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The Dorian mode

A mode is a color. Dorian is a minor that doesn’t cry: funky, bright, groovy. It all comes down to one note, the major sixth. Goal: improvise for a minute over an Am7-D7 vamp, making the F# heard.

Time
15 minutes a day for a week
Before you start
A chart in a single region of the neck; The major scale on the neck
You’ll be able to
Improvise in Dorian, bringing out its sixth

What a mode is

Play the notes of G major, but start from A and settle there: A, B, C, D, E, F#, G. It’s no longer the same music: it’s the A Dorian mode. A mode is the notes of a major scale, heard from a different note.

What matters isn’t the parent scale: it’s the color the mode gives over the chord. Each mode has one note that sets it apart from the others, its characteristic note.

The note that changes everything: the sixth

Compare with the A natural minor scale: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Only one note differs: Dorian has an F#, the major sixth. That F# brightens the minor and gives it its funk and soul side.

EF♯GABCDEF♯GABABCDEF♯GABCDEDEF♯GABCDEF♯GAGABCDEF♯GABCDBCDEF♯GABCDEF♯EF♯GABCDEF♯GAB
EF♯GABCDEABCDEF♯GADEF♯GABCDGABCDEF♯GBCDEF♯GABEF♯GABCDE

High E at the top, just like in tab.Neck seen from the front, headstock at the top: low E on the left, just like a chord diagram.

The Dorian mode page gives its formula and all twelve keys.

The vamp: Am7, D7

A vamp is a two-chord loop that goes round and round, leaving room for improvisation. The typical Dorian vamp: i, IV. In A: Am7, D7. The D7 contains the F#: it’s what makes Dorian heard in the backing.

The pop strum in sixteenthsAm7 · D7

Making it heard

e|-----------------|
B|-5-7-5-------7---|
G|-------7-5-7-----|
D|---------------7-|
A|-----------------|
E|-----------------|

The phrase goes through F# (B string, 7th fret) and ends on A. Three rules:

  1. Start from the A minor pentatonic, which you know by heart.
  2. Add the F#, especially when the vamp moves to D7: it’s that chord’s third.
  3. Land on F# from time to time. A passing note isn’t enough: the ear has to hear the color.

Improvise

EF♯GABCDEF♯GABABCDEF♯GABCDEDEF♯GABCDEF♯GAGABCDEF♯GABCDBCDEF♯GABCDEF♯EF♯GABCDEF♯GAB
EF♯GABCDEABCDEF♯GADEF♯GABCDGABCDEF♯GBCDEF♯GABEF♯GABCDE

High E at the top, just like in tab.Neck seen from the front, headstock at the top: low E on the left, just like a chord diagram.

Play the scale notes over it. Open in the Studio

Choose the progression “i7, IV7: the funk version” in the backing track menu.

You’ve got it when…