dorian, e phrigyan, a aeolian, etc... THESE ARE RELATIVE BECAUSE THEY USE THE SAME NOTES BUT THEY START FROM DIFFERENT POINTS, ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT.. On the other hand, parallel keys would be C MAJOR or jonic and C Dorian or C minor.. They start with the same note, but the distance between notes are not the same, go Google note distance of the major and minor scales and you'll understand what I mean... Ok... Now, finally... The IV minor chord, which in c major scale would be F minor... It is called borrowed chord because it comes from the C AEOLIAN scale or C minor scale...
Remember this
C to C: jonic scale OR major scale
D to D: Dorian scale
E to E: phrigyan scale
F to F: lydian scale
G to G: myxolidian scale
A to A: Aeolian scale or minor natural scale
B to B: locrian scale
the aeolian relative scale of the C major scale starts from the note A.. It goes like this
A-B-C-D-F-G-A
Remember also the chords nature starting from the c major Or C jonic scale
C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished
If we change the starting point to the A aeolian or minor scale you'll have this
A minor, B diminished, C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major
So if you replace the notes for numbers of the aeolian scale chords, you'll have this order
I minor, II diminished, III major, IV minor, V minor, VI major, VII major
So what we have here is that the fourth chord of the aeolian or the minor scale is a MINOR CHORD, and not like the fourth chord of the major or jonic scale which is a MAJOR chord...
So that's where we got IV minor chord or the F minor chord of the c major or jonic scale... We start playing naturally in c major... And it is like that for a moment, we change the sense of the key to what would be the C minor or aeolian scale, which is the parallel key of the C major... And since the fourth chord of the AEOLIAN or minor scale is a minor chord, we transform the F major to F minor... It is like cheating with the ear... Same goes for the last progression.. The one that goes A major, C major, G major and D major... Since the feel of resolution if found on the A major chord, we can assume that any chord played (diatonic chords are the ones whose notes belongs naturally to the scale, non diatonic chords uses notes that do not belong to the scale) that has notes from outside the A major scale are borrowed chords... So it was like this A MAJOR chord is diatonic, then he borrowed the C major chord from the AEOLIAN or minor scale of A.. The same with the G major.. It is the VII of the AEOLIAN or minor scale of A... The D major is diatonic, it is the V major of the A major or jonic scale.. I'm not mentioning here the sharps or flats... But just for you to know... A MAJOR chord has the notes A, C sharp and E... There's no natural C on the A Major scale, but in the AEOLIAN scale of A, there's the C natural, so that's why he used the C major chord and not the C# major chord.. And that's why it is called III flat major chord.. Same explanation for the G major chord... It is the natural VII major chord of the A minor scale, but from the perspective of the A major scale, it is a flat VII major chord... I hope this will help you
Great Teacher Thanks Andrew
I am really enjoying your lessons.
I am not the stage where I can make this stuff on top of my head, but these are some great ideas to free up my playing and to get my brain to start making connections. :3
Great! At 13:30, regarding the switch from A major, I lack the reason / know how to know that I should use A Natural Minor.....what do need to look into further to know what to use and understand this more?
You just have to think about both the major and minor chord scales (from the same root note) at the same time.
A Major chord scale = A Bm C#m D E F#m G#dim
A (natural) Minor chord scale = Am Bdim C Dm Em F G
So the progression is A C G D. The A and D are from the key of A major, and the C and G are from key of A minor.
The last one I would have thought of D maj progression with 5 b7M 4 1. Thanks for giving me another way to look at it.
This is great. No one teaches on this!
Very helpful explanations to problems every seriously interested musician will come across sooner or later
love your stuff andrew
Great Lesson, as always! Could you go over the set up and upgrades on your Strat?
thanks for this awesome explanation on ways we can adjust our musical perspective. I think there is some point here a lot of mode lessons overlook.
Parallel minor means the minor with the same root/tonic. eg. C major scale and C minor.
