Stop memorizing modes, learn the pattern instead

This was the third video I ever uploaded to YouTube, back on January 2, 2023.

Original video description: All seven major scale modes can be generated from a simple five-string repeating pattern. In this video, we show how to reduce memorization of mode scale patterns by 80%, how to easily play all seven modes anywhere on the fretboard, and how to quickly switch back and forth between a mode and its related pentatonic scale.

Master the modes…TONIGHT! Master the major scale modes and easily pivot to the pentatonic scale

The major scale modes are usually taught as having five fingering patterns that cover the entire fretboard. But these patterns are all built from one repeating five-string pattern. This pattern contains each major scale degree twice—once for your first or second finger, and once for your third or fourth.

The five “in-position” fingering patterns are rotations of each other. Moving clockwise around this modified “circle of fourths” shifts the pattern up a string (and up a 4th), and moving counterclockwise shifts it down a string (and down a 4th).

To create a modal scale pattern, we can choose a six-string subset of the 5-string repeating pattern and then shift some of the strings by one fret to take into account the “warp” between the G and B strings. Better yet, we can do this on the fly by starting on a root and building the scale outward in both directions, pulling strings out of the 5-string repeating pattern as needed. Here’s an example of the D Dorian mode started from the D note on the third fret of the B string.

To pivot to the pentatonic scale and back, we need to be able to find “the rectangle” inside the pentatonic scale shape.

Then, select the fill-in pattern for the appropriate mode and match it to the correct string pair in the repeating five-string pattern.