Lesson Update

I am not around this week to post a new vid, BUT I will be back at the end of the next week to discuss the Mixolydian mode.  We'll look at how it fits holes 1-10 on the harmonica and how compare and contrast with the blues scale.  This week, your mission is to just keep jamming on the blues and try to get yourself to stretch a little bit by adding the notes of Mixolydian mode to what you're already doing.

Most notably, go ahead and throw the Major third (3 draw, 7 draw, or the 10' blow bend) and the sixth (2 blow, 5 blow, and 8 blow) into your playing!

Here are some great notes from Wikipedia on the Mixolydian mode.  Basically, it is the scale that almost all blues chords are based off of.  Take any generic 12 bar blues with a I IV V pattern...the notes of this scale  all "fit" (that's an oversimplification of the IV and V chord tones, but good enough for now).

Note that the flat third and flat fifth ARE NOT a part of the Dominant chords that make up the blues scale.  While they sound good and create bluesy phrases, this illustrates that the Major third and sixth of the scale are just as appropriate to play.  This will give you less of a blues vibe and sound more rock-ish.

Modern Mixolydian[edit]

See also: Major scale#Major system

Modern Mixolydian scale on G  Play (help·info).

This modern scale has the same series of tones and semitones as the major scale, except the seventh degree is a semitone lower.^[1] The Mixolydian mode is sometimes called the dominant scale,^[7] because it is the mode built on the fifth degree (the dominant) of the major scale. The flattened seventh of the scale is a tritone away from the mediant (major-third degree) of the key.

It is common in non-classical harmony, such as jazz, funk, blues and rock music.

The order of tones and semitones in a Mixolydian scale is TTSTTST (T = tone; S = semitone), while the major scale is TTSTTTS. The key signature varies accordingly (it will be the same as that of the major key a fifth below).^[1]

Some examples:

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Musical scale.

• The G Mixolydian mode (Related to the key of C major – on a piano it is all the white keys from one G to the next. GABCDEFG)^[1]
• The C Mixolydian mode (Related to the key of F major – CDEFGAB♭C)^[1]
• The D Mixolydian mode (Related to the key of G major – DEF♯GABCD)^[1]
• The E Mixolydian mode (Related to the key of A major – EF♯G♯ABC♯DE)^[1