Maybe I'm after multiple things here and I don't realize it.

The major scale is something embedded in my brain - probably most are this way and they don't realize it. Slipin, you actually point this out in the material you had sent me. Adding the notes to the standard minor pentatonic shape builds on this. I see the value there, but it's specific to that particular situation and is just the beginning of breaking into richer tonal pallette.

This is an example of being able to recognize notes that will fit well into a given musical context. That's the end goal!

I'm trying to figure out a more generalized approach. I hear a series of notes playing in the major scale and I can recognize it. If I play the major scale and hit an incorrect note, I immediately know that note doesn't belong. Can I do the same for the minor scale? No. How do I get there?

Something Joe Satriani said in the "free lesson" video I posted recently really stuck with me. Paraphrasing, he said "practicing scales up and down in a non-musical way rots the brain". So I don't want to do that. So I can see the backing track being useful. He did it over his "student" droning a note at I recall. A pedal tone like you suggest could work for that too.

So this would be a way of learning and recognizing the modes.

So do I choose some of the more widely used modes, and practice them? Using the pedal tone, I get interval training...that seems important. (Another of Joe's suggestions come to mind - figure out which ones appeal to me...)

An approach I have in mind is to transcribe melodies and solos. Doesn't matter if its jazz, pop music, whatever...as long as the tempo isn't so crazy that it's a blur. I can think of a bunch of solo Andy Summers that would be great for this. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis would be cool too. That I know is based on modes. This gives me some musical context, something I hear without having to sing, and I need to find it on my guitar.

However, Chris Schlagel rightly pointed out that if I'm not familiar with the mode or scale being used, it's like trying to read without having learned the alphabet yet.

Maybe the issue is I don't know what I need to learn in this area...I don't know what I don't know :-). It's a little frustrating.


The bottom line is this: I have a clear plan well under way to learn the notes on the fretboard, I have a plan I'm working to better understand the rhythmic of soloing, but I don't have a well defined plan in this area.