JFRocks.com mini guitar lessons page

The technique lessons featured on this page are designed to be for Electric guitar. Most of the lessons covered here however will transfer to acoustic without any issue. This lesson page will be updated as often as possible. The other pages on JFRocks and JFRocks UNplugged keep me rather busy and I try to keep all technique lessons to CD ROM. What this page will do a lot of the time is expand upon lessons covered on various CD ROMs. If this is the case the Category below will state which CD ROM the lesson is expanding on. I hope you enjoy these mini lessons as I call them and remember all lessons from the past are located on the Lesson Archives page.

*Remember Effect suggestions are my suggestions for the home player. Usually suggestions are geared for a low budget.

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This Lesson's difficulty level 1-10 scale

This is an expansion lesson for those who have my Soloing 101 CD ROM where I explain the main scale modes in great detail and teach you how to actually use them. It's our most popular CD ROM, always has been and still is to this day.

This lesson is part 1 of god knows how many I'll end up doing on using the modes. I want to expand on the CD ROMs on this lessons page and give those that help support the site an added bang for their buck so to speak. If you don't have soloing 101 or any of the other CD ROMs I'll expand on with this lessons page, no biggie, you'll still get plenty out of these lessons I'm sure.

This week we look at the Dorian mode. Dorian mode is a minor scale with a major 6th. What that means is the scale is all minor but the 6th note in the scale is taken from the major scale. So for our Key of A minor here the regular A minor scale would be, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. The A major Scale would be, A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#. The 6th note in on the Major scale is the F# so we replace the F in our A minor scale with the F# from our A Major scale and we get the A Dorian scale: A, B, C, D, E, F#, G. There or course is an easier way to do this but that's not what I'm covering here, I spend 5 hours on all of this on the Soloing CD ROM. This is not a recap of that CD. LOL That would take forever.

That changing of one note makes a world of difference in the feel the piece has and also what chords might be used. It's not just about soloing. That F# can show up in our chord pattern that we do. Such as A minor to D major or D7 instead of A minor to D minor or D m7 which would be more typical for a minor key chord pattern. Again chord circles and orders are covered on the CD ROM. There is an order that things go in. I'm just giving you basic root knowledge here so you understand the lesson and can follow what is going on.

In the lesson below we will do a basic rhythm and lead section using the A Dorian scale. We will incorporate the properties or what makes up the Dorian scale into both rhythm and lead. This will give the piece a general all around mood or feel. I don't like to give my interpretation of the feel to anyone because everyone feels these modes differently and should draw their own conclusions. But for the sake of typing it I'll say that to me the Dorian mode is very mellow and melodic. The most common use for it is a lot of Pink Floyd playing and also Carlos Santana uses it a lot. I'm going to use it differently in this lesson then either of those two use it.

I'm going to do a bluesy rock thing that I made up for this lesson. Its a great example of how you can use the Dorian mode and the F# that makes our A minor an A Dorian all over the place to create a certain vibe or feel.

I encourage everyone to expand on this lesson and embellish at will. Experimentation is the best learning tool second only to making mistakes.

Dorian is a minor scale with a Major 6th. So our A Dorian scale consists of the pitches: A, B, C, D, E, F#, G.

The F# highlighted in Yellow is the note we put into our A minor scale to make it Dorian mode. All F#'s in the tab will be highlighted Yellow so you can see where I'm putting them in. Also be sure to memorize the notes on your fret board and the notes that make up this scale so you don't get lost. If you need help with the fret board, Beginners 101 is the way to go or simply use the JFRocks.com learn the notes tool which is great as well.

Basic A Dorian scale below. Remember I may go out of this scale sequence in my rhythm and leads but even if I do I'm still using the pitches that make this scale up all over the fret board. That's why it's important to memorize and know the notes on your guitar. It's the most basic thing you can do to make yourself a better guitar player and open up your creativity as well.

E______________________________5_________________
B________________________5_7_8___________________
G__________________4_5_7_________________________
D____________4_5_7_______________________________
A______3_5_7_____________________________________
E__5_7___________________________________________

** As I mentioned earlier all the F#'s are highlighted in Yellow. This one note is what gives this piece the mood or feel that it has. We changed one note in the regular A minor (Aeolian) scale and now we have this Dorian mode. The modes properties come through in the chords used and the scale used for the leads.

E__________________________________________________
B_________ 5-----7~_______________5----7~___8-7_8-7_____
G______________________5_______________________7___
D__5______5-----7~_______5_______5----7~_______________
A__7__x________________7___x_______________________
E__5__x_____________x__5___x_______________________

E__________________________________________________________
B_________ 5-----7~_______________5----7~___8-7_8-7_____________
G______________________5_______________________7---sl dwn---____
D__5______5-----7~_______5_______5----7~_______________________
A__7__x________________7___x_______________________________
E__5__x_____________x__5___x_______________________________

E_______________________________________________________________________
B_______________________________________________________________________
G_______________________________________________________________________
D_________________________________________And repeat from beginning again___
A_____3__5~__3_5_3______2_3_2___________________________________________
E_2~________________1~_________3^1/4~_____________________________________

E________________________________19^1/2~~~~~_____14^1/2~>slow release_14__
B_______17^1_~___17^1_~>release_17____________________________________
G_________________________________________________________________
D_________________________________________________________________
A_________________________________________________________________
E_2~______________________________________________________________

E_________________________________________________________________
B________12_13_13_13--sl dwn--_10_12_13_13-12-10_10~~__10_10___________
G_14~_14__________________________________________________________
D________________________________________________________________
A________________________________________________________________
E________________________________________________________________

E__________________________________________________________________________________________________
B_10^1~_10^1_10^1>release_10~_______________________________________________________________________
G______________________________9^1a.h~~___9^1__9^1_9^1_9^1_9^1>release slow_9_10~~~___14^1~~_14^1~~__
D__________________________________________________________________________________________________
A__________________________________________________________________________________________________
E__________________________________________________________________________________________________