My Lydian Hell


I was watching a video of Joe on YouTube where he talks about the uses of different modes and it really helped make the concept clearer for than it ever was before. I had been taught about modes a long time ago but I never felt like I understood what they could be used for, but Joe had a great way of explaining it and it finally started to make so sense to me.

After watching that and messing around with it a bit I decided to try recording a piece that would use the Lydian mode and have some changes in it. I think it kind of has a bit of a Joe sound to it, though no where near his level.

The piece starts off with a repeated C bass note. I'm playing a melody line in G major over the C note and then I do a solo in G major over the C note. Or you could say I'm playing in C Lydian. Before I began really thinking about modes, I typically would have tried improvising in C minor or C minor pentatonic and/or C blues, because that's what I was used to. But here we're going for something different. I also would have run into some trouble later...

G Major = G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G
C Lydian = C, D, E, F#, G, A, B, C


Then the bass note switches to E and I begin soloing in B major, or E Lydian.

B Major = B, C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A#, B
E Lydian = E, F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E

Then the bass switches back to C and I switch back to C Lydian (or G Major)

Then the bass switches to G and I switch to a G minor pentatonic or G blues scale and solo in that for a bit...

G, Bb, C, C#, D, F, G

...until it switches back to C Lydian again for the melody line and it repeats the pattern again.

(here's what I had to say at the time, about recording this piece: http://www.bigcontact.com/v2/godwankotd/168692

Very tight playing I like. I can tell you been playing for quite a long time! Your legato is really good.

Thanks. I developed my legato technique because I hated picking up and down all the time when trying to play fast - which I did a lot more of when I first started. I guess it grew out of laziness. ;) To me it's much easier and sounds smoother. Now I think I need to work on my picking more. It used to be better when I played speed metal all the time - 20 years ago hehehe.

cool man...though sound more like a tribute to Vai..lol...awsome playing and composition..what guitar are u using? :rock2: :beer3:

Thanks - I don't know who it sounds like, but I was inspired by a great lesson on modes by Joe when I came up with it. It was on YouTube but it was removed. Also the song Flying In A Blue Dream is a big influence - it also starts off in C Lydian. It's probably my favorite Joe track. But if you say Vai, I'll take that too. ;) He's certainly an influence. Passion And Warfare is one of my all time favorite albums.

I'm using a stock Standard HSS Strat (MIM) and a Fender Cyber Deluxe. I recorded direct from the amp (in stereo) to my computer's sound card. The bass and drums are PC Drummer.

id really like to see that lesson..oh well ..great results :clap:

It was basically talking about modes - and he was showing how with a low volume you can hit your low E and then play different modes to get a feel for what they sound like. Just watching that made it click for me, on how i could use different modes to create different flavors or moods in a solo. I mainly was a pentatonic/blue scale and minor/dorian kind of player - now I feeling I can explore more options in certain situations.

Damn! Just looked, they were taken down...
The lesson was on Youtube for the longest time, it's just been taken off it seems...really sucks...

But, whoever wants it can still download them here (Part 1 and Part 2): http://satrianiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=4843

thanks man :beer3:

Do I not have enough posts to view wherever that is? I'd like to watch them again too.

How cool would it be to have Joe as a teacher? I think he has great way of explaining guitar concepts. Just watching that helped me make more sense of modes than anything else in 25 years for me.

Here's the direct link then: (thanks to rygelxvi!)
http://rapidshare.com/files/80036608/_Boot...-_The_modes.rar

Same thing goes for me, helped me tons, bets explanation I've ever heard. And same goes for everyone else who watched that video... Seriously, the whole comment page was filled with praises for Joe's explanation, and I linked to it all the time in forums...it was really useful

EDIT: Well, all that was useless! It appears the guy sort of 'moved' accounts....
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTQolymKmDA
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCdZwASSKuk

Thats basically how I teach Scales/Modes. The best thing any guitarist can do is learn one scale (Major/Ionian) on the entire neck because all the info to all the chords for that mode (and all the other 7 modes of Ionian) are in there. Then draw out a diagram of the fingerboard and fill in with dots the scale from the lowest fret to the highest and just stare at it for a month!!!!........... and you,ll see what I mean.

You start to see that there are actually very few "wrong notes" and they can always be used as a passing note. Also just start stacking notes (making chords) you will instantly start finding new chords (if you numbered the notes of the scale on your chart you can workout the name of the chord) The whole idea is to use that one scale like a sliderule !!! But use your ears, just looking at shapes may confuse you..............

Sorry Gary just couln,t stop typeing. It sounds like you know all this anyway. I love the sound you are getting from that "Fender Cyber Deluxe" I didn,t think they could do that.......sounds great.

:)

Thanks man :) About the Cyber Deluxe: I think it's line output sounds better than the sound you get from the speaker. This makes it kind of nice for direct recording. I'm not as happy with it when I'm playing it loud. It would sound a lot better "live" if I had another amp to use with it - it has an expander feature to make it stereo. If you run it's expanded output into a nice tube amp I think it would improve it a lot. But I'm not doing this now. Maybe some day if I ever jam with some human beings. And I get some more money. ;) Anyway, what do they always say? Tone is in the fingers? hehehe

About the theory. I don't fully know all of that stuff so I'm always happy to read more about to help understand it better. Like I wrote I just started getting a better understanding of the modes very recently (after like 15-25 years of messing around).