Before we get into the exercises, let's talk a little about theory. This is not meant to be thorough by any means. I am just going to tell you enough to have an appreciation. I highly suggest getting a book devoted to theory. It will help you speak the language of other musicians. The books section on my website has links to some excellent books.

Scale Theory

The picture above shows a C Major Scale. There is something very important to take note of here before we get into the theory: A scale is just a collection of notes. In this case the notes are C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. It does not matter where on the fretboard you play those notes. If you start at any C, and play these notes, then you are playing a C Major scale. So do not get into the habit of thinking there is only one way to play a certain scale on the fretboard. The image above shows just two ways you could play a C Major Scale.

Okay - now onto the theory. A major scale is defined by a fomula that tells us how many steps are between each note. The formula is as follows:

This tells us that there is one whole step between the first and 2nd note of a major scale, another whole step between the 2nd and third note, a half step between the 3rd and forth and so on. You can see this is the case for a C Major scale. Between C and D is a whole step, between D and E is a whole step, between E and F is a half step, etc.

See - wasn't that simpler than you thought? Now let's talk about the modes. Things are going to get a little more complicated here, because I am going to talk about intervals and chords. In the end you are going to see the relationship between scales, intervals and chords.

Modes

Let's demystify modes right away - modes are just major scales played by starting at a different note. Since there are 7 notes in a Major scale, that gives us 7 modes. There - the end. Okay, so I am joking... there is much more to modes, but my point is, they are not complicated at all. There are a variety of ways to look at modes. I just told you one of them (i.e. starting a Major Scale from a different note). Another way is to consider a Major Scale, and then determine how you have to modify that scale to end up with a certain mode. The Table below summarizes this for the 7 modes.

Now you see the names of these modes. The Major Scale is referred to as the Ionian mode. from the table, you see that to form the Dorian mode, you take a major scale and flat the third and seventh note. This is a good way to think of modes, because you will often hear people say stuff like, "The Lydian mode has its characteristic sound from its sharp 4...". But here is a very important point: If you take the C major Scale that we talked about above, and sharp its 4th note (the F), you end up with C Lydian, which is not in the key of C. For each key, the modes have the same notes. In C Major, you don't raise the 4th note to get the Lydian mode for C Major. Instead, you simply start the scale from the 4th note in the C Major scale. So in the key of C, the F corresponds to the Lydian mode, and F Lydian is just like F Major, but with the 4th note raised.

Now let's talk about modes, scales, intervals and chords.

The Modes and Their Relation to Intervals and Chords

An interval is just a spacing between notes. For our purposes we are just going to talk about what is called a third interval. In C Major, if you play a C note, then skip the D and play the E, then you have just played a Major Third interval. This interval consists of 2 whole steps. If you play an E, skip the F, then play a G, then you have played a Minor Third Interval. The Minor Third consists of 1 and a half steps. If you experiment a little with the C Major scale, you will find that if you start from any note, skip the next note, and then play the following note, that there are only 2 types of these intervals - the Major and Minor.

Now that you know about third intervals, we can talk about Triads. Tirads are formed by starting at a note, and then going up in thrids twice. So in C Major, you can start at C, move up a major third to E, and then move a minor third to G. The notes C, E, and G form a Major triad, and these are the notes in a C Major Chord. In more general terms, a Major Triad is formed by stacking a Major and Minor Third. A Minor Triad could be formed in C Major by starting at the D, adding a minor third to get F, and then from there adding a major third to get A. D, F, and A form a Minor Triad and these are the notes in a D Minor Chord. There is a third type of triad that you can form in a given key. It is formed by starting at the 7th note in a Major Scale, and stacking two minor thirds. This is referred to as a Diminished Triad. Below are diagrams illustrating the 3 types of Triads in C Major:

C Major Triad	D Minor Triad
B Diminished Triad

Without going into details, we could extend the idea of triads by stacking 3 thirds onto each note of the Major Scale. This is how the 7th Chords are formed. 7th Chords are the foundation of Jazz, and they add a lively quality to music that you cannot get from triads alone.

The Table below shows which triads and 7th chords go with which modes. Memorize this table! This is one of the most important pieces of information you will ever come across when it comes to playing lead guitar. This Table tells you which modes sound good over which chords.

Now it is time for your fingers to start hurting, and for your brain to rest! The following exercises are meant to teach you to visualize the modes throughout the fretboard, and to become proficient at playing them.