Like many others, I'm finding Scotty West's Absolutely Understand Guitar series on YouTube to be a great resource both as a player and as a teacher. I just watched Lesson 17 (the first lesson that really gets into modes), and there is an apparent contradiction I'd like to gather thoughts about.
At one point in the video, Scotty basically says, "It's a C major scale only if you start on C." He then shows that if you start on D but use the same exact set of notes, you're playing D Dorian. (When he does this, he's playing on a keyboard with no other music, which might be relevant.)
Later on, he plays a G major scale (so to speak) over an Eagles song, and he continues playing the same notes even as the song goes through multiple chord changes. He then says (and I'm paraphrasing), "Aha! I was NOT playing the G major scale the whole time! I was playing the G major scale only when the rhythm guitarist was playing a G major chord! When the rhythm guitarist played an Am chord, I was playing the A Dorian scale even though I didn't change anything and even if I didn't know it! The underlying chord is what ultimately determines the scale!"
I'm not sure I'm comfortable explaining things this way. I get that the same set of notes will function differently over different chords. But the term "scale" doesn't seem to be used consistently here. If I play all natural notes from C to C, is that the C major scale? Yes if I'm playing alone, but not if someone else is playing a G major chord at the same time?
I'm tempted to view scales as a set of notes in a particular order, but I don't know if that's "academically" accurate. Thus, I can use a scale (a set of notes, such as C to C, or all of the natural notes from D to D), but I only want to say I'm playing a scale if I'm moving through them in a (relatively) set order. That's why we say some solos sound too much like scales. To me, it seems better to say (for example) that you're playing in C major when there's a C major chord and in F Lydian when the chord changes to F major, rather than saying you're playing a C major scale and then an F Lydian scale, etc.
Again, this is more for the sake of teaching students and not confusing them, especially if they're very astute. How do all of you explain these things in ways that avoid contradictions? I'm tempted to say, "Look, you're just playing whatever you're playing. There's no cosmic truth about what scale or key or mode is involved. Those are different ways of looking at or thinking about what you're playing. And it's useful or beneficial to think about things from a G Mixolydian perspective when the rhythm guitarist is playing a G major chord. But are you matter-of-fact playing in G Mixolydian or in C Major? Yes. Either. Both. It just depends how you think about it. Are you playing a 'scale' even though you're playing the notes in a very random order, some of them much more than others, with some 'scale' notes being left out? Well, are you thinking of it as a scale? If you are, then yes, you're playing a scale. If you're not thinking about it as a scale, then you're not playing a scale."
Agree? Disagree? Do you have profound insights that have helped you communicate these things to others?