Relative minor means the minor that has the same notes as the major scale 3 half steps up. eg. A minor and C major.
Excellent Andrew......
Again your method of teaching make sense to me. :-)
Wish there tutors around here as knowledgable as you.
+Steven Wisniewski (Smugallo) There's lots of good lesson material on RUclips. For rock/pop/R&B/blues guitar, Andrew Wasson's are among the very best.
You know after thinking on this would this work in reverse? Like you can use scale from sister minor chord on standard chord?
Andrew thanks a lot for your videos, I‘m at the beginner level so this lesson was like trying to understand japanese, wish I knew where to start with all the concepts :/
Great job andrew I like the use of so called traction in a piece.
“Louie Louie,” “Wild Thing,” and “Gloria,” were all huge hits in the Sixties.
They all use the same three chords, just different rhythms.
Always excellent lessons here! thanks for sharing!!
That second example sounds a lot like Louie Louie by The Kingsmen which I look at as A major with a minor v chord. That solo sounds like A minor pentatonic or A blues scale and sounds pretty cool to me. Chords would be be I IV v with simple A blues soloing. Its the only song I know that sounds like that.
Great lesson! Very enlightening! Learned alot. What Guitar and amp are you using? Thanks.
You said you can play both the Em pentatonic or A pentatonic for the Em D A progression. Would you want to play the Em pentatonic only at first and then A pentatnonic when resolving, or does it not matter?
Andrew could you please do a video explaining what chords are good for verses and what chords are good for chorus bridge etc. I can't get my head round how to use tonic, diatonic etc. Thanks
The tonic is the chord or note you're beginning on. Diatonic means "two-note". Dia meaning two, tonic meaning note. Many types of progressions sound great, like a simple 1,3,5 or a 1,5,minor6,4. The bridge is normally a reversal of the chords, kind of a rundown backwards through the progression, not all the time but sometimes. The chorus can use any chords in that key (to keep it simple). It's really a lot to do with the emphasis you put on the, like playing some open chords opposed to barre chords to make it sound bigger. The idea is to use chords from that key or the relative minor key to be simple and mess around with what you like. There's no wrong way to do this, just stay in or around that key and you should be fine.
+KnowledgeIsKey215 cheers mate got my head round it since a bit but that helps thanks
+Rayza1983 No problem bro. Glad to see you're progressing. Keep at it!
Regarding modal interchange, is it simply in a you have A, Bm, Cm, D, E, Fm and G dim. And you simply use the 6th degree of A, the relative minor, then run the sequence from that?? Is it that simple?? Any help guys , would get me outa a rut over here in London!
Great, third example especially!
Awesome lesson! Thanks
Such a good lesson :) explained me a lot
Great lesson Andrew. I was curious what amp you are using on this lesson as well? Sounds great.
I just discovered your lessons. THis is what I was looking for. Sub :)
Great video--very helpful!
Another great lesson, thanks for sharing your insight & wisdom (,")
Great stuff! Thanks!!!
awesome lesson !!
Awesome lesson! Thx!
Thanks for the lesson
where can I learn the harmony abd theory required for lead.
how do i know which chords come next??
+Thochi Rengma Depending on which scale you have in mind, you can do different things.
The chord qualities for the major scale are: 1M,2m,3m,4M,5M,6m,7dim. big M = major, small m = minor, dim = diminished.
The key of D has 2 sharps, F# (3rd degree) and C#(7th degree/leading note).
So that's why he has E minor and A major.
