Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Learn Guitar Scales : The Colorful Locrian Mode

By Jonathan Hart


When you begin to learn guitar scales, you learn how to advance your guitar playing. Rock guitar players, as well as jazz guitar players, who learn the music theory behind guitar scales really sound better than those stuck in the blues box. They sound more fluid, more dexterous, and more professional. One way that you as a guitar player who is wanting to learn guitar scales can take your guitar playing to another level is through the learning of modes. Modes are derivatives of "straight" guitar scales (although when you get advanced enough you understand that "straight" guitar scales in and of themselves are modes, too). When you learn guitar scales and modes at the same time, you give yourself a much greater base of knowledge from which to construct songs and solos.



Among the guitar modes is the Locrian Mode. You might have heard of the Phrygian Mode before, and the Locrian Mode is quite similar to it. In fact, there is just one note's difference. But that one different note means a lot.

Playing in the Locrian Mode, to put it simply, entails starting and ending a solo or lead break on the 7th note of the "normal" scale. This is the scale that indicates the key that you're playing in. So, if you were playing in the key of G, and you desire to play a solo in Locrian, you'll begin and end the solo on the F note. It doesn't matter which octave either note is, it just matters that your very first and very last notes are each an F.

Playing in B Locrian means playing something different than the B major scale. It also means playing in C in a different way than you would if you just were going to use the C major or its relative minor (A minor) scale for a solo.

Advanced guitar players love understanding the intervalic relationship between the notes in a mode, as this allows for deeper understanding of how to use the mode. The intervals for the Locrian Mode go like this Root, flatted 2nd , flatted 3rd ,major 4th ,flatted 5th , flatted 6th, flatted 7th . So to play F Locrian in the G major key, the scale that you would use would go F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F3'.

If you played F Locrian, you would be playing in the key of G but with "sound and feel" of an F major scale. You would "think in" the pattern of notes that begins and ends on F, but please recognize that they all be the notes of the G major scale. Do you think that might spark your creativity?

Imagine if you played the B Locrian mode (or "scale") over top a chord progression in the key of B. You would give a very different feel to the song or piece.

The Locrian Mode is not used very much, in truth. There are differing theories as to why. It might be that the Locrian Mode, as it is based on the Leading Tone, is too "suggestive of" the Ionian Mode and thus loses effectiveness. It's also thought that the Locrian Mode sounds so much like the Phrygian Mode that it's barely distinguishable and, so, why should a guitar player learn or use both when Phrygian is so popular?

So when you set out to learn guitar scales, keep in mind that the Locrian Mode gives you access to some different sounds than you would be able to conjure by "playing it straight". When you learn guitar scales, don't neglect the Locrian Mode.




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