what modes do you find yourself using most while playing blues guitar?

_________________
63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Phrygian.

_________________
You dig?

Well as we all know, the blues scale or the minor pentatonic are great starting points. Some of the others scales such as the dorian and phrygian, can be made into a same two note per string pattern as the minor pentatonic.

For instance, if you had a blues grove in the Key of E minor. Let's say the chords are E minor, G major, and A minor. You could play the E minor pentatonic over the pattern. Lets say you choose the pattern at the 12th fret (Aolian). You could play a similar pattern as the E minor pentatonic at the 12th fret at the 5th and 7th frets, which would be part of the dorian mode at the 5th and part of the phrygian mode at the 7th.

Also, it never hurts to throw in a deminished or augmented pattern to spicen things up, especially when switching between the above mentioned patterns.

I hope this makes sense and is helpful.

_________________
Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

So you are saying A dorian and B phrygain over Em, As well as E aolian. This is all still G major. Do you use E phrygain over Em?

HooDoo Man Blues Mode

_________________
Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

I am not sure I understand. I am still learning/studying abeit slowly myself. Why would you distinguish Em from G major in this example? But no I would not use E phrygian over Em in this example, which you could, but I think if the key is G major, or E minor, you may sound out of key using E phrygian over E minor. At least certain notes would sound out, like the second, since the second note of E phrygian is F and the second note of Em (Aolian) is F#...overall as long as you don't emphazise the notes outside of the 1, 3 and 5 it would be safe though

So my answer is no but you could

_________________
Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

Really,I use whatever sounds the best,creates tension and resolves it and expresses emotion,and also use picking techniques that produce harmonics and other subtle or dramatic effects,and different levels of volume.
I learned all the modes over 30 years ago,and in the years since then have incorporated rock licks,attempts at jazz phrasing and downright blues standard scales into what I guess is my style.
I don't think about scales,modes or much of anything while soloing now...it's like speaking another language....second nature.

@ firstrat

I understand what you are saying. That makes since about Em and E phrygian. I was not trying to distinguish Em Aolian from G major. I am still learning myself and tend to think of everything from its major. So, I think of E Aolian as G major. I am trying to train myself to relate everything back to the major scale including chords and scales. I wish I could do this stuff in my head on the fly. I need a big dry erase board to lay it all out.

I know you can superimpose the minor pentatonic over Aolian because that is where it comes from. And the major pentatonic over major. You can also superimpose the minor pentatonic over dorian the same way and it works out. If I remember it may be phrygian that misses by only a few notes. If I don't make sense It is because I am still working this stuff out.

i dont understand any of it to be honest, but im trying.

_________________
63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

It's been a long time since I've played anything and thought to myself "I'm using a mode, here," but the mode you'd use is dependent on the chords of the song.

Most blues stuff I play features Dominant 7 chords... E7, A7, B7 for example... and for this I'd use the mode that contains all the notes of a Dom7 chord: the Mixolydian mode. It's a major scale with a flattened seventh. It will fit perfectly over any extended 7 chord, too (9, 11 or 13 chords), as it contains all of those notes as well.

These days I don't play scale or mode "shapes" as such, although I put in many days of practice years ago trying to assimilate every combination I could write down. I try to be aware of the root, third, fifth and seventh notes of the chord I'm playing over and where I am in relation to those. I often choose not to play them, but it's vital to know why I'm not so I can pull my phrase back "inside" if it's getting out of control.

Something I tend to do a lot (and still can't decide whether it's a bad habit or just my "style") is take a note a semitone (one fret) down from where I want to be and bend it up. That way, I can go from #9 to major 3rd, 13th to b7, #11 to 5th and back with a minimal bend and plenty of scope for vibrato. You're never more than two frets away from a note which will sound in tune on the guitar, so what I'd love is to be able to bend up a tone in the same manner... but I still don't have the control to be able to stop a two-fret bend exactly halfway every time I want to.

Sorry if this is not clear... we have to learn a lot and forget a lot in order to arrive at our personal solutions, it seems... heh.

After all I've learned and forgotten,it's still whether or not it sounds good.
I'll hear some guy play something in a blues song that sounds like a different scale or mode,and I think,man,what was that!...and most of the time it's just a quick passage that catches my ear and sounds cool and then it's back to stuff I recognize.
So to me,it's those little things you can throw into a solo, out of the ordinary,that makes it really interesting.
So yeah,I don't understand some of it either.

im working on it.
i just want to finally be able to understand what it is im playing.
plus i'll know what else is possible so i can add to it or take away from it
and still be musically correct. in knowing, it opens a lot of doors that you didnt know you had before.

_________________
63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Even though I've been playing for 45 years I have yet to know what the different scales are.All I know is that I largely play in the same scale that Jimi Hendrix usually used however I do use other scales but don't ask me which ones because I couldn't tell you.When playing blues I use the "Jimi" blues scale almost exclusively.

_________________
'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.