R-T-T-S-T-T-T-R
1M-2m-3m-4M-5M-6m-7dim-1M
Helo im from hk n i was hoping can u teach some of Ted Greene (the chord chemist) stuff.. thanks
Dude - Thanks for this video ! Mixolydian to the rescue!
very helpful.
thanks!
hey man thanx for this. i've been struggling for years i tell people all the time "i can run scales all day but can't make music" really pissed me off when i'd see a pro guitar player at a concert knowing the scales he's playing but not being able to do what he does just because i really just don't understand how it works. ex why does this note work on this chord and not this one if it's the right scale? you explained it well...i'm still a lil confused but i'm gona save this vid for later and watch it over n over till i figure it out haha
Thanks for your great videos Andrew. I'm in Winnipeg as well. I've played for many years and have a good handle on modes but still find myself confused to the actual key "signature" of a song. When i look at a song like Sweet Home Alabama for example i see the key center as G and the progression as 5, 4,1 but i had the sheet music for it and the sheet music has it written in D major so the progression from that perspective is 1, b7 and 4. The chords are really the 1,4 and 5 chord from G major. Shouldn't the key signature be G major? That's my confusion. I understand that if D is the 1 chord than the progression is mixolydian and if G is the 1 chord it's ionain. I know that G ionian and D mixolydian have the same notes. Why is the sheet music in D major and not G major? How is the Tonal center and the key signature different? Shouldn't they be the same? Thanks again for the videos but if you can take the time to answer this question i would appreciate it.
Randall Thomas Bergman I often have this problem as well. The way I have been looking at it recently is that if the chord progression is stating that the 5 chord is the 1 chord (Mixolydian) then I wouldn't sweat it too much, I'd still "see" the progression as 5 4 1 in G but perhaps just be aware that the the song resolves to the 5 chord. If the song is in fact in G major (pulling to G major) then perhaps the sheets are wrong? but this seems to happen a lot, and to constantly shift my focus away from the parent major scale is cumbersome for me. I'm even starting to see natural minor progressions as vi ii iii instead of i iv v. I don't know if this is exactly what your issue is, but perhaps it helps.
Ed King thought the song was in the key of G also and played his solo according.
brilliant lesson andrew thank you :D
very very useful thanks man
what... the... FUCK! I really need to figure this stuff out...
ya. Me too. I feel like that kid who doesn't know how to whistle.
This is like that physics, maths or computing teacher who might know what they are talking about but really don't know how to teach it !!
Casha Ward I'm personally going to have to say, if it's not close to your own personal level it will sound confusing. He's pretty solid at what I've seen, but when learning guitar there are so many routes to take it is hard as fuck to know what you've learned, and what the "next level" you should try to reach is. There is no road map to music, even if it sounds like there is. I don't mean it to sound condescending, but I think with the understanding that one is supposed to have prior knowledge of the modes when watching this video that his focus is on getting information out there rather than to entertain.
thanks for the lesson it helped!!!
I need to write out my scales and stuff, I need to have this info working for me. :3
That was helpful!
Thanks a lot!
As a beginner I think everyone can relate to the theory that experienced guitar players are keeping the secret to learning guitar from us.
Yep. Practice a shit ton, and learn from everything.
Fuck yea, this video was super super helpful, especially the modal interchange part
Hey!... I would at least like to learn how to play/follow along playing basic rhythm guitar parts!!! Can you develope a series of such lessons emphasizing a sort of 'gut-level' understanding of chord progressions, and rhythm patterns and music styles! (I'm especially interested in Surf Music, (= I love the clean pure chords, and wet reverb tones!), and secondly I love Rock/Blues ( Moody Blues, Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, Beatles, Chris Isaak, etc!) . Thanks! ; D
Very nice.
simple just play the notes in key the 1 4 and 5 are in that box and 2 3 6 just mess around with modified chords and whatever sounds good right?
nice videos. I have a few that really push me forward with music theory. I can read a staff now and able to find the notes on my guitar. Guys that wanna learn progression's etc. I would go to wiki. copy the major minor board. from tonic to Dominant. I did that today. Major is happy and minor is sad. to help understand that look at star wars Imperial March in G # and then listen to G Major. It helps with progression to as far as when to use minor or major in a progression. I did that today to. I wanted to share that. I am still learning. But being lazy want help you achieve your goals. It seems like once I learned. I have not practice more theory. so I need to decipher classical pieces in order keep skills sharp and to b able to site read which I am a good ways from.
