Introduction This is our starting point for building

all of the modes of the C Major scale.

Frazers Scale, Mode and Arpeggio And here they are, youll quickly see
Reference has been designed to help how they are derived.
shed light on some of the different
scales used in music; how they are C Major (C Ionian)
built, fingered and relate to eacho-
ther. It was also made with technical
CDEFGAB
practice in mind (improving left and right
hand dexterity) and to help better visual- D Dorian
ize the guitars fretboard.
DEFGABC
Three mother scales are broken
down into their constituent modes. E Phrygian
The three mother scales are the
MAJOR scale, the HARMONIC MINOR EFGABCD
scale and the MELODIC MINOR scale.
Each scale has 7 modes. Six fingerings F Lydian
are given for each of these 21 modes
(scales). Along with these 21 scales FGABCDE
(modes) a number of other scales are
broken down, with various numbers
of fingerings given for each. These
G Mixolydian
other scales are the PENTATONIC GABCDEF
scale, the 2 DIMINISHED scales, the
WHOLE TONE scale and the CHRO-
MATIC scale. Arpeggios have been A Aeolian
included with each fingering (except for ABCDEFG
the PENTATONIC and CHROMATIC scales).

This amounts to over 200 scale and B Locrian

arpeggio fingerings.
These are by no means all of the
known scales, nor all of the possible
fingerings for each scale or Arpeg-
gio, but theyre plenty to get started
with.
Theory
A lot of people get a confused look on
their face when the modes are men-
tioned. They are not that hard to
understand once you see how they are
derived, and how the modal system
works. Here is a brief explanation of
how the modes are derived. Well use
the key of C major because it has no
sharps or flats and therefore none
of the modes derived from it will have
sharps or flats (note-wize they will not,
interval-wize they may).
The C Major Scale is made up of the 7
notes:
CDEFGAB
BCDEFGA
As you can clearly see, the D Dorian
mode is made up of all of the same
notes as the C Major scale starting on
D. And E Phrygian is all of the same
notes as the C Major Scale, starting
on E, etc... The modes for all of the
other keys Major scales are built the
same way.
Ive used this same system and built all
of the mode fingerings for The:
Major Scale
Harmonic Minor Scale
Melodic Minor Scale
The 2 DIMINISHED scales, WHOLE TONE
scale and the CHROMATIC scale are
not built in a way that allows Modes to
be built from them, but I have included
a number of different fingerings and
arpeggios for each of them because
they are important scales.

Page 1
Theory string and moving to the higher strings
like this:
For each fingering of each mode I 7 8

have included a fingering for that 6

modes arpeggio, based on that par- 5
ticular fingering.
3 4

An arpeggio is essentially the notes 2

1
of a scale, skipping every other 1

note. So instead of a scale that has

intervals, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 an arpeggio has
Each mode is labeled with a name and
intervals 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 (the 9, 11 and 13th notes
are the 2, 4 and 6 notes from the scale, stacked on its intervals.
top of the 1, 3, 5 and 7).These are the same
notes that are used to build IONIAN (mode name)
chords.
1234567 (intervals)
If you look closely you will see
I have made up names for the more
common chord shapes in the arpeg-
exotic modes of the HARMONIC
gio fingerings.
MINOR and MELODIC MINOR scales. I
have used the same names used for
How To the Major scales modes so that you
can see how they relate to their
Here is a typical Scale block ,
mother scales and to the standard
labeled with explanation.
Major scale modes. For example:
3)

E
Harmonic Dorian
B
2) G The more commonly used names for
D
this mode of the Harmonic Minor are
SPANISH PHRYGIAN or ROMANIAN
A
MODE, but you could also call it
1 E DORIAN #4. Call it whatever you like.
1)
Below is a chart showing how I
4) choose to organize all of the modes
1) Each fingering is numbered 1 through from the 3 mother scales (MAJOR,
6 (or less with the scales at the end). HARMONIC MINOR and the MELODIC
2) This grid represents the fingerboard MINOR).
of a guitar, with the horizontal lines rep-
resenting the strings, and the vertical Major Harmonic Min. Melodic Min.
lines representing frets. The lowest IONIAN HARM MAJOR MELO MAJOR
sounding string on the guitar is the DORIAN HARM DORIAN MELO DORIAN
PHRYGIAN HARM PHRYGIAN MELO PHRYGIAN
lowest line in the grid. LYDIAN HARM LYDIAN MELO LYDIAN
3) a denotes a scale tone (1 2 3 4 5 6 7). MIXOLYDIAN HARM MIXOLYDIAN MELO MIXOLYDIAN
AEOLIAN HARM MINOR MELO MINOR
Scale tones are played starting at the LOCRIAN HARM LOCRIAN MELO LOCRIAN
lowest string and moving to the higher
strings like this:
13 14 15
Some of these names dont make
much sense but they are only for
11 12
reference, so that you can see how
8 9 10
they relate to the Major Modes. For
5 6 7 a lesson, as youre going through
2 3 4 the modes of the Harmonic Minor
1 and Melodic Minor scales, think up
1
at least one other name for each
4) A around a scale tone marks it as mode. For instance, what Ive called
an arpeggio tone (1 3 5 7 9 11 13). Arpeggio the Harmonic Major mode could be
tones are played starting at the lowest called major#5.

