So what if you weren’t born with perfect pitch. Here’s one way to develop your ears.
As bassists, one of our most overlooked tools is our ears. In my opinion, our ability to hear and understand pitches and rhythms in real time is of equal importance to technique. For any musician who decides to take on the task of improving their ear, it probably won’t be long at all before they encounter the phenomenon of perfect pitch.
I still remember the fear, envy, and wonder that came over me the first time I heard those two words uttered. I was an 11-year-old aspiring musician experiencing my very first ear-training class. The teacher sat at the piano and played a series of notes and chords. Our job was to write down what we heard on the manuscript paper in front of us. I had no idea what I was hearing, and even less idea how to notate it. At the end of the class, the teacher browsed our papers, repeatedly shaking his head in disapproval until he came to Lindon Dominic’s paper. A smile came to his face as he held up that sheet and announced, “10 out of 10, Lindon! Gents, Lindon has perfect pitch, and you lot never will!” Sadly, at my school, the setting of low expectations and dashing of dreams was commonplace.
This is the day I began to conform to an erroneous point of view on the subject of perfect pitch. I believed it to be an unattainable thing that one is either blessed with or not—like being 7'5" in the NBA. Later in life, once I was exposed to much smarter people, my thinking (and ear) changed considerably for the better.
As one can imagine, perfect pitch would be a pretty awesome skill for any bassist (or other musician) to possess. One could hear any bass line, melody, or chord progression and instantly identify the key, notes, or chords. Fear not: though it may arguably be true that perfect pitch is something one is born with, there is something else equally awesome called relative pitch. And with training and hard work, it can be damn hard for anybody to tell the difference or know which a person is using.
The key to improving one’s ear or relative pitch is regular, structured practice that leverages our nature to memorize through repetition. Here is the method which I was taught by the great jazz saxophonist, Steve Coleman.
Go out and buy an A440 tuning fork and place it on your bedside table. For the first month, as soon as you awake in the morning, pick up the tuning fork and strike it on your knee, put it to your ear and listen for A440, and sing exactly what you hear. Observe and repeat the exact order and manner that you do these in, as, in the beginning, repetition and muscle memory are part of the process.
In month two, continue the same routine but now without the tuning fork to start. Instead, make the motion of picking up and striking an imaginary tuning fork, sing A440, and check your note with the real tuning fork. By the end of month two, you should be able to sing and identify A440 without any reference.
“The key to improving one’s ear or relative pitch is regular structured practice that leverages our nature to memorize through repetition.”
Going forward, repeat each month with a different note as your target. Rather than purchasing a new fork to find each new note each month, simply use relative pitch to find them. For instance, for the open strings on bass: E is a fifth above/fourth below A, D is a fifth below/fourth above, and G is a whole step below/minor seventh above. In this manner, you can find every other note until you can sing and identify all 12 notes, at which point you should have something pretty close to perfect pitch.
When I first went through this process, I accompanied each routine by choosing songs that I knew were in the particular key or started on the particular note I was working on. I’d also try to identify the keys of songs or even just sounds, like a bird singing, as I walked down the street. In the end, the beauty of this process is that it helps us to identify notes as if they were different colors, like yellow, green, or red, as opposed to just varying shades of gray.
Most people would never mistake yellow for green, because colors are distinct to us. The same is true for a person with perfect pitch or very good relative pitch. Each note has a quality they can recall. Either way, whether one is born with perfect pitch or not, we all still need to learn what it means. We need to learn the context and significance behind what we are hearing. Following this simple method, you should begin to notice a real difference in about 13 months.
Beginner
Intermediate
- Develop a deeper understanding of the sound of each mode.
- Learn several different ways to create modes.
- Improvise over simple vamps that outline the defining characteristics of each mode.
This lesson assumes you already know your way around the diatonic scale and its various fingerings. Hopefully this will provide myriad tonal colors you have yet to utilize from within those same patterns. Most of us go through three steps before modal knowledge is of practical use.
Three Phases to Understanding the Modes
Phase 1
This is the introduction to the modes many of us receive:
The Ionian mode is the major scale.
The Dorian mode is a major scale starting on the 2nd degree.
The Phrygian mode is a major scale starting on the 3rd degree.
The Lydian mode is a major scale starting on the 4th degree.
The Mixolydian mode is a major scale starting on the 5th degree.
The Aeolian mode is a major scale starting on the 6th degree.
The Locrian mode is a major scale starting on the 7th degree.
While this is all true, once you memorize that the obvious question becomes, “Yeah, so what?” And that’s an excellent question. Since we’re always referencing a “parent” major scale, you can recycle your diatonic fingerings. You’ll also arrive at the correct answer on your test in guitar school—but it’s not anything that you’ll likely use to make actual music.
