The ULTIMATE Major/Minor “Hybrid” Scale – The Dorian/Mixolydian Combo

Video Cliffs:

0:00 – Intro

1:24 – Taking a Major Approach (Major Pentatonic/Major Blues/Mixolydian)

2:43 – Musical Demo #1 – E Major Pentatonic/Major Blues

4:09 – Musical Demo #2 – E Mixolydian

5:05 – Taking a Minor Approach (Minor Pentatonic/Minor Blues/Dorian)

6:10 – Musical Demo #3 – E Minor Pentatonic/Minor Blues

7:57 – Musical Demo #4 – E Dorian

9:02 – Taking the Hybrid Approach – Combining the Dorian and Mixolydian Modes Together

13:19 – Musical Demo #5 – Combining E Dorian and E Mixolydian to Create a Major/Minor “Hybrid”

Relevant Lessons:

Extra Stuff for Full Access Members! In addition to everything else that is included with a Full Access Membership, many lessons include “Full Access Extras”.

Full Access Member “Video Backing Tracks” for this lesson: 7 additional video backing tracks all taking place over an E7 chord using a bluesy rhythm guitar, bass line, and drums

Each video contains a different full fretboard diagram with the “home box” (aka. Pentatonic Position #1) circled in each

The 7 videos are: minor pentatonic/blues, Dorian mode, scale combining Dorian and minor pentatonic, major pentatonic/blues, Mixolydian mode, scale combining Mixolydian and major pentatonic, scale combining Dorian and Mixolydian

Each video is around 9 1/2 minutes long, allowing you to practice each of these 7 different “frameworks” over the rhythm track

In this lesson, we are focusing on improvising over just one single chord – An E7 chord:

If you were to improvise over this dominant 7th chord, you could take 3 different approaches:

The Major Approach

Taking the major approach would make sense, and it would follow the rules of “diatonic theory”.

Let’s see how that would be done…

First, you could start with your E major pentatonic scale:

Since an E7 chord contains a major triad, it would make sense that the E major pentatonic scale would work over it.

Try it out for yourself!

Of course, you could always add the “blue note” in as well:

Again, try it out for yourself (or watch my quick demos in the video).

Now, let’s say you wanted to incorporate some “flavor notes” into this improvisation and move beyond just basic pentatonic/blues stuff.

A good place to look would be the Mixolydian mode, since it is a “major” type of mode (meaning that it contains a major 3rd interval in its’ scale formula), and it also contains a b7 scale degree.

Dominant 7th Chord Formula: 1 – 3 – 5 – b7

1 – 3 – 5 – b7 Mixolydian Mode Scale Formula: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – b7

Therefore, it makes sense that using the E Mixolydian mode as your improvisational framework over an E7 chord would sound pretty good.

E Mixolydian in the “Home Box” Position:

And of course, you can always throw in that good ol’ blue note as well:

Try it out, and see how it sounds!

So that’s taking a “major approach”. Next, let’s take a look at a “minor approach”.

The Minor Approach

Attempting to apply minor type scales over a dominant 7th chord breaks “diatonic theory”, but it is still done quite often, especially in blues music.

Minor type scales have a minor 3rd interval. Whereas a dominant 7th chord contains a major 3rd interval.

That’s okay though, it still sounds cool so we all still do it anyway!

We could start by playing the E minor pentatonic scale as our improvisational framework:

And of course, we can always throw in the “blue note“:

We could again take things another step further and add it some flavor notes.

For the purpose of this lesson, we will apply the E Dorian mode. The Dorian mode has a nice bluesy sound and it combines very well with the minor pentatonic scale. Therefore, your ear will let you know that it is a better choice then just simply going with the natural minor scale.

E Dorian in the “Home Box” Position:

Of course you could still use the blue note too…

Try it out for yourself, or check out the demos in the video. See how much different the “major approach” and the “minor approach” sound.

Despite the fact that they both sound very different from one another, they still both “work”.

Now let’s take a look at the “hybrid approach”…

The Hybrid Approach

You hear this kind of stuff done ALL THE TIME from the greats such as Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Trey Anastasio, etc.

Essentially what they are doing is simply combining the Dorian mode and the Mixolydian mode together, and playing both overlapping in just one position.

This may sound complicated, but really it’s very simple.

Take a look at the scale formula for both the Dorian and Mixolydian modes:

Dorian Mode Scale Formula: 1 – 2 – b3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – b7

1 – 2 – b3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – b7 Mixolydian Mode Scale Formula: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – b7

You see the only difference between the scales is the 3rd scale degree. Other then that, all of the rest of the notes are the same.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter where you are at on the fretboard, or what position you are playing in. If you are improvising using the Dorian mode, you are using 6 out of the 7 notes from the Mixolydian mode, and vice-versa.

So you can simply just pick one of the above scale patterns, locate the 3rd scale degree, and then either raise or lower it by 1/2 step to create the other scale.

Let’s start out in the minor pentatonic box, because that is probably more of a “go-to” area for you:

Now, add in your “flavor notes” to create the E Dorian mode:

Locate the 3rd:

This is the most commonly used 3rd for this position, but also realize that you have other “3rd scale degrees” located here:

and here:

Let’s just focus on the middle guy though:

If you wanted to create the Mixolydian mode, you would simply raise this note by 1/2 step:

If you were to improvise using all of these notes, but skipping the minor 3rd and instead playing the major 3rd, you would be improvising in the E Mixolydian mode.

Alternatively, if you were to improvise using all of these notes, including the minor 3rd, but skipping the major third, you’d be playing in the E Dorian mode scalar framework.

Why not just combine the two together though?

Guess what, all of the great players of the world do EXACTLY that!

In this position you also have another major 3rd available to you:

As to how to actually create your own licks and riffs from it, you could either listen to my examples in the video…or you could listen to guys who are far better then myself and see how they do it.

The important thing is that now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Have fun!