Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to easily find the Mixolydian scale by connecting it to the chord shapes from CAGED. You’ll also learn how to blend it with the minor pentatonic scale to create a bluesy lead that works well over just about anything. Your practice song for this will be a Bluegrass lead style.
Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson
Part 2 - For Premium Members
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Slow Walk-Through
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Video Tablature Breakdown
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Well another goody and that bluegrass was shining through.
JohnStrat
Great lesson – love bluegrass. I have a suggestion for another lesson. Can you do a lesson in the style of Joe Bonamassa, Blues Deluxe, “I don’t know a lot about love.” Nice slow ballad with neat volume use on the guitar. Should be pretty easy except for Joe’s lighting fast licks he sprinkles throughout the song.
Thanks, Paul
Wonderful lesson Brian – tied so much together – GREAT explanations on so much and how it all connects. Well done.
And . . .as much as I love my D35, that OO28 sure sounds “purdy” 🙂
I thought you were playing a new tax deduction. Great sounding guitar! I can definitely use this lesson. Thanks Brian
Wow ! That blows me away. The “G” Mixolydian scale is the same as the “C” Major scale. This makes it super easy to use the Mixolydian mode. Thanks Brian……
Sounds like some great Charlie Daniels inspiration. Love it!
Fantastic licks! Thank you so much for your excellent lessons. It’s for the first time since the late 1980s that I’m taking real lessons again. It blows me away. It’s exactly the style of music that I’ve always loved. Best regards from the Amsterdam area.
Brian. Love the Martin. How many guitars do you have at this time.
BTW. This is year 5 for me as a student.
Thanks for all you do.
Doc Tim.
I don’t know any more! more than 20 now i guess. Thank you for 5 years!
Brian… awesome lesson, awesome guitar! I am a big fan of Jason Isbell so that makes it even cooler to me. I am definitely going to drop everything and start digging into this one.
Excellent teacher and guitar player. Love the way you break it down to understandable level to Us all at different levels. Hard job done well with passion. Love the gear and tone of different lessons.
Great lesson. The discovery that G mixolydian was same as C major scale was certainly ‘light bulb’ moment for me (especially after last weeks lesson setting the foundations). Thanks!
Great lesson, and what a fantastic sounding instrument! I for one would also love to see a Jason Isbell inspired Country-Rock/Alt-Country lesson one day (hint, hint!). Thanks Brian!
I can know, academically, what constitutes the myxolydian mode and how to form it from a 6th or 5th string root but until I see it related to a chord shape and used in a musical context it’s hard to incorporate. That’s why Active Melody’s been the best place for me to understand how the fretboard actually works. Thanks for your approach and teaching skills, Brian.
John
This sounds very intricate.. I can hardly wait to learn this one Brian.
Thanks. Your creativity never ceases to amaze me.
That was a great lesson on how to incorporate Mixolydian scales with chord shapes and Pentatonic scale patterns. very cool.
Thanks Brian,
Ray P
Minute 2:25, that little lick, can you point me to tab somewhere?
Me too – love it and after slowing to 75% got it.
Any chance of a lesson with that kind of Bluegrass playing please Brian?
Happy Christmas from across the pond in the UK.
Paul
Another great lesson how to incorporate different scales and how to play with the chord changes. Especially like the explanation how the mixolydian scale is positioned in relation to the A shape C chord. That is very useful.
What a wonderful sounding Martin. You can hear the age in the wood. I love smaller bodied Martins because no other guitars have the same purity, clarity, and fatness in the unwound strings along with the perfectly balanced sound and of course that Martin Mojo. I play a 000, and a OM, and I think I probably “need” a Rosewood 00 next.
You are at such a high level of guitar playing expertise, Brian, and well deserving of this fine guitar, and tell your wife I said so LOL. Me and all the other AM’ers got your back.
The Mixolydian Lesson is very insightful because I’ve always had a hard time making the scale sound musical. Blending Mixo with Pent. Minor definitely makes it sound more like licks instead of just running scales. Just add a little Chuck Berry, Jerry Garcia, some chromatics, and a mandolin lick or two and a couple of Bluegrass licks and you have it. Why didn’t I think of that LOL.
Hopefully you’ll use the 00 for a fingerpicking lesson. I know it will sound amazing.
Thanks Brian
beautiful guitar. looks good for almost hundred years old. how would you compare it with the 46′ 00018
it’s a 48 000-21 – and the sound on the 00-28 is actually louder and brighter… beautiful tone. But the 000 plays better (it doesn’t have the vintage frets)
I love this tune, just been chatting at work about Popcorn Sutton as one of the lads makes his own ‘moonshine’ whisky and he gave me a bottle for Christmas. The thing I love about this piece too is the metronomic rhythm really good for my timing practice.
