AboutGuy Percy Expertise I can answer questions on jazz theory, artists, styles, etc. I am a bass player, but I have a good knowledge of all the instruments.
Experience I have been a bass player for over 20 years. I am an active Jazz musician in my area.
Education/Credentials BM Jazz Performance
BA Music Ed
MA Music Composition
Expert: Guy Percy Date: 6/14/2008 Subject: modal playing
Question I've played electric bass for five years and am now starting to play around with modes. What I don't understand is this: If you are jamming on, say, an A minor chord using pentatonics and the blues scale and want to use one of the modes how do you know which one to use, would it be an A minor mode also? Or do you use one of a different key because the notes somehow "match up" better? Also if you switch to a mode are you playing that on top of the A minor chord that the other musicians are playing or do they have to be playing in that mode too to sound right. If they continue in A minor and you play in a mode on top of that, what about the disonances that will invariably come up, like the musicians might wind up playing minor 2nds against each other. In such case it would seem everybody would be playing against each other and in no key at all. Where am I confused here? Thank you.
Answer John,
This is a good question. You will find that this depends a lot on the context of where the chord is in the song. For example if the chord is just an A minor over 8 measures then it is likely to be implying the use of a dorian mode A B C D E F# G A. If it is in a measure following a C major chord it would likely imply the aeolian mode(or pure minor scale) A B C D E F G. As for creating dissonance while playing, if you are functioning as a bass player and primarily focusing on outlining the harmony(No, I don't mean playing A C E A literally) then the dissonance shouldn't be too harsh. The problems with that usually show up when you 1) have two chordal instruments fighting each other like guitar and piano where one plays a C7b9 and the other plays a C9 or 2) When you have a piano player that constantly plays the root note way down low in the left hand. This makes it impossible for the bass player to sound clean playing anything except the root or maybe the 5th. I hope this helps.
