Damien Duffy

The Mode Directory Damien Duffy

Are you sick of using the same few scales over and over again when you play? Do you hear your favorite performers use sound flavors that you can't find on your instrument? If you wanted to play lines that sound different then this should help! These charts are designed to allow you to pick scales that fit chords, choosing from all modes of all commonly used "full" scales (The blues scale, soul scale and pentatonic scales are not covered here). The scale families are color-coded to help you quickly identify the spacing pattern and to see relationships when you look at the charts. The scale chart shows the intervals in the first mode of that family and then lists and shows the spacing pattern for each mode, and gives it's systematic name (which describes the scale's construction in relation to modes of the Major scale). The modes of each family are then written out, showing the intervals they contain and how they relate to the chord structure(s) that they can be used with so that you can use them to play phrases that fit the chords properly. The chord chart lists all of the chord types and shows which scales will go with them. It shows the spacing pattern for that mode, what it's intervals are and the spelling of the mode is given from a root of C. Chord extensions are given where they exist in a mode. You can literally pick scales that fit given chords at random and get a beautiful result. You will quickly learn the musical flavor of any scale you work with and be able to use it at will any time you play over any chord type associated with it. Learning these modes will add many flavors to your improvisation.