When it comes to writing a song, the song is the song. Players write in the natural progression, song writers write a song, it doesn't always make chordal sense, it just makes sense to the song writer. Just play the song. :)
+James Mikita And that made no sense whatsoever :)
Awesome!
I don't get how he's playing those chords how he is? I know that you can change chords forms from their basic fundamental chords, but I'm not there yet in my learning process.....hallllp! Please :)
Are you confused about the barre chord shapes? When he plays that A barre chord that looks like an F major shape it's essentially the upper half of the regular a barre chord shape. It does get confusing when you start using different inversions and changing the chord voicings. There are some videos on inversions you can check out to change the shapes of the chords to more unconventional versions. It's nice to be able to jump away from your basic open shapes with 5th and 6th string barre chords. But after you want to move away from those E, A and Am shaped bar chords you look to inversions.
There is actually a danger of knowing too much, & then being a slave to it all & not being able to restrict & restrain yourself in order to create good songs! Jerking off like Stevie Ray V may impress guitar elitists, but it totally disconnects listeners. Complex songs go nowhere. Except down your pants!! But the best songs are the ones where careful restraint is demonstrated. It's not dumbing down for the masses; it's purifying your expression into selective parts. Which is more powerful? Translating poetry into as many languages as possible for an hour or simply saying "I Love You"? All these Guitar fanatics often forget that music is the communication of thoughts, feelings & experiences. NOT an exhibition of your ego!
There are more than one way to say I love you. Maybe there is more to it than a simple "I love you" but rather an intricate story full of wonderful details. A great musician who plays at his or her best, is simply telling a great story. I don't think it has much to do with ego. Or is it jealousy on the listeners part. And even if it is ego, who cares, it's his story to tell. On an other not, I personally do not find SRV to be jerking off with overly complex material. In fact I consider him one of the more basic guitarists/band I enjoy listening to. It comes down to personal taste.
Brian Kelly "Art is the perfection of nature & life through the artist; who has supreme control of technique & is thereby liberated from it." If the only thing guiding your art is how good your technique is, you are a slave to it. And your art will only get more & more entangled, harder to understand & less about feelings & more just an exhibition of your ego. Nick Drake's picking technique was just flawless. And yet in his song "Know" he is deliberately holding the fret loosely, twanging 4 repeating notes, & "crying into the night" with despair as it were. To a stuffy old elitist, this is worthless. But to a human being, the perfection of nature, it's a stunningly emotional song; Direct, potent & raw.
Now I'm not saying that all songs must be basic & simple! By all means.. Play as technically astute as technique permits! But if you can't discipline that technique to play simple & pure.. there are no contrasts to give the complex material any reference. And there's no control you have to navigate a story through the song.
*****
Yeah well I'm not talking about "The most Skilled Guitarists". I'm talking about artists who want to create the best music in their entire career. About song writing, & learning to put your ego away so discipline is established for the good of the song. Most guitarists I know & hear tend to end up just creating a half ass backing track for them to jerk off over; there's hardly a single moment where they shut up long enough to let the song ramify. Practicing hard to play an instrument well goes against the point of art if you suck at everything BUT playing the guitar well!
Joe Satriani is a very unique guitarist, but a bad song writer. His "Always With Me, Always With You" is a classic example of his ego taking over, & being hindered by the technique. The song starts with a shaker for rhythm, the other instruments begin to play a looped sequence, it soon becomes a backing track for his jerking off, & when he's finished, he just puts the guitar down & the song doesn't even end - it just fades out!
The song never has the opportunity to develop. To me, that isn't an example of a great song. It's a great performance.
And to claim that a guitarist can play what ever is in his head is rather injudicious when you consider the limitations of range, polyphony, chord reach & just the general lack of variety in sound - another aspect that the guitarist sacrifices in order to show off technique.
