I've been going through some of the older podcasts and have settled on the 'modes' as something I simply skipped over the first time round.

I find this very interesting but also a little confusing.

Is "the done thing" in an improvisation, or piece, to pick a mode - e.g. Dominant Lydian (I really liked the sound of this!) - and use that mode on the root of every chord?

So in a II-V-I in the key of A I would play B Dom Lydian in the first bar, E dom. Lydian in the second and A dom. lydian OR do I play the mode relevant to the key centre.
So Dorian B, Myxolidian E and Ionion?

In the latter case there seems little point in saying it's modal jazz, rather that you're just using the scale of the key you're playing in.
I feel as if I missed something?



Paul - keep you the great work on the podcasts, they really are useful!

Only use lydian dominant on a 7th chord as it gives you a raised 4th as well as the
required b7th.

In the same way, use a lydian only with a major chord as it keeps the 7th natural while still raising the 4th

In any 251 the 2 is dorian, 5 is mixolydian and the 1 is the major scale...so you are right....it's all part of the major scale anyway so why bother to think modes.

But if the 2 is a 7th chord (for example D7 G7 Cmaj7) you would switch to the mixolydian just for the D7 then also use G mix (or even G lydian dominant.)

Modes are more useful in modal pieces such as So What when we are not in a key but sections of D dorian and Eb dorian.

It's a pain trying to describe this stuff without a piano but I hope this makes some sense.

Paul
Listen to my latest podcast about Blue Bossa for more stuff on this.
Of course gradually you stop thinking of modes and scales and just impro ideas and lines that are in your head.