Most guitarists learn modes as patterns — shapes to slide up and down the neck. Keven Eknes takes a completely different approach: he treats each interval as a personality, a friend with its own character, and building a mode means choosing which friends turn up to the party. This live masterclass from the December 2021 GuitarVivo Modern Guitar Summit will change the way you think about modal playing.
What you’ll get out of this lesson: You’ll come away with Keven’s framework for understanding and creating modes from the ground up — not by memorising patterns, but by developing your own emotional perception of each interval. You’ll also see how a handful of key modes cover almost every harmonic situation you’ll encounter.
Modes as personalities, not patterns
Keven’s central idea is simple but powerful: every interval in a seven-note (heptatonic) scale has its own character — its own vibe. He likes to think of them as friends. “Each interval has its own vibe, and I almost like to look at them as little friends that you have, and then just depending on what friend you bring to this friend group, then your one friend may bring a different personality.” The same interval will feel different depending on which other intervals surround it, just as a person behaves slightly differently depending on the company they keep — but their core identity stays the same.
Finding your perception of each interval
Keven’s practical starting point is to work through each interval and notice what it makes you feel, independent of any scale name. Take the ninth (the second note of the scale). With a major third beneath it, Keven finds the ninth feels calm and open. With a minor third, it stays relatively calm but becomes noticeably sadder. The flat nine is darker still — and if you combine a flat nine with a major third rather than a minor one, it sounds exotic. That is a huge shift in character from one simple half-step adjustment. The lesson here is not to memorise the theory first, but to train your ear to recognise what each interval does to the emotional colour of the sound.
The four essential modes
Rather than working through all seven modes of the major scale, Keven identifies the ones that give you the widest harmonic coverage. He works through Ionian (the standard major), Lydian (the raised fourth gives it an ethereal, dreamy quality — words like “hollow,” “ethereal” and “goes into the oblivion” came from the group listening exercise), Mixolydian (a proud, journeyman feel — Keven likens its colour to yellow mustard and a pirate adventure underscore), and Lydian Dominant (Mixolydian with a sharp eleven — rebellious, and famously associated with the Simpsons theme melody). Keven’s point is that these four modes, understood deeply, will carry you through the vast majority of chord changes.
“I truly think that there’s only so and so many that you really have to know in order to get through all kind of chord changes. And then, from there, we’re just going to go ahead and develop other modes.”
Shapes and pentatonics: one visual framework for multiple modes
Keven’s playing background draws on Berklee harmony, Nashville country, and fusion, and he thinks very modally even when navigating chord changes — he separates changes into a full mode versus a chord plus substitution rather than just thinking of one chord at a time. On the fretboard, he points out that Ionian, Lydian, and Mixolydian can all be visualised within the same basic CAGED-style shapes and pentatonic patterns you already know. Once you see that, you realise you don’t need entirely new shapes for each mode — you just need to hear and feel the small interval differences that give each one its distinctive personality.
Creating your own modes
Once you understand the character of each individual interval — the ninth, the flat nine, the sharp four, the flat seven, and so on — you can start combining them deliberately to create sounds that don’t fit neatly into the standard seven modes. Keven’s approach is to ask yourself: given the harmonic context (what chord is underneath you?), which version of each interval fits the emotion you want? That is what he means by “creating your own modes” — it is not about inventing new note sets from scratch, but about being conscious and intentional about every interval choice, rather than defaulting to a pattern.
Taking it further: Keven’s approach connects naturally to the concept of pitch axis playing (he mentions Joe Satriani’s pitch axis concept as an early influence), where you hold one root note constant and shift the mode underneath it to produce dramatic colour changes. Try sitting on a drone note on your lowest string, then experimenting with a major third versus minor third in the upper voices, then adding or removing the ninth. Notice the emotional shift each time. From there, explore Lydian Dominant — Mixolydian with a sharp eleven — over any dominant chord that doesn’t want to resolve in the expected way.
Your homework: Pick one root note — E is a good starting point. Play each of the four modes Keven discusses (Ionian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Lydian Dominant) slowly over a drone on that root. After each one, write down one or two adjectives that describe what you hear — your own words, not textbook definitions. Then try deliberately swapping just one interval (for example, switching the major third for a minor third) and note how the mood of the whole scale changes. Do this for at least 15 minutes every day this week.