It's as if John Williams couldn't shut the brass section up. There'd be NO room for the contrasts of all the other aspects of the piece to flourish. A song that does this perfectly is The Cinema Show.
***** I get what you're saying about Satriani. I feel that way about may solo artists. Amazing guitarists with very boring songs. But I don't think this comes down to knowing too much. You can never know too much, it's knowing what to do with it that counts. Mozart is arguably one of the best music writers ever, and it would take you a decade to learn the theory that this guy understood. So by saying too much theory is counter productive would be the same as saying that learning too much grammar is counter productive for a writer. So, I think it simply comes down to how it's being used. Obviously more theory dose not make you a better song writer but it does give you more options.
amazing
A loop pedal here would really help.
you're the man
Totally don't get it. Anybody know of a good basic video about chord progression? Particularly for those of us who aren't that bright.
Main key in that case is D. That's why chords are D - Em - A. That's why we have E Dorian (2nd degree of D major scale) and A Myxolidian (5th degree of D major scale). Just as simple as that. Remember 1-4-5 steps of a scale are always major and 2-3-6 are always minor. 7th is diminished. So, in the key of D we'll have next main chord progression: D - Em - F#m - G - A - Bm - C#dim. Speakin' about modes, you'll have in that case: D Ionian - E Dorian - F# Phrygian - G Lydian - A Mixolydian - B Aeolian - C# Locrian.
Nice!
how isnt the last one e minor
NICE!
If the key is D major, the A chord should be a dominant 7 chord. i.e., A7
hey, i always love your intros but this video didnt have one :(
Lost me... something flew over my head. Back to basics😔
good vid lesson, but in my humble opinion,I just think you should play what you Feel is right, It all comes from trial & error.
Peace
Very true. Thanks for the Lessons Man.!! Peace
awesome! nobody teaches that stuff on RUclips
Before you watch make sure you got some basics in theory under your belt
bruh......
trying to understand this crazy shit is like trying to teach a legless man to tap dance.
but nice vid anyways :)
You're such great teacher
I've been subscribing to a lot of teachers lately, but non of them is as perfectly able as you are in explaining this chord progression lesson and other lesdons with such simplicity and ease.
You guys need to subscribe right away.
video loads, likes video, watches video
I always love your videos. You should start accepting Bitcoin tips!
It doesn't look like he's playing the right cords tbh
Wat
friki shit
Andrew You speak speak speak speak ouf ouf play merde
Shhh, and I thought piano was difficult. Piano is so easier.
Electribe Isle It's much more visual if anything. All of the octaves on a piano look the same/are played the same.
very useful for understanding theory tho
There's only 6 chords on the guitare, how do you do the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. I have an idea about it but not clear about making chords and stuff. Also that tonal thingy is way level 80 hardcore lol. If you started with guitare with music theory, piano theory is easy as fuck (theory but practically finger gesture need a lot of training still).
Another great lesson. Thanks.
I'll explain a little bit of what he said: first of all MODES... Modes are this:
Imagine you're using just the white notes of a piano, you'll be playing the major scale, which goes like this
C-D-E-F-G-A-B.. These are the notes for the major scale or jonic mode scale, which are the same... The other scale that everybody knows is the minor natural, which uses basically the same notes of the major/jonic scale, but with the variation that the minor scale starts from A... It goes like this
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A.. You'll see the only difference is that I started playing the minor scale from A to A... The minor natural scale is also called aeolian scale... Those are the modes, are scales that uses the same notes but they start from different points...using the C major scale you'll have this:
C to C: jonic scale OR major scale
D to D: Dorian scale
E to E: phrigyan scale
F to F: lydian scale
G to G: myxolidian scale
A to A: Aeolian scale or minor natural scale
B to B: locrian scale
And then it comes the jonic or major scale again... The most used scales are the jonic and aeolian (major and minor scale), that's due to the facility for resolution, that's the explanation for the sensation of resolution in the C chord of the C major scale.. Need more information? Go Google tritone.. Now for the explanation of the borrowed chords:
First the Ivm chord (fourth minor chord of any major scale), which in the case of the C major scale would be the F minor chord... You must know that the nature of the chords of a major scale is: I major, II minor, III minor, IV major, V major, VI minor, VII diminished
That would be define in the C major scale this way:
C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished
Now, let's go back to the modes, remember that the modes (natural modes) all of them uses the same notes.. So, for example, if I'm on c major or jonic scale and I want the chords of the Dorian scale, I just have to move the starting point of the chords, but it will be the same order... That would be this way:
Dorian mode chords
I minor, II minor, III major, IV major, V minor, VI diminished, VII major..