Page 2
Fingerings
For each of the 7 modes of the 3
mother scales there are 6 fingerings
mapped out. They are numbered 1
through 6, here is a breakdown of
each fingering and why it is differ-
ent.
1) The root note is on the bottom string,
second note is on the next string. Typically
this fingering is started with the pinky
finger.
2) The root note is on the bottom string, the
second note is on the bottom string. This
fingering is typically started with the second
finger.
3) The root, second and third notes are on
the bottom string. This fingering is typically
started with the first finger.
4) The root note and second note are on the
second lowest string(the A string). It is
similar to fingering 2, and is typically started
with the second finger.
5) This fingering is based on a 4 note per
string idea and is typically started with the
first finger.
6) This fingering is based on a 3 note per
string idea. It is very similar to fingering 3 and
is typically started with the first finger.
The fingerings are grouped two ways,
1) which string the second note of the
scale is on, 2) how many notes per
string there are. They were designed
that way so that during improvisation
no matter what position on the neck
you are at, you have notes from the
scale under your fingers.
The starting fingers given above are
just suggestions, and sometimes a
fingering may be ideally started with a
different finger than is stated above.
Most of the arpeggio fingerings are
best started with the same finger you
have chosen to start the scale finger-
ing with.
Except for the PENTATONIC finger-
ings, all of the scale fingerings move
from root to root (A to A for example).
The ARPEGGIO fingerings however,
depending on the number of octaves,
may end on the root or end on the
7th.
Page 3
Practice Tips
1) Always practice with a metronome.
2) Start by playing through the scales
and arpeggios up then down slowly
and gradually increase the speed as
you are able to play them cleanly.
3) play through the scales and arpeg-
gios using both triplet and quadru-
plet subdivisions (groups of 3 and 4),
once you have those down try some
harder subdivisions i.e.: quintuplets
and septuplets (groups of 5 and 7).
4) Try breaking up the scales into
different sequences, for example:
1324354657
or, using triplets try
1 2 3 2 3 4 3 4 5 4 5 6 5 6 7 etc..
or, using quadruplets try
1 2 3 4 2 3 4 5 3 4 5 6 4 5 6 7 etc..
Try playing through the arpeggio
fingerings using similar techniques.
5) Play through the fingerings using
different picking patterns. Use all
down strokes, use all up strokes, use
alternate picking, use hammer-ons and
pull-offs and try all hammer-ons
(imagine hammering onto the string
similar to playing a piano, this is some-
times called a ghost hammer-on).
6) Try playing the scales and arpeg-
gios up one mode, then down the next,
up the next, down the next. For example,
play up the fingering 1 of C IONIAN,
then move up a position and play down
the number 1 fingering of D DORIAN,
up the 1st fingering of E PHRYGIAN
and down the F LYDIAN ... etc.
7) Find a device to play a drone note to
play the scales over. If you have a syn-
thesizer set it to drone on a lower
keyed note and play through each
mode in that key i.e.: C IONIAN, C DORIAN,
C PHRYGIAN etc.. This will help you
hear how the scale sounds. I use
www.metrononomeonline.com and it has an
A440 setting, or play to a recording of
yourself playing through a simple
chord progression. Learn these
scales and arpeggios in all keys.
 LYDIAN - 4TH MODE PHRYGIAN - 3RD MODE DORIAN - 2ND MODE IONIAN - 1ST MODE
123#4567 1b2b345b6b7 12b3456b7 1234567

1
1
1

1
5
5
5

5
2

2
2

2
MODES of the MAJOR scale

3
3

3
6
6
6

6
4
4

Frazers Scale, Mode and Arpeggio Reference - Page 4

 HARMONIC LYDIAN - 6TH MODE HARMONIC PHRYGIAN - 5TH MODE HARMONIC DORIAN - 4TH MODE HARMONIC MAJOR - 3R MODE
1#23#4567 1b2345b6b7 12b3#456b7 1234#567

1
1
1

1
5
5
5

5
2

2
2

2
3
3

3
6
6
6

6
4
4

4
MODES of the HARMONIC MINOR scale

Frazers Scale, Mode and Arpeggio Reference - Page 6

 MELODIC LYDIAN - 6TH MODE MELODIC PHRYGIAN - 5TH MODE MELODIC DORIAN - 4TH MODE MELODIC MAJOR - 3R MODE
12b34b5b6b7 12345b6b7 123#456b7 123#4#567

1
1
1

1
5
5
5

5
2

2
2

2
3
3

3
6
6
6

6
MODES of the MELODIC MINOR scale

4
4

Frazers Scale, Mode and Arpeggio Reference - Page 8

Other Scales

CHROMATIC

1 2 3

Frazers Scale, Mode and Arpeggio Reference - Page 11