Guitar Scale Colours: Guitar Book, CD & Online Videos

This book cuts through the overwhelm of learning 21 modes by organizing them around a single reference scale per system. The Dominant Method is elegant: instead of memorizing all three modes of the major scale plus all three of harmonic minor plus all three of melodic minor in isolation, students anchor everything to the dominant and then recognize the extensions and alterations that shape each mode. The accompanying CD and videos make the patterns stick in a way that tablature alone cannot.

Organized clarity. After working through this, the fretboard shifts from a bewildering maze of scale shapes into a coherent landscape where each mode has its own voice but remains connected to all the others. The learning process feels less like memorization and more like discovery.

Guitarists who have moved beyond pentatonic comfort and want to speak fluently in the modal language of jazz and contemporary music. This suits intermediate to advanced students who are ready to stop thinking of modes as separate entities and start seeing them as variations on a harmonic theme.

• Spend a full week on each reference dominant scale before attempting to internalize the other modes derived from it. The goal is fluency, not speed.
• Record yourself playing the chord progression underneath, then practice improvising with each mode over that same backing track. This cements the sound of each mode to its harmonic function.
• Use the video demonstrations to check your finger positions and nail angle. Sloppy technique on scales transfers directly into improvisations.
• Create your own licks using the intervallic patterns shown, rather than memorizing the book's examples verbatim. The transfer of ideas between modes only works if you own them.

Assign this as the backbone of your jazz ensemble's harmonic literacy curriculum. Use the online videos during sectionals so players can see the material demonstrated at tempo, then check understanding in rehearsal by asking them to solo over specific dominant chords with the appropriate mode. The 168-page scope also works well as a summer study guide for students preparing to audition for college jazz programs.

• Recognizing the harmonic function of each mode within its parent scale system
• Transferring intervallic shapes and licks across different modes using reference scale strategy
• Internalizing the characteristic tones that distinguish each mode (particularly tensions and extensions)
• Connecting modal theory to chord-scale relationships in jazz and pop contexts
• Building melodic vocabulary within each mode rather than merely running scales