Using Scales and Modes in Your Songs to Give Them More Emotion
I’m diving into a subject today that for many of you will clear up years of confusion. I’m talking about scales and modes. Specifically how they relate to songwriting. I’m going to keep this as simple as possible and will spread it out over several blogs so it’s in easier to digest chunks.
The word “theory” to many rock musicians immediately conjures up feelings of confusion. I want to help you avoid that. This stuff doesn’t have to be super complicated. Take it one step at a time. Sit down with a guitar, for example, and make sure you fully grasp the concept before moving on.
Instead of thinking about scales in some kind of clinical view let me tell you about a much more useful way. Let’s think about them in terms of emotions. I’ll use songs that you’ve heard or can look up as examples of each type. So you’ll have a real world comparison that you can reference.
Having been a guitar teacher in the past, I’ve found that people explain this stuff in a couple of different ways. I’ll tell you how I used to teach it and in another blog post I’ll give you another way it’s taught. Same ideas, just looking at it from a different angle. The way I teach it is the same way I learned from my guitar teacher as a teenager.
Let’s start with the diatonic modes. A modes is just another way of saying scale. The ones you’ve probably heard about are the major and minor scales/modes. These scales have 7 notes in them.
Let’s talk about the ‘A’ minor scale first. The notes are A,B,C,D,E,F,G and then it starts over in the next octave on ‘A’ again. These are all the white keys on the piano. So if you’re on guitar that would be starting on the low ‘E’ string: 5’th fret, 7’th fret, 8’th fret. Then you repeat that same pattern on the ‘A’ string, and then the 5’th fret and 7’th fret on the ‘D’ string. The ‘A’ will feel like home base in the scale because this is where the sound resolves. A lot of times a song will end on its scale’s root note. In this case ‘A’.
The main riff in “Crazy Train” (Ozzy) is straight out of a F# minor scale. Same pattern as I layed out above, just starting on F#. So think about that feeling or emotion in that riff and that is what the minor scale is going to bring you. When I think of the minor scale I hear sad and serious.
So, now let’s talk about the C major scale. This is the exact same notes as the ‘A’ minor we learned except it starts on ‘C’. So on guitar you would start on the low ‘E’ string 8’th fret (the C note) and play to the octave of C. So add the 7’th fret on the ‘D’ string and then the 4’th and 5’th fret on the ‘G’ string’. Written out it’s C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C. Now the home base is the ‘C’ note. The feeling this gives is happy or carefree.
The verse riff in “Crazy Train” is in the A major scale. So, it’s the same notes that were in the intro riff just starting on ‘A’, so you get the happy vibe/emotion.
Here’s a term for you that describes those 2 scales relationship to each other: ‘A’ is the “relative minor” of the ‘C’ major scale. That just means they have the same notes in a different order.
Now play each of the notes in these two scales as simple power chords. The ‘A’ power chord is just the root (A) and the 5’th note in the scale (E). So an A power chord would just be 5’th fret on the low ‘E’ and 7’th fret on the ‘A’ for example. Stay in the scale and play through all 7 chords. Those are your building blocks for writing songs. If you make ‘A’ the emphasis or home base note you’re going to get a minor, sad feel. Make it ‘C’ and you’ll get a happy vibe.
Play them in different orders, experiment, and have fun creating.
Next time I’l introduce the other 5 modes and give you some examples of songs using them. Plus, the pentatonic and blues scale.
Remember, think of these as tools to produce certain emotions and you will not only have an easier time with this stuff but its usefulness will become way more apparent. Some bands define their whole sound by using particular scales and modes exclusively.
Before long, you won’t be thinking about the scale, you’ll be thinking of the emotions you want to bring to the song. And you’ll instinctively know what to play to get that feeling.
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