Scale and Mode Spellings

Understanding and playing what you hear

As part of my daily practice, I’m brushing up on my scales. Believe me, it’s been a while since I really thought about this stuff!

A chart (like the one above) may be useful to know at a glance which note to start on if you want to play around with modes (in this case over major keys). However, personally, my brain doesn’t really function like that.

Mostly I play by ear, so I made the resource below to help me refresh and improve.

Personally, I’m not really into just spouting scales like a space monkey when I play, or when I try to solo. Like I said, mostly I just play by ear and try to play what I am hearing.

I’m not always thinking about what chord is being played and how it’s spelled, or what point of a scale I’m playing.

However, I’ve found that looking at this whole topic from exactly that perspective — of scales in terms of scale spellings, intervals over chords, and chord spellings (as opposed to memorising shapes on a fretboard, or figuring things out in terms of key signatures, or memorising great licks by ear etc) has really helped me understand what I am actually hearing, trying to play, and also what those around me (or those on a recording I’m listening to) are playing.

Knowing/being aware of which point of any given scale I’m playing really helps clarify everything for me. It’s also helped me figure out why sometimes things I’m attempting to play don’t work so well.

I hope the resource below is useful, oh and obviously it's not a definitive list of scales… At the moment my favourite scale (from this list) to make licks and motifs from is the Phrygian Dominant aka the Spanish Gypsy Scale, over, just for example, something as simple as two chords repeating eg I — vii7.

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Scale and Mode Spellings

(If I made any mistakes or typos please let me know?)

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Major modes x7 (* = minor/darker in character)

Mode 1 Ionian (aka Diatonic Major, relative natural minor from 6)

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7