 Hello everyone and welcome to Blackstar Potential. My name is Lee Fuge and I'm here today with MusicTeacher.com and in this video we're going to carry on with our series on learning the modes for the guitar. This video is part two and we're going to look at the minor modes and how you can use those linked to your minor pentatonic scale. If you haven't already checked out part one of this series I strongly suggest you do so straight away because part one will set you up with all of the basic theory fundamentals that we're going to be using in this video and all the subsequent videos from here on. All of the tones you're hearing in this video are coming from the Blackstar HT20 Mark II that you can see over my shoulder there which I've currently got running on the drive channel. So before we proceed the reason that I need you to go check out part one of this video series is because we talk about the makeup of modes and how we get to the point of having a major and a minor mode to start with so go check that out to get all your basic theory knowledge and come back here once you've checked that video out. So before we go any further you do need to know what the natural minor scale is which is also known as the Aeolian mode. So even though you've already learned the natural minor in the previous video we are just going to quickly recap this because this is one of the three minor modes we're going to be looking at in this video and as the title suggests we're going to be mapping this very closely to pentatonic scales. So the pentatonic shape we're going to be using is our typical first shape pentatonic so I'm doing this in the key of A minor so I'm playing an A note a C note a D and E and a G then that repeats and then finally A and C so the intervals of this if you remember the intervals we talked about in the first video are going to be one which is the A flat three which is the C that's our minor note four and five which is the D and E and flat seven which is the G so obviously the pentatonic scale only has five notes A C D E G the natural minor scale if you remember we talked about the major scale and the intervals one through seven to make that into a natural minor we flattened the three the six and the seven that gave us one two flat three four five flat six flat seven or in terms of notes if we did that in the key of A minor A B C D E F G that's the reason he's a great key to start this in so just to recap on that scale shape so it's A B C that's one two flat three D E F that's four five flat six and then G which is flat seven then obviously that repeats to the octave so that's one two flat three four five flat six flat seven and then one two flat three now you would have noticed that there was essentially like a pentatonic scale but i'm adding a few notes along the way so if i was playing pentatonic i'd be playing this but to make that natural minor i'm adding a B note and an F note at every step possible so it's A and C on the low E string but i'm adding this B note here that's my two i'm also adding the F here which is the flat six also adding the B note here on the fourth fret of the G that's my two again also got another flat six here on the sixth fret of the B string and once again the two on the seventh fret of the high E so just by adding a B and an F note to my minor pentatonic scale i create the natural minor scale or the aeolian mode so as i mentioned in the initial video there are loads of different ways to use and implement modes but this method is just the way that i personally find it the most useful to start with so the reason i've linked this to pentatonic scales is because i can be playing my regular pentatonic stuff and i can choose specific modal notes either to highlight a chord or a note in the song that i'm playing over or perhaps just to add a different texture or sound to my lead line so if i'm playing my regular pentatonic licks i can add a few choice modal notes like this so even though i'm only hitting those twos and flat sixes in passing there it just adds a slightly different texture to my sound if i was to play a similar lick in pentatonic it would sound like this obviously those licks aren't exactly the same that's just to highlight the point of using the modal notes there for different coloration now that is one of the three minor modes we're going to use so that is the sixth mode of the major scale the aeolian mode also known as the natural minor scale now this is a great way to think about just playing a typical minor scale you have your major scale which is all your major tonalities and your minor scale your natural minor which is all your minor tonalities now we can deviate from the natural minor and change this into two other minor modes so remember that is a mode the natural minor scale but there are also two others we're going to look at as well and each one of these is just a simple alteration on the one you've already learned so the reason the intervals are important is because we are going to be varying certain intervals to get the other modes that we need so first i'm going to show you is the dorian mode the dorian mode is the second mode of the major scale this is the same interval structure as the natural minor scale but instead of a flat six we've got a natural six so from that natural minor scale every flat six we play we're raising by a semitone so previously we would have one two flat three which is still going to be the same then we'd have four five and flat six but now we need to raise that six so this f note here now is going to become an f sharp note now for the purpose of ease of use and ease of playing this i'm going to take this f sharp note and i'm going to play here on the fourth fret of the D string the next note i'm playing is still going to be my flat seven so it's still going to be a G and then i'm obviously back to my A so there's my first octave of my dorian mode it's all i've done there is i've just raised my sixth note wherever that f note is i've pushed that up to an f sharp the other place that's going to happen is going to be here so the sixth fret of the B string is an f i'm raising that to the seventh which is an f sharp that's my natural sixth note from the scale so you see how simple that was just by altering one note i get a completely different modal flavor dorian mode is really useful if you're a blues player or a rock player and you want to sort of explore that major and minor crossover think bb king that natural sixth is a great note to ante on minor pentatonic list to give it a slight major flavor now the third and final minor mode i want to talk about in this video is the third mode of the major scale which is the fridgen mode now again we're going to revert straight back to the natural minor scale one two flat three four five flat six flat seven the dorian was when we raised the flat six back to the natural six the fridgen is when we take the natural minor scale and we flatten the natural two to a flat two so this one's going to be one flat two flat three four five flat six flat seven so in scale terms it's going to look like this so usually if we're playing natural minor we'd have one two flat three which is abc we're flattening the b now to a b flat that's our flat second the four five and flat six are the same so that's de and f then we've got the g which is our flat seven then we're back to the one which is a now our flat two which is a b flat note can also be played here now on the eighth fret of the d string then we've got our flat three and our four our five our flat six and our flat seven and then we're back to the one here on the fifth fret of the e string so that means we can add the flat two again on the sixth fret of the e and then on the flat third so if we run that one up it looks like this the fridgen mode is great if you're playing metal and you want to get a little bit of that spanish or eastern flavor into your playing so just to recap if you take your minor pentatonic scale which is one flat three four five flat seven you add a two and a seven note which in this case is going to be a b and an f you get a natural minor scale if you take that natural minor scale and you raise the six you get a dorian mode and if you take the natural minor scale and you flatten the two you get a fridgen mode now you can see how all of these additional notes can easily fit into your minor pentatonic box so just by shifting a few notes there you've got three of the minor modes available to you the natural minor scale is your overall minor tonality so if you just want to add some extra color to your minor pentatonic licks that's a great place to start if you want to cross into that major minor blues thing the dorian is a great choice and if you want to go into the eastern thing with some heavy metal licks the fridgen is a great choice so you can use these scales to really highlight different sort of textures and flavors within your own playing let me know down below in the comments how you've gone on with this approach to modes and how you guys have used these modes in your own playing and if you've got any questions on modes that you'd like answering in future videos please put those below as well don't forget to check out black star amplification on youtube for more free video lessons just like this and if you're looking for a music teacher in your local area please check out the music teacher database over at musicteacher.com it's a great network of teachers all around the country thanks so much for watching and i'll see you soon