Mixolydian jam

[jackofall]

My elec guitar teacher asked me to record the notes from an Amajor scale over a mixolydian backing. Banging out the D natural seems to shout 'This isn't E Major! It's the Mixolydian!" This is new to me but it does sound kind of 'funky' as it says in my book on modes. Still no great licks - just scales....Could guitarmanic superimpose a cool lick over the top - then I could pretend it was me playing!

[Wiley]

Sounded like more guitar playing than I know LOL. Never heard of the mio whatever.  But it did sound pretty funky.  Be fun to see what comes up.

[Kody]

Yep, you're gonna get me back to practicing modes again....Does sound cool

[Greeny]

Oooh... I like the sound of this mixolydian thing (whatever the hell that is  ). Sounds less funky and more psychedelic to my ears... a kind of psychedelic prog-rock wig out. Very nice!!!!!

[Ferryman]

This is really nice. It doesn't need a load of wild soloing over the top of it, it's actually got the potential to be a song in its own right. Great feel to it. I wish I knew more about music theory - I think it opens up a lot more possibilities for using differing styles.

Thanks for sharing. I hope teacher likes it.

Cheers,

Nigel

[The Reverend 48]

I really must get round to learning more scales...It sounds really different to my ears

[Bluesberry]

What the Mixolidian gives you is the combination of the Major and Minor pentatonic scales.  If you superimpose the major over the minor (blues scale), keeping the regular 3rd (not flat) you get the mixolodian.  If you play around with the third, play it as 3rd over the I chord (bending up from the flat3rd), play it as flat3rd over the IV chord and for the V chord you can play it either way.  This is the kind of blues scale that BB king, Eric Clapton, Rory Gallagther, Carlos Santana, etc play.  It gives you a real funky, jazzy sound to your blues.  You are playing major/minor pentatonic with the addition of 2, and 6 notes.  If you are playing in A(I) you play the A mixolidian with a regular 3rd (bending up from flat3rd to regular 3rd gives you that classic blues sound),  D (IV) gets the flat3rd with the rest of the A mixolidian scale, etc.  It is a cool scale for sure and you can play this one scale the rest of your life (like Eric Clapton).  This is the scale that I try to play when I play blues solo stuff.
Dorian mode is almost the same thing except that the 3rd is flat, so if you want to say you are playing like BB king or Eric Clapton you could say you playing a combination of major Pentatonic, minor Pentatonic, blues scale, Mixolidian and Dorian all at the same time.    Like all this Mode stuff, it really all depends on what chord you are playing these scales over to get the appropriate sound you are after.

[DToms]

Sounds great, I need to look into those too.  Definitely really spices things up

[jackofall]

Thanks Bluesberry, if I had read that just six months ago I'd be totally lost, but I think I understood most of it. I've got a book called Modes for Guitar by Tom Kolb. It is really enlightening. I love 'Bluegrass' music and was fascinated to learn that Bluegrass is a mode of the blues scale - giving you both major and minor thirds. I thought scales were boring exercises but it seems they are fundamental to the the character of every musical style. Such an interesting subject!