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Richard

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  1. I'll second Matt's chop shop book. Try and relate the Modes to the sounds that each produces- it makes all the math a little less confusing. I learned the modes when I was interested in the music of the Grateful Dead-it made it much easier when I related certain modes to the sound of specific songs. Modes are relatively easy to play, but hard to grasp initially. If you've learned how to harmonize the major scale its easier to see chord/scale relationships. Ionian-the major scale Dorian Minor-a pretty scale and somewhat Jazzy-Santana's Oye Como Va(actually titio punte I think) Phrygian-Spanish sounding-Dimeola used this alot Lydian - happy an alternative to major scale-substitutes b5/#11 for the 4-used in a lot of childrens songs. Mixolydian-=aka the Dominant 7th scale - bluesy or spacy. Aeolian Natural minor Locrian - somewhat strange and exotic sounding. usually heard in fusion I think you're right, this is a more useful way of looking at modes than thinking of them solely as spin-offs of the major scale. To get the sounds of each mode in your head, it's useful to figure them out *from the same starting point*. When you do it as C ionian, D dorian, E phrygian, etc., people often wonder, well, what's the difference, they're all the same notes. Going from the same starting point clarifies the differences better IMO. E ionian: E F# G# A B C# D# E E lydian: E F# G# A# B C# D# E E mixolydian: E F# G# A B C# D E E dorian: E F# G A B C# D E E aeolian: E F# G A B C D E E phrygian: E F G A B C D E E locrian: E F G A Bb C D E Then, if you can relate the modes, as you say, to specific types of sounds you hear in songs, that will help reinforce it. A lot of rock, pop, and folk is actually, in a sense, more modally based than it is conventionally major-minor. For instance, supposed you have a song with a tonal center of E, but the only three chords are E, D, and A. You could hear that as being in E mixolydian (it can't be in A if A is not the tonal center).
  2. I'll take Los Lobos. I can't think of a better American band.
  3. I like PRSs. I think they're very good guitars. I owned and had to sell a '95 electric blue CE24 that I really wish I had back. And I quite liked the hollowbody and archtop McCartys in particular. In fact, I think the PRS shape is possibly the most beautiful solidbody shape ever. But at their current price points I won't buy them. When I bought my Newport Pro a few years back I spent $1500. I couldn't get near a PRS Hollowbody for that then, and much less so now. Didn't make me like it less, just made me decide not to buy it. When a bolt-on CE is going for $2000, I'm not buying that either. I love my Hamer and think it's overall the equal in quality of anything comparable out there. That doesn't mean I don't like PRSs too. Being pro-Hamer doesn't mean you have to be anti-PRS (or anti-Gibson, for that matter). Hell, I love my Carvin Holdsworth Fatboy as much as my Newport, heresy though that may be to some here. Some people are gonna like Hamers better, some PRSs. You're on a Hamer board, so you know what you're mostly gonna get here. I say buy whatever you like better. They're both good. I don't feel there's some huge qualitative thing that sets Hamer above, or the reverse for that matter. To me the PRS heel thing is an overhyped nonissue, but mileage obviously varies on that. I also don't buy the whole "the old ones were great but the new ones suck" line either--the hollowbodies, which are relatively new, seem to me as good as anything of theirs I saw in the '80s (and I was checking them then). But opinions differ on that too. Just try as many things as you can and go with the one that works for you. In the end, what a bunch of people on a board think doesn't really matter, right?
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