Phase 2
This phase provides a little more clarity. This explanation compares the difference in each mode from the basic major scale. In fact, most all scales are described relative to a major scale. For example, a major pentatonic scale is a major scale minus the 4th and 7th degrees.
The anatomy, or intervallic structure, of each mode is more clearly described via this explanation. It goes like this:
The Ionian mode is the major scale. (Old news from Phase 1.)
The Dorian mode is a major scale with a b3 and b7.
The Phrygian mode is a major scale with a b2, b3, b6 and b7.
The Lydian mode is a major scale with a #4.
The Mixolydian mode is a major scale with a b7.
The Aeolian mode is a major scale with a b3, b6 and b7.
The Locrian mode is a major scale with a b2, b3, b5, b6 and b7.
All of this is also correct but knowing this is still little more than a badge of honor in a round of Trivial Pursuit.
Phase 3
Phases 1 and 2 are useful for attaching these fancy names to collections of notes and knowing where to place your fingers. Phase 3 turns these abstract concepts into sounds that don’t require a slide rule or decoder ring to figure out what notes you’re supposed to play.
In Phase 3, we don’t trace each mode back to a major scale. Each mode is now its own thing. It’s its own key. It’s its own sound.
To get to this place of modal nirvana we need to be able to hear these scales as chords versus bothering with all of this math contained in the first two phases. Let’s make a chord progression, or vamp that aurally represents each modal sonority.
For our examples we will use an A pedal tone in the bass. A will be the tonic of each of our seven modes. We’ll begin with the A Ionian mode (A–B–C#–D–E–F#–G#). We’ll now take the IV and V chords and play them on top of the A pedal as in Ex. 1. (The written examples show a simplified version of what’s on the audio track. The point isn’t for you to copy my rhythm parts, but to easily understand the harmonic movements.)
This is a tidy package that you now play your major scale over. Record yourself playing this and then play the A major scale over it. This won’t require much ear stretching as you’ve likely heard this sound your entire life. This is a nice progression that is an effective chordal representation of the mode.
Ex. 2 utilizes the same method to achieve an A Dorian sound (A–B–C–D–E–F#–G). A Dorian’s parent scale is G Major. The IV and V chords of G major are C and D. Play the C and D triads over our A pedal tone and relish the Dorian vibe. Some might catalog this in their mind as having a Santana sound. While the notes are the same as those found in the key of G Major, we’re playing A Dorian. A is the root—not G. That is part of what we’re doing here: Relate to the scale on its own terms. Improvising on this vamp will reinforce that in your ear and you’ll have a recognizable sound vs. a formula.
The parent scale of A Phrygian (A–Bb–C–D–E–F–G) is F major. Seeing the method unfold? Take the IV and V chords from F (Bb and C) and superimpose them over an A bass note to arrive at Ex. 3. Assign your own adjective to the sound you’re creating.
Each of the modes has a distinct mood doesn’t it? It could be argued that the modes should be called the moods.
Next up is the A Lydian mode (A–B–C–D#–E–F#–G#). A Lydian is the fourth mode of E major so let’s take the IV and V chords, A and B, and play them over our A bass pedal (Ex. 4). You may associate this sound with the theme song from The Simpsons or Tom Petty’s “Here Comes My Girl.”
Have you noticed that even though our “bass player” has been playing a single note this entire time we are arriving at drastically different A sounds? This is how players like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai keep solos interesting over longer periods of time while the harmony is static. The harmony is changing via the soloists’ note choice and requires no one else playing chords.
Moving on to A Mixolydian (A–B–C#–D–E–F#–G) in Ex. 5. A is the 5th degree of a D Major scale and the IV and V chords of D are G and A. Jeff Beck’s “Freeway Jam,” the Beatles’ “Day Tripper” or just about anything from the Grateful Dead or other jam bands exemplify this sound nicely.
Next is the A Aeolian mode (A–B–C–D–E–F–G) or natural minor scale. This is another one with which your ear will be immediately comfortable. This is the relative minor key to C Major. The IV and V chords from C are F and G. Let your cat walk across the white keys of your piano while playing Ex. 6 and even that will sound great.
Last up is A Locrian (A–Bb–C–D–Eb–F–G). This key is derived from Bb Major, the IV and V chords are Eb and F respectively and we get the introspective Ex. 7. Play the A Locrian scale and finally enjoy this mode that may have seemed so ugly before. It’s a beautiful sound—use it!
Hopefully this lesson provides a different, more useful way of hearing the modes instead of memorizing a cryptic note formula. Each mode is now its own key, not just a major scale starting on a different degree. Spend time with each of these examples and really listen to each note. Sure, blasting scales at hyper-speed can be fun, but this is more of a listening thing. Go slow and enjoy your new-found mastery of the modes. Oh yeah, you can also recycle or give away all of those books that keep describing Phase 1.