RE:Why Scales? Why Patterns?

[digitalman]

Just curious about the exercises at the end of the 'Why Scales? Why Patterns?' article. James list a few chord changes and then some modes underneath like such:

Em D
ii I Dorian
vi V Aeolian

Em Dm
iii ii Phrygian

I'm not quite sure what to try and play here. For instance, in the first example, does this mean to use the Dorian mode of the scale where Em is the ii chord and D is the I chord. So I should be playing E Dorian or B Aeolian? Then the second example would be the C major scale and I should be playing E Phrygian?

Thanks in advance!
Mike

[sixstrings121]

I beleive what he means is if you see Em D, these chords could be in the key of Dmajor, or Eminor. If your playing in Dmajor, Em to D is a ii I progression. In Em its a vi V. So if your playing in Dmajor, you have Edorian over the Em and Dionian over the Dmaj. If your playing in Eminor, you have Eaeolian over the Em, and Dmixolydian over the Dmajor. He did the same type of deal with another example progression, Em to Dm.

[ashc]

I think the idea is that they are Modal Vamps, so the answer is almost the same except that you would see those two examples as exclusively Dorian or Aeolian accordingly - not as two "chord of the moment" modes which are anyway from the same parent scale.