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.