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The answer of the "first chord" of a song, is not correct.  Look at Sweet Home Alabama - it's in G but it starts on the V, of D.  It "resolves" to G.

The answer is what note does the song want to "resolve" upon?  That is the central determinant of what makes the "key" of the song. 

Instructor

Because the maj3 to min3 is a nice outside passing note that creates and resolves tension on a chord tone, so while not entirely diatonic, it sounds "pleasing".  If you "sit" on that note however you'll hear the tension and it will sound wrong or off.

Instructor

It sounds like the fundamental flaw with most approaches to theory.  You cant use it because you dont have command of the instrument, to be able to go to any note and play it instantly on any string.  If you cant use it on the guitar, it's almost useless.  You're on the right path and your understanding is correct, but in my opinion, and this is considering the fact that I know things about teaching this, that you won't learning from a book, this method is outdated, pointless and clunky, but its the best they have to work with and its been repeated for years, without any challenge or question.  Its assumed "this" is how you learn theory.  I say "this" is how you learn theory if you want it to take forever, become frustrated, or just pain NOT learn it, because the time and costs and learning curve is too steep and out of reach for most "self taught" people.

Instructor

I apologize if this post is spam, it was not authorized by me and is an overzealous student who wanted to get the word out, but I do not condone spamming peoples forums.  My apologies.

Instructor

There are so many ways of seeing modes, and most people have it wrong.

First of all, in one form, the less diatonic a song progression is, the more modal it is.  The more diatonic a song is, the less modal.

Then there is the idea of making chords modal, which comes from an understanding of that chord/scale relationship and what makes them different.  However most people do not have understanding of this past the triad level.  So you have Lydian being C and D or the IV and V in G.  But even then, you'll notice that modal music does not retain a sense of "stability"  The moment you play a D, which is the V of G, you've written a progression that want's to "pull" to G, and if you play a G as part of the melody...bam, you just got hijacked into G major.

So, a fundamental way to change that is to understand chords past the triad level, thus instead of C, a Cmaj7#11 (Since I understand chords past the triad level) is a more suitable and definitive example of a Lydian chord, and it cannot be anything BUT Lydian.  The means to acquire this knowledge is, beyond the scope of this post, and takes several levels of fundamental foundation development.

There are other ways as well, such as treat each chord change as a Mode unto itself, so for example, you could have a C Dm G  Em, and over each chord change, create a modal sound that changes pitch collections promptly at every chord change. 

There are also Pitch Axis approaches, as well as using modal interchanges.  There's no one way that modes can be used, however the theoretical basis of these approaches can be quite deep.

In our online guitar school, they are among the last things that we teach, primarily because of the foundation needed to understand.

Thus if I were to explain that the #11 is non-diatonc, but in essence preventing a min 2 dissonance and in fact is the same as the raised 4th, most would know what I am talking about, if they have a solid foundation in theory.  However, those who don't have this, would also not be able to explain what chord this series of notes created:

F Ab C Eb G#

And the understanding of chords and scales at the very least on the triad level, are very important, when it comes to using modes.  Most people who claim to understand and "know" modes, do not. 

As for examples of different ways of modal playing and application, So What by Miles Davis is in Dorian,  Flying in A blue Dream is Lydian, etc.  There are a few examples of modal playing.  Most guitarists see modes as scales, because thats something thats shown in magazine after magazine, and it's simply not true.  The solo for example, may be Dorian over one chord, but when that chord changes, its back to major or minor.

Instructor

While I do see the importance of the natural notes, as a basis, I think that the matter is, that anyone can "learn" the fretboard, but the variable is, how much time are they willing to take to do so.  I have taught the fretboard in as quickly as a weekend.  Now by taught, I mean that the student can go to any note on the guitar and name it in a half second to two seconds, or go to any note on any string, by command and play it accurately in that amount of time as well.

So, what it all comes down to, isn't tricks, but what is the quickest way to get this skill down, to the functional level of being able to use this in real-time? 

How much time is needed, in your opinion, should an approach like this take, by a student following your approach above?

Instructor