Practice – Modal Chord Progressions

Using your practice time as a musical exercise is much more valuable. A good example of this is the use of modal chord progressions.

I think every guitar player eventually seeks out information about playing modally.

This is a great topic and can do wonders for your playing, if you can apply it that is! This article is not about the modes as scales, I will write more on that later. It’s more about using this modal concept as a practical tool.

It’s best to read the article to the end to get an understanding of how to apply this practically.

When I discuss this topic with other guitar players most know and understand about modes as scale patterns but have not really given much thought about using them along with a modal based chord progression. This approach makes really good music and is such an excellent practice tool.

O.K what do I mean when I am talking about a Modal Chord progression? You probably have seen these all the time, but may have not switched on to what the composer/writer of the music is trying to achieve. These sorts of chord progressions are most commonly seen as slash chords i.e C/G

Here is an example, if I wanted to create a modal chord progression based on a 1, 4, 5 progression in the key of “C”. A one, four, five being the major triads or C, F and G.

Yes these are all in the key of C, no surprises there but if you were to play them as a straight chord progression the tonality changes with each chord change. Yes you could play “C” major through the whole chord progression but listen to what happens though if you keep the tonality of “C” as the root or pedal tone with the same chord progression.

To do this we make a small alteration to the progression and it now becomes C/C, F/C and G/C. We now have a ‘C” tonality through the chord changes. A quick note, I have put the C/C just to reinforce that “C” is the root and to make the chord progression look consistent.

So why do we want to do this? Well let your ears be the judge, firstly it’s a great chord progression and anything played in “C” major over this chord progression fits like a glove. This sort of progression allows you to play “C” major extensively without going too far wrong. In technical terms this would a “C” Ionian chord progression.

The whole point of what I am trying to get across is, to strengthen your knowledge of the “C” major scale (or any other scale) play it against a modal chord progression, either a backing track or with a friend. What you are then doing is applying and practicing your scale knowledge against something musical. This is so much more effective than just practicing scales for the sake of practicing scales. I can’t stress this enough. I personally wasted so much practice time by just running scales up and down and got little return on the hours I put in.

Using your practice time as a musical exercise is much more valuable!

I hope this helps someone, and of course I would love have your feedback. Not amp feedback but comment feedback.

Thanks