Smokin' Fast Modes

If you already know the pentatonic scale anywhere on the fretboard, you can instantly access the modes by understanding how the modes relate to the pentatonic scale and to each other.

This was the very first Fret Science YouTube video, uploaded November 28, 2022 — rough production and all (the music is mixed too loud, and it went up in 480p by mistake). It still earned the channel its first 1,000 subscribers over the following two weeks and set the stage for the first viral video. The companion handout is part of the 12-PDF Fundamentals Bundle.

Errata: at 4:29, the intervals for the Locrian mode should show a ♭5 rather than a natural 5.

Smokin’ fast modes: Learn the modes on guitar in minutes by leveraging the pentatonic scale you already know

The major scale is made up of a fixed set of whole- (W) and half- (H) step intervals: WWHWWWH. A mode is any seven-note stretch of this repeating sequence. There are seven of them, each starting from a different scale degree of the major scale, and they are known by Greek names.

Rearranged into brightness order, we can see that each mode differs from its neighbors by shifting one note by one semitone. Lydian is the brightest mode, and Locrian is the darkest. The three major modes contain the major pentatonic scale, and the three minor modes contain the minor pentatonic scale. The Locrian mode is not based on a minor or major pentatonic scale.

Each of the five pentatonic forms contains a rectangle made up of three-fret spans on adjacent strings, and in those spaces fit the missing 4ths and 7ths of the major modes and the missing 2nds and 6ths of the minor modes.

To re-create the three major and three minor modes, fill in the rectangle in each of the five pentatonic forms with the missing notes as shown below. The brighter the mode, the more the fill-in notes are shifted toward the bridge. Minor scale roots shown in Red, Major scale roots in Blue.