First, The Market on Main, and then, the Mode that is Dorian.

On Thursday night The Gents of Leisure performed at Arts on Main's Ladies night event. I had not been to the much talked about Market on Main before and I feel that I have to write a little about the experience. I loved every second of my evening there.


Arts on Main is situated in Johannesburg central in a newly converted old 20th century warehouse. You park underneath the Highway, and walk into a covered market, in which there are various stalls selling various interesting things. When I was there, there was this beautiful redhead DJ bu the name of Alexandra playing some of the best and most eclectic music I have ever had the pleasure of hearing a DJ play. Carrying on through one then exits the covered area with the stalls and enters a large courtyard of food stalls amidst high up decks that one can sit on (next to an old car if you like on one of them) from which one can look down on the courtyard, and up at the night sky. If one likes, one can also dine at a very decent restaurant. There is no stage though, and The Gents may well have been the first five piece band ever to play there. We somehow crammed all of our gear including speakers, our desk, our amps, a drum-kit, my massive feet and the rest of ourselves onto a stoep from which we entertained the masses of people there. Although we were a little more tightly packed than we are used to as a band, we were well received and had a thoroughly good time. I highly recommend that anyone who has not yet done so, should visit the market. It is, frankly, awesome. The website:


http://marketonmain.co.za




Right. It's business time.


A little while ago I wrote about the Mixolydian and Ionian modes. Today, I'm writing about the Dorian Mode.


Just to refresh, the Ionian mode in steps runs W, W, H, W, W, W, H (Where W is a whole step and H is a half step.) Numerically, it runs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The Ionian C scale, played on one string only, looks like this when tabbed.

This scale is a major scale, and when played over a progression in C major, will have a happy sort of sound. 


The Mixolydian scale runs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, flat 7. The C Mixolydian scale tabbed on one string looks like this.

As I said in my previous article on the subject, I choose to present the exercises relative to the key of C major because it has no sharps or flats in it. I am presenting the modes in a way that I found them easiest to remember. The Mixolydian differs from the Ionian in that the seventh note is flattened. The Dorian differs from the Ionian in that the 3rd note and the 7th note are flattened. Numerically:

1, 2, flat 3, 4, 5, 6, flat 7

It has a minor key sound, and will fit well over a C minor chord.

 Tabbed out to be played on one string, it looks like this. 

Try it over a Cm6 chord (C minor chord including a 6th)

   Ooooooooooooh.

To finish off, I am going to tab the C Dorian in a few positions on the fretboard, and leave the rest, that is the shifting it around into different keys and experimenting with it, up to the reader.

Here is The C Dorian, running for one octave from C to C in a position using open strings.

C Dorian from C to C in position one.

C Dorian, ranging two octaves this time in position 2.

C Dorian ranging 2 octaves in a third position.

And Finally, C Dorian ranging two octaves moving up the fretboard.

Have nice day!