first lesson

Guitar lessons from an advanced teacher have started for me. I thought it'd be good to capture the input given in some form. What's better than a blog ? Until someone answers that question, I thought here's the place to capture it.

We discussed three important concepts that have wide use in western music (they go under different names in Indian classical music). They are Scale, Key and Mode.

Scale: Set of notes belonging to a Key.
Key: It's the pivot over which a scale or chord is built and defines the notes that'll belong to that scale/chord. Eg: E_M scale belongs to the key called E_M.
So, what are more commonly known as major or minor keys are defined by the modes of the key.
Mode: Mode is a get of intervlas that are to be followed when playing a set of notes belonging to a key/scale/chord. The commonly used modes are the following:
Representing the intervals of a Tone and Semitone by Whole(W) and HalfStep(H), we have:
1. Ionian: W - W - H - W - W - W - H
2. Dorian: W - H - W - W - W - H - W (right circular shift of above by one step)
3. Phrygian: H - W - W - W - H - W - W
4. Lydian: W - W - W - H - W - W - H
5. MixoLydian:W - W - H - W - W - H - W
6. Aeolian: W - H - W - W - H - W - W
7. Locrian: H - W - W - H - W - W - W

The practice exercise was to do the famous caterpiller exercise without taking the support of the thumb.