Mel Bay's Mandolin Sessions | Ted Eschliman - Lydian Tracks Pt. 1

In this issue: Building a Traditional Tune Repertoire: Arkansas Traveler (Key of D) | Lydian Tracks Pt. 1 | Beginning Irish Mandolin | Interview: John Hamlett | World Mandolin: Girando Sempre

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Lydian Tracks Pt. 1

A Path to Modal Improvising

by Ted Eschliman

Continuing with modes

Last time, we explored the subject of Modal Jazz http://mandolinsessions.com/dec08/Eschliman.html, mentioning how this approach to improvising would be very familiar to the folk musician. One of the big-picture goals in this column is to strip away the intimidation that goes along with soloing in the jazz genre. Experimenting with the Dorian mode should not be much of a stretch from jamming on a friendly fiddle tune. This time, we want to look at a mode not quite as frequent in Folk/Bluegrass, but quite common to jazz, the Lydian Scale.

You can have a lot of fun with this scale, and it's very simple to understand. Take a major scale, G for example: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G. All you do is raise the 4th scale degree, G, A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G. How cool is that sound! Stop reading a few moments and play the G Lydian; if you're up to it, try improvising only on these notes. Below we've listed the G Lydian, as well as the Bb Lydian.

Hear it in context

In our recently released book "Getting Into Jazz Mandolin," we introduce an exercise (Lydian DUDU) to help familiarize your fingers with Lydian Scale patterns. We want to give you a teaser of what you can do further with modal skills, so we're offering a sneak peak at the above song, "Lydia O'Lydia" that incorporates the Modal concept into some remedial improvisation. We also have some examples of this tune recorded, along with some excellent demonstrations, if you'd like to get this in your ear. First the tune:

You can download a better copy of the tune in a PDF file: http://www.jazzmando.com/print/GJM_Lydia%20O'Lydia.pdf

Hear it:
Shortcut audio link: Will Patton; Lydia O'Lydia: http://jazzmando.com/sound/WP_Lydia.mp3
Shortcut audio link: Don Julin; Lydia O'Lydia: http://www.jazzmando.com/sound/DJ_Lydia.mp3
Shortcut audio link: Don Stiernberg; Lydia O'Lydia :http://jazzmando.com/webtracks/DS_LydiaO.mp3
Shortcut audio link: Craig Schmoller; Lydia O'Lydia :http://jazzmando.com/sound/CS_Lydia.mp3

Listen to more audio tracks for Mel Bay's "Getting Into Jazz Mandolin": Webtracks

From Ears to Fingers

Now that you've heard this we want to give you some fretboard paths to self-discovery. If you're completely new to the FFcP you might take a few moments to at least breeze through a crash course in the concepts of Closed Finger transposability at the JazzMando site (http://jazzmando.com/ffcp.shtml), but the idea is to be able to start a scale, or in this case a mode and move it up to different areas of the fretboard. This gives you a whole new level of flexibility in playing, not to mention comfort in improvising out of the first few frets of the mandolin. These would be three possibilities for the G Lydian Scale:

Taking the same FFcP concept, here's what you can do with 4 different FFcP patterns for the Bb Lydian Scale. Note, we left the 4th FFcP out of the G; you could play it way up on the higher frets, but it isn't necessarily practical:

Scalular playing is a great way to step into improvising, but eventually, you want to be able to emphasize or linger on the "good notes," or the ones that make up the chord. With G Maj7, you'd want to use G, B, D, F#, and with Bb Maj7 you'd use Bb, D, F, E. Another tool to conceptualize this is to take the same FFcP approach and spread arpeggiated versions up the fretboard. Getting familiar with these areas of chordal significance will help you communicate the harmonic implications of the song more effectively. Here are your possibilities:

Play around with these for now, and listen to some of the artist tracks to get an idea where you can go from here. One very important tone we've left out is that raised 4th (or #11 if you're already ahead of us), C# in the key of G, and E natural in Bb. Next time, in Part 2 we want to incorporate that critical color tone in our patterns to make it truly "Lydian-esque." Sneak peak, though--try playing the arpeggiated Chords DMaj7 in G, and FMaj7 in Bb. You'll have some new color working around those chords.

Stay tuned…

Have you been enjoying the great resources at Mel Bay's Mandolin Sessions? If you're new here, be sure to click on the Back Issues button above. If you've been a regular, take the time to drop us a note with some feedback: a question for a future article, an observation about something that is helping your playing, or just let us know what part of the world you are. Some of you have already done this, and we are treasure it when you take the time. Contact us at http://jazzmando.com/contact_jazzmando.shtml , and of course drop in on the JazzMando.com website, for the latest "Tips and Tricks" and jazz mandolin-related news! If you have an RSS Reader, take advantage of our RSS feed feature!