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