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 The Ultimate Guide To The
Modes Of The Major Scale
For Bass

Finally – the modes explained in simple, easy-to-

understand terms and a full explanation of how and
where to use them




















Using The Modes Of The Major Scale
Hopefully  you  have  a  pretty  good  understanding  of  the  major  scale  and  the  modes  that  you  can
get  from  it.  However,  that  doesn’t  answer  the  question  of  why  the  modes  are  important  and  how
you  can  actually  use  them  to  make  music  -­  very  important  stuff!

Well,  funnily  enough,  it  all  comes  down  to  chords.  You  see,  you  can  actually  make  chords  from
the  major  scale!  Let’s  use  G  major  as  an  example.  If  you  play  the  1st  note  of  the  G  Major  Scale,
G,  skip  one  (the  A),  then  play  the  B,  skip  another  (the  C  this  time)  and  play  the  D,  you’re  left  with
G-­B-­D.  These  three  notes  together  make  a  G  Major  chord.  If  you  were  to  go  one  step  further
G-­B-­D.
after  the  D,  you’d  skip  the  E  and  play  an  F#.  This  would  give  you  a  G  Major  7  chord.

This  makes  sense,  right?  You  can  probably  make  a  G  major  chord  from  a  G  major  scale.  But  did
you  know  that  you  can  make  a  whole  host  of  others  as  well?  If  you  follow  the  same  pattern,  but  
start  on  every  other  note  of  the  G  major  scale,  you  end  up  with  this:

This  is  almost  like  the  ‘Chordal  Universe’  of  G  Major.  All  of  these  chords  come  from  the  key  of  G!
You’ll  notice  that  there  are  7  of  them,  in  the  same  way  that  there  are  7  notes  in  the  scale,  and  7
different  modes  of  the  major  scale.
2nd fr.
This knowledge can be a game-changer for your playing – it has the potential to take it
to the next level. How? Well when you understand this, it becomes easy to create
bass lines, fills or even solos using these modes.

It takes all of the guesswork out and almost guarantees that you won’t play any wrong
notes (as long as you stick to the modes). Let’s say for example, that you’re playing a
song in the key of C major. The chords in this song are C major, A minor, F major and
G major.

|C |Am |F |G |
Using your knowledge of the modes, you can know exactly what’s going to sound the
best over these chords. In the key of C:

C – 1st Mode - Ionian

A – 6th Mode – Aeolian
F – 4th Mode – Lydian
G – 5th Mode – Mixolydian
This means you can play these modes over these chords and be almost guaranteed
to sound good. Instead of looking at the chords and wondering what to play, you can
think in terms of which modes you can use over them, just like this:

| C Ionian | A Aeolian | F Lydian | G Mixolydian |

This is how you can make melodies, fills and solos – even write your own songs –
using the modes. Can you see how it works? This idea is something that a lot of
people get confused about when they first start learning about the modes – they learn
what they are, but not how they work, how they’re used and that their sounds are
usually linked to specific chords.
Be sure to download the practice tracks and work all of your modes – they can really
help you get your head around the whole idea.

If you have any questions about anything you’ve seen in this guide or in the video
lessons, let me know and I’d be happy to help you out. The best way to reach me is
through email – becomeabassist@gmail.com

Good luck with working on your modes – I’ll talk to you soon.

Cheers,