I love this tune and a bit of bluegrass, just been chatting at work about Popcorn Sutton as one of the lads makes his own ‘moonshine’ whisky and he gave me a bottle for Christmas. The thing I like about this piece too is the metronomic rhythm, really good for my timing practice.
Another (few) observations. The G scale is the same as the D mixolydian scale.
When you play the A shape C scale, you are playing the E shape G mixolydian scale.
When you play the A shape D mixolydian scale, you are playing the D shape G scale.
And finally, even though it isn’t in this lesson, if you play the C shape C scale, you are playing the G shape G mixolydian scale.
Confused now?
LOVE these lessons Brian!! Enough lightbulbs to light a Christmas tree!!
Great lesson as usual! I am getting to where I wait for your Friday lesson each week, I enjoy them so much. And this week, the first thing I wanted to know was “What’s this cool “new” old guitar!” I am a guitar shop tourist during my work week of flying airplanes for a living, and Carter’s and Gruhn’s are like making the pilgrimage to Mecca for me, lol.
What a great old guitar, and you make it sing, as always.
Thanks for all your great tutelage
Brian
Thanks Brian – I’m sure we’ll run into each other then at some point 🙂
The one thing that tends to confuse me with the modes is knowing what notes to target and land on when phrasing. Are the target notes still always going to be based around the overall key of the song or will the target notes change based on the chord changes? Thanks for another great lesson!
Well Paul, here is MHO. The answer is, “yes”. Here is why. Take any key (this song is in G). Every note of every [chord] in the key of G is in the G scale. NOTE: This means the chord tone notes, not necessarily just any note in the chord’s scale. So, if you are targeting the 3rd in the D chord (F#) you could think of that as targeting the 7th in the G scale. The 5th of the C chord (G) would be the 1st of the G scale. So, pick any chord tone of the songs 2-7 chord, and it will be a note in the 1 chord’s scale. There is another web site, “Fret Jam”, that has a lesson about target notes, and that lesson bases target notes on the key scale.
I’m guessing I’ve really confused the issue now?
phil
That actually helps a lot Phil and does make sense to me. Thanks for the explanation!
Thank you for this lesson, would love to learn this!
BTW Brian …
Why is EP009, 010 ,011, and 012 missing from the website?
Count me in on this one. I’ve been working with some bluegrass style leads lately, so this fits right in with what I’ve been up to. Great way to exercise your left hand fingers!
Brian i dont know what to say , I know this is a lesson about mixolydian mode , But ive been trying and struggling ( a little ) a lot at first with all 7 modes ,, MATE thank you this has done it .. Had a massive lightbulb momment and the whole lot make sense , every mode , , im having a whale of a time , ive been playing around with different proggressions all night having so much fun playing what i thought would be a completely wrong major scale over certain chords ,, cracking ,, ive only been playing 35 plus years lol , just taken the right person explaining it the way you have …. Cheers ..
That’s music to my ears 🙂 love it!
Look up Billy Strings on YouTube if you want to hear some unbelievable flat picking.
Really talented guy.
Pattern 1, is that the Aeolian mode? I’m a little confused, Would that make the Major scale ( Ionian) pattern 2?
Every major scale has 7 modes, the modes are called Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aolian & Locrian. The major scale is called the Ionian mode and the relative minor is the Aolian Mode
Really a great sounding guitar! Doesn’t Norman Blake play a 1928 Martin OO28 slot head? I always loved the way his guitar sounds.
Thank you Brian. One question re finding the mixolydian mode. You say to ask yourself what is X the V chord of? – eg G is the V chord of C so G mixolydian has the same notes as the C major scale. But C is the IV chord of G – isn’t it easier to do it that way ie what is the IV chord of X?
Had to log in to tell you that that was a stellar lesson Brian. I’ve been diddling with bluegrass licks lately and that opened a huge door for me.
I saw this lesson and got too busy learning it that I forgot to comment!
Very cool. Just messing around in that 3rd position, in no more than 2 minutes Duelling Banjos & Streets of Laredo melodies just
kinda jumped right out and played, all by themselves. If only.
Wow Brian! I know I am late commenting. It has been on the back burner for a while but I just started getting it under my fingers and thank you so much for demystifying and offering so much insight into the mixolydian mode. Fantastic lesson and so much fun to play. Thanks again for all you do!
Hi Brian, I’m excited to learn much as a premium member. This will be my first real endeavor on Active Melody as a PM. I can’t wait to get this juicy Bluegrass baby under my fingers