Modal Pentatonics
(25 Aug 05)
Chords for other modes
Here is the same thing for E Phrygian, the bass note for all chords is E now...
Now, let's get into F Phrygian...
...and don't forget that you can apply this "trick" to your songwriting as well. Others have done before. One of my favorite chord progressions to jam over using the lydian mode or lydian pentatonic is this one:
Without further ado, a "mixolydian chord progression" (again, dear music scientists, please excuse me for terms like that... I am sure we can discuss all this stuff for hours and argue about terms like that, but what I am trying to do here is to write an introduction to modal pentatonics.)
Regarding minor, we all know quite a few examples of minor chord progressions, or songs in a minor key we could jam over ("Lady In Black", "All Along The Watchtower", "Stairway To Heaven", "Nothing Else Matters" and about a billion others), but for the sake of continuity, let's just stick to our previous chord proggie and change the bass note to A)
And finally, a locrian one...
This is a very basic approach, and I definitely would like to encourage you to be a bit more creative using slash chords and experimenting with bass notes. I am sure you noticed that even though the triad-progression was the same in all examples, simply changing the bass note (not even mentioning the use of different modal pentatonics over them) changes the sound of the progression quite a bit.
Many great songwriters use this to great effect, like i.e. Steve Morse, Pat Metheny, Eric Johnson, Phil Collins amongst others.
So bear that in mind, and maybe with this short introduction to slash chords and applying them to modal playing, hopefully I was able to give you some ideas you can use.
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