See? Same chord nature for all the notes, but from a different starting point:
D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished, C major
It's all about perspective
The the fourth note or chord starting from C, would be F... And the fourth note or chord starting from D would be G..
So about what he said of borrowing a chord, he meant that he used a chord from the parallel key of C major or C jonic... PARALLEL KEYS AND RELATIVE KEYS ARE NOT THE SAME THING... Relative keys are c jonic, D Dorian, e phrigyan, a aeolian, etc... THESE ARE RELATIVE BECAUSE THEY USE THE SAME NOTES BUT THEY START FROM DIFFERENT POINTS, ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT.. On the other hand, parallel keys would be C MAJOR or jonic and C Dorian or C minor.. They start with the same note, but the distance between notes are not the same, go Google note distance of the major and minor scales and you'll understand what I mean... Ok... Now, finally... The IV minor chord, which in c major scale would be F minor... It is called borrowed chord because it comes from the C AEOLIAN scale or C minor scale...
Remember this
C to C: jonic scale OR major scale
D to D: Dorian scale
E to E: phrigyan scale
F to F: lydian scale
G to G: myxolidian scale
A to A: Aeolian scale or minor natural scale
B to B: locrian scale
the aeolian relative scale of the C major scale starts from the note A.. It goes like this
A-B-C-D-F-G-A
Remember also the chords nature starting from the c major Or C jonic scale
C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B diminished
If we change the starting point to the A aeolian or minor scale you'll have this
A minor, B diminished, C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major
So if you replace the notes for numbers of the aeolian scale chords, you'll have this order
I minor, II diminished, III major, IV minor, V minor, VI major, VII major
So what we have here is that the fourth chord of the aeolian or the minor scale is a MINOR CHORD, and not like the fourth chord of the major or jonic scale which is a MAJOR chord...
So that's where we got IV minor chord or the F minor chord of the c major or jonic scale... We start playing naturally in c major... And it is like that for a moment, we change the sense of the key to what would be the C minor or aeolian scale, which is the parallel key of the C major... And since the fourth chord of the AEOLIAN or minor scale is a minor chord, we transform the F major to F minor... It is like cheating with the ear... Same goes for the last progression.. The one that goes A major, C major, G major and D major... Since the feel of resolution if found on the A major chord, we can assume that any chord played (diatonic chords are the ones whose notes belongs naturally to the scale, non diatonic chords uses notes that do not belong to the scale) that has notes from outside the A major scale are borrowed chords... So it was like this A MAJOR chord is diatonic, then he borrowed the C major chord from the AEOLIAN or minor scale of A.. The same with the G major.. It is the VII of the AEOLIAN or minor scale of A... The D major is diatonic, it is the V major of the A major or jonic scale.. I'm not mentioning here the sharps or flats... But just for you to know... A MAJOR chord has the notes A, C sharp and E... There's no natural C on the A Major scale, but in the AEOLIAN scale of A, there's the C natural, so that's why he used the C major chord and not the C# major chord.. And that's why it is called III flat major chord.. Same explanation for the G major chord... It is the natural VII major chord of the A minor scale, but from the perspective of the A major scale, it is a flat VII major chord... I hope this will help you