The Dorian mode is the 2nd mode of a major scale. If you have read guitar modes explained, you should already have a pretty good idea of how modes work. In this post we are going to go into the specifics of the dorian mode.
Remember, to understand how modes work, you first need to understand major scales. Period.
Major scales are one of the most fundamental tools, both from a practical and theoretical perspective on the guitar. From a technical point of view, being able to play every major scale in any position on the guitar gives you great access and control over the fretboard.
From a theoretical point of view, major scales are the cornerstone for much theory relating to soloing, composition, chord construction and the formation of other scales. When you construct chords, you are actually using the notes from a major scale to do so. For example, to play an F major chord, you need to use the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes (F, A, C) of an F major scale. Even the construction of minor chords and altered chords uses major scales as its basis. For example, a Gmin7b5 chord uses the altered notes of a G major scale – 1, b3, b5, b7 (G, Bb, Db, F).
Chord theory is a fascinating topic. Understanding what chords are and how they are constructed on the guitar can really open your mind to a new world of possibilities.
To understand Chords, you firstly need a basic understanding of Major Scales.
Learning chords all over the neck of the guitar is an endless pursuit and can take a life time to master. There is almost an infinite amount of voicings, combinations etc that can be constructed to produce chords.
Luckily, if you are starting out, you can get by with only a few chords. Of course the time will come when you will no doubt want to branch out and learn some more, but I would say that 90 percent of songs in the mainstream use about 10 percent of chords available, which means that you should focus on learning the main ones to start with.