How to Find a Modal Chord on Guitar

Western music is largely composed from seven basic modes which are derived from a single scale. The key scale is the major scale, which is why you might hear a musician telling another musician to play an E in the key of C. This request is shorthand for playing a modal E chord, which is a chord that contains only the notes found within the given mode. In this case, the modal chord is an E minor chord with a minor seventh. If you are clutching your skull in pain and fear, don't worry. You are about to learn the steps needed to find modal chords on a guitar.

Things You'll Need

• Guitar
• Pen and Paper

Instructions

1. Get a pen and paper and write down the notes found in the C major scale. C major is spelled C D E F G A B. These notes are the only notes you can use to create modal chords within the key of C.

2. Take a look at the spelling of the scale. Not only are each of those notes part of the C major scale, each of the notes is itself a starting point for another scale or mode of C major. For sake of example, pick the third mode of C major, which starts with the third note of the major scale, in this case, E. This mode is called Phyrgian.

3. Choose a mode of C major to work with. For sake of example, pick the third mode of C major, which starts with the third note of the major scale, in this case, E. This mode is called Phrygian. E Phrygian is spelled E F G A B C D. Notice that although the notes have not changed, the intervals between the notes relative to their position in the mode have changed. For example, the interval between the first and second notes of C major is one whole step, C to D. The interval between the first and second notes of E Phrygian is a half step, from E to F.

4. Grab your guitar and find the notes of the C major scale, E Phrygian mode on the fretboard. Fret each note, play it and try to memorize the sound it makes, as well as the position at which it is found. If you would like, make a map of the fretboard for easy reference.

5. Create modal chords based on the notes you discovered on your guitar. A couple of modal chords that work within E Phrygian are E minor, E minor seventh, A minor, G seventh and D minor. Literally hundreds of variations of these chords can be used, so long as you stay within the notes of the C major scale, E Phrygian mode.

Tips & Warnings

• Power chords, or the root note combined with the fifth are the cheater's way to finding chords that fit within the mode. Since you don't have to fritter with the third or seventh, or any other interval, it's pretty easy to stay within the given mode. On a guitar in standard tuning, the fifth of a given note is usually found one string higher and two frets closer to the body of the guitar. For example, an E power chord could be fretted with the index finger at the seventh fret of the A string and the third finger at the ninth fret of the D string. The sounding pitches are E and B.

• You can assemble chords using the notes of the C major scale. Chords are usually formed by a combination of two to four notes from a scale, not counting octaves. The most commonly used intervals in chords are the third, fourth, fifth, seventh and the octave. Not all chords will contain all of these intervals.