Discovering Dorian

Hey everyone! Here's the next episode of Scales & Tales with Discovering Dorian. The premise behind this lesson came from an unexpected/extended jam session that occurred last week, when I located an obscure song I was vaguely familiar with, but had never actually played before. Eventually, I fell into an hours-long jam session that was inspiring and fun, and it seemingly came out of nowhere, which is exactly what I'm attempting to recreate in this episode - so let's dive in!

This lesson begins with a Dorian-related discussion and acquiring an ear for the sound/flavor of this mode which can be found in plenty of rock, jazz, fusion, blues, funk, and various other styles of music. From there, we're running through a few static chords that deliver a Dorian-based tonality and jamming over them, in addition to hitting a common i-IV chord progression in C minor, which was nicknamed "The Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression" by the eternally inspiring music legend Frank Zappa, and playing over that as well.

Finally, this lesson closes with a look at the song that inspired this entire lesson - Jean-Luc Ponty's overlooked masterpiece 'Cosmic Messenger' from his 1978 album by the same name. The album features Peter Maunu on guitar, and you might remember him from his time playing in the house band "The Posse" on the Arsenio Hall Show in the 1980s/1990s. The song itself revolves around C Dorian and allows you to jam and fully explore the sound of this scale to your heart's content. Think of 'Cosmic Messenger' as a playground in C Dorian that you can attack and play around with endlessly.

Needless to say, if you're interested in learning more about the popular Dorian mode heard in a lot of music, are interested in expanding your knowledge/ability using this scale, or maybe you're new to modal sounds/flavors and want to dive in - regardless of what you're searching for, there's plenty hiding in this lesson and I hope it inspires everyone that watches it. Give this episode a view, leave some comments/feedback, and please subscribe to Late Night Lessons - THANK YOU!

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