Thursday, March 10, 2011

Learn Guitar Scales : The Exotic Phrygian Mode For Mystical Soloing

By Nick Dillon


When you are learning to play the guitar it's important to learn guitar scales in order to advance your playing. You don't want to be stuck in the blues box forever, nor do you want to just play it by ear. Understanding music theory deepens your ability to play solos and compose music. When you learn guitar scales, you learn some of the most important aspects of music theory. And, when you learn guitar scales, you want to learn modes, too. One of these modes is the Phrygian Mode.

Phrygian Mode is played by taking the notes of a particular key and, when playing your solo, making the first note as well as the final note played the third note of that key's scale. In other words, if you wanted to play a solo in the Phrygian Mode while performing a song in the key of D, you would begin and end your solo with the F note. The F note that you start and end with may be in two different octaves. What matters is that it's F.

When you become more highly developed with your guitar playing, you'll be able to play solos based upon the Phrygian Scale's intervals. Understanding these intervals gives you a more profound understanding of the notes that actually construct the Phrygian Mode. This enables you to become yet more creative.

The Phrygian Mode intervals go: Root, flatted 2nd , flatted 3rd ,4th ,5th , flatted 6th , flatted 7th . So to play E Phrygian, you would use: E-F-G-A-B-C-D-E'. Notice that E Phrygian Mode is really in the key of C. So you are really playing the C major scale, but you are emphasizing the individual notes in a different than "straight" way.

The Phrygian Mode is used to give an "Egyptian" or Middle Eastern feel to a solo, lead break, etc. It is a favorite mode of "Neo-classical rock" guitar players and advanced instrumental hard rock guitar players like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani.

Since the intervals comprising the Phrygian Mode necessitate including several flatted notes, this mode does indeed sound mystical. It can also sound very dark, as if a wizard is conjuring up some wicked demons. If you are into complex rock music, this is a mode that you definitely want to know about. It also sounds amazing when played on an acoustic or classical guitar.

Learn guitar scales to take your guitar playing to a whole new dimension. Add even more dimensions by learning modes like the Phrygian Mode.




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