Modes With One Flat

Below you will see the diagram of a fretboard with the notes for F Major and it's related modes. The flat is B flat. Starting this one on the C and playing around a tonal center of C gives you the C Mixolydian mode. This is the one Zappa used for the solo in "Outside Now" on the Joe's Garage album. This solo really is "outside" in the sense of being far out, but it stays within the notes of the key signature.

Something I noticed from looking at Steve Vai's transcriptions in the Frank Zappa Guitar Book is that there are very few accidentals in any of these solos. When I first got the book, I was so intimidated by the rhythmic notation that I stuck it on my bookshelf for about twenty five years. I still can't read it, but just knowing he stays inside the same key throughout each solo is worth the cover price.

On the Frank Zappa: Guitar (disk 1) he goes from the solo "Outside Now" in C Mixolydian, into "Jim and Tammy's Upper Room", which is a solo from "The Torture Never Stops" in G Dorian. This is one of the best transition from one song to another that has ever been done on any record, but the crazy thing about it is he's still in the key signature of one flat. Totally changed the mood and everything, but he's still using the same notes.

Some solos that Zappa plays with one flat are:

• Things That Look Like Meat
• Variations On the Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression
• Which One Is It
• That Ol' G Minor Thing Again

Diagram 3: One Flat.

Modes With One Sharp

Below you will find the diagram of the fretboard with all the notes in the key of G Major and five of it's relative modes. These notes get a lot of play in some of Zappa's best solos. Famously used for "Willy the Pimp" on the Hot Rats album, which is one long and excellent solo in A Dorian.

The real eye opener for me though was the Lydian mode. The solo on "Inca Roads" uses these notes, the C Lydian mode. Solos from "Inca Roads" found their way onto Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar, Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar Some More, and Return of the Son of Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar as the title tracks. These solos are really different from anything anybody else plays, and I feel like the hardcore Lydian thing is like a Zappa trademark.

Some solos that Zappa plays with one sharp are:

• Soup and Old Clothes, in D Dorian
• Ship Ahoy, in D Dorian
• Winos Do Not March, in D Dorian
• Pinocchio's Furniture, in G Mixolydian
• Chunga's Revenge, in D Dorian

Diagram 2: One Sharp.

About Modes

Below you will see a diagram of a fretboard with all the notes of the C Major scale. Keyboard players will recognize this as all the white notes on the piano, no sharps or flats. Starting on C, and playing around with these notes, what you have is the key of C major.

If you start on the D, using the same notes, and play around a tonal center of D, what you have is the D Dorian mode.

If you start on the F, using these same notes, and play around a tonal center of F, what you have is the F Lydian mode.

If you start with the G, and play these notes around a tonal center of G, you have the G Mixolydian mode.

If you start on the A, and play in a tonal center of A, it's the A natural minor scale, which is known as the relative minor of C major; but all these are relative modes to C.

I have started off with these five modes because they are some of the ones that Zappa used a lot in his solos. There are two more, but I plan to put them in at a later time.

Diagram 1: No Sharps or Flats.