Easy Jazz Guitar Scales – 28 Modes From 1 Fingering

Easy Jazz Guitar Scales – 28 Modes From 1 Fingering Learning scales is something that all guitarists have to do at one point in their development as a jazz guitarist, at least in this modern age.  Though they are not going going to make you sound like your favorite jazz jazz guitarist right away, learning scales and modes is a great way to deepen your understanding of the guitar, guitar, jazz theory and the fundamental building blocks of many of the great tunes and solos that make up the jazz idiom. Over the years Ive learned many different ways to play scales and modes on the guitar. !"#$%, seven mode fingerings, the five&fingering approach, three¬e per string, four¬e per string, one string at a time, 'egovia fingerings etc. "nd after spending thousands of hours banging my head against the wall I discovered that I was able to internalize scales and modes much more e asily if I simplified things instead of making them more complicated. 'o, I left all my big bulky scales behind and I went back to learning one&octave scale and mode fingerings, and the results were immediate. (ith these easy jazz guitar scales, I could now run changes and apply all of my patterns and licks with ease, since I now had a smaller, easier w ay of playing and visualizing any scale or mode. "nd, when I wanted to play a longer run I just connected two one&octave scales to produce a two&octave fingering, without learning anything new in the process. "fter working through the major modes in this fashion I decided to e)pand it to the other scale systems that we use in jazz, melodic minor, harmonic minor and harmonic major. (hen I did this, I looked for the easiest way to learn these new sounds, without learning anything new if possible. 'o I started by trying to relate all of the major modes I already knew to any new mode I wanted to learn, and by simply altering one note from any major mode I was able to learn all of the modes in the harmonic minor, melodic minor and harmonic major scales in no time, and I never forget them since I had a formula for each fingering that related it back to something I already knew, the modes of the major scale. 'ince I get asked about scales and modes a lot in workshops and lessons, I started s howing this approach to my students and they were able to internalize all of these scales and modes just as *uickly as I did, so it wasnt a fluke. +or e)ample, this past week I taught a series of w orkshops in 'ao oao %el -ei, razil. razil. "t one point the students asked about my system for learning and playing scales and modes.  Though most of the students students in the class werent playing more more than the pentatonic and blues blues scales, within an hour every student in the class could play all the modes of the major, harmonic minor, melodic minor and harmonic major scales from memory. /retty darn cool. ecause Ive had such a strong response to this approach, both in my own playing and from my students learning how to play jazz guitar, I decided to put together all of this info in one place and write the article youre reading now.  The concept is simple and easy to apply. 'tart on the Lydian mode, lower one note and youve got Ionian. !ontinue this until you get to Locrian. Then, you can take these seven modes of the major scale, alter o ne note in each mode and you can now play all of the modes for harmonic minor, melodic minor and harmonic major. Its that easy. efore we dive into this formula for learning and memorizing scales and modes, here are a few short notes on the fingerings that I use and why I use them.

$asy azz #uitar 'cales 0 1otes on +ingering -egardless -egardl ess of what shapes you use to play any scale or mode, you can apply the above system to alter one note of one mode, or entire scale system, to produce a different mode or scale system. ut, in my e)perience as a player and teacher, using simple one&octave fingerings, then combining them to

form two&octave fingerings works best. "lso, keeping things unified by having a formula for how you finger each scale in relation to other similar scales and modes goes a long way in simplifying the learning process. "nd keeping groups of modes, major or minor2diminished, related by using similar fingerings will also make it easier for you to learn, retain and apply these modes to a real&life performance situation. 3ere are my two guidelines when it comes to playing scales and modes4

•

5ajor based modes, such as Ionian, Lydian and 5i)olydian and their derivatives start on the middle finger 6first finger on the 7rd

string root due to the &string tuning of a 7rd interval8 and use two notes on the lowest string •

5inor and %iminished based modes, such as %orian, "eolian, /hrygian and Locrian and their derivatives start on the inde) finger

and use three fingers on the lowest string

 Thats it. y keeping things simple, thinking about major based modes as starting off the second finger 6first on the 7rd string root8 and minor2diminished based modes starting off the first finger, you can eliminate a lot of the thought processes that go into learning big, bulky 9 and 7 octave scales that dont have a similar system to their fingerings. "s well, transposing scale patterns or melody lines is easy with these fingerings since each of the : one&octave shapes, ;th&