Major Scales And Modes Software For Guitar

UPDATE

There’s an updated version of this software here:

Major Scales And Modes For Guitar

Apart from being completely rewritten, the new version now shows the chords that can be played over each mode in each key.

I’m not going to explain any music theory here about the major scales and modes. If you need some theory, you can get that from Major Scales And Modes. I explained there the notes that make up the major scales and how the different modes work.

This software is an updated version to the one on that page. The previous version just showed all the notes on the fretboard for the major scales and the modes in every key. What that software didn’t show was any scale patterns, it was left to you to work them out for yourself.

This version splits the diagrams horizontally with the original diagram showing all the notes on the fretboard for that key and mode at the top. The lower two diagrams show two three note per string patterns for that mode. One has the root note on the sixth string, the other one has the root note on the fifth string.

You can see from the diagram below that the opening screen for this version is pretty much identical to the previous one. In fact, the only difference is for the F#/Gb major scale. Here, I’ve shown the notes as F# G# A# B C# D# E# instead of Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F.  While both are correct, F# is more common than Gb. Note that E# is the same as F and Cb the same as B.

The diagram below shows that I’ve double clicked and opened up the F major scale as before. Same as before, it shows all the notes of the F Ionian mode with the root note F highlighted in red. This time though, the lower left diagram shows a three note per string F Ionian pattern with the root note on the sixth string, and the lower right with the root note on the fifth string.

Along the top of the screen you can see the tabs for Ionian mode, Dorian mode, Phrygian mode, Lydian mode, Mixolydian mode, Aeolian mode, and Locrian mode. The diagram below shows that I’ve clicked on the Bb Lydian mode.

This is a Microsoft Windows software program and requires at least Windows 2000 to work, ie Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7. Right Click the link below and select Save As to download Major Scales And Modes For Guitar to your computer. Unzip and run the file and follow the instructions to install it. If you’re upgrading from the previous version, it will uninstall the old version before it installs the new one.

If you’re upgrading from the earlier version and the lower images are missing as shown below;

Here is the fix:

Download this file – majorscales.bkp

Open up the program, click Tools, and then Restore, as shown in the diagram below.

Follow the instructions to restore the majorscales.bkp file you just downloaded and the images should appear.