Modes
The major scale is probably the most common scale used in music. It is probably the first scale you learned to play on the saxophone. There are many ways of using the major scale, particularly when it is divided into modes, which will be the subject of this lesson. To begin with, lets look at the C major scale. As you know, the C major scale contains no sharps or flats. Its notes are C D E F G A B and C again an octave higher. These notes can be used to play literally thousands of melodies in the key of C major. It is not necessary to always start and finish on the note C. Depending on which chords you are playing over, it may sound best to start on any of the notes in the scale. E.g. if you were playing over a C chord followed by a D minor chord you could play the scale starting on C for the C chord but start on D for the D minor chord, as shown below. This is a modal approach to playing scales.
As well as knowing which notes will sound best over a particular chord, the things which make a melody interesting are the rhythm, the articulations and the order the notes are played in. The scale is only the starting point. If you just run up and down a scale, it gets boring very quickly. Compare the following example with the previous one and you will hear how a melody can be created from the scale.
