Play the Changes: “Bad Blood” and the Dorian sound

The second Play the Changes lesson is up: “Bad Blood,” a rock track from Elevated Jam Tracks, at 74 BPM.

It pairs well with the first lesson, “Morning Light.” Both tracks use only the notes of C major, and on the circle of fifths their chords fill the same three slices. What differs is home. Morning Light rests on C, which makes it C Ionian. Bad Blood rests on D, which makes it D Dorian, and you can hear the difference as soon as you play over it.

Bad Blood's chords on the circle of fifths. The red outline marks the tonal center, D.

Most of the track sits on a D5 power chord, which has no 3rd to say major or minor. We hear it as D minor anyway, because of the chords around it, so the lesson treats F, the 3rd the band leaves out, as a note to aim for. The G major chord is where the Dorian sound comes from. Its B is the raised 6th that separates D Dorian from plain D minor, and it's one of two notes just outside the D minor pentatonic scale worth landing on as the chords change. The other is E, the 3rd of C.

D minor pentatonic covers the whole track, and the Jam Track Player's scale menu also offers the D blues scale and the full D Dorian scale, so you can hear what each one adds.

Where to go from here

• The lesson has the Jam Track Player built in, with a chord chart and a fretboard that follow Tom's video, and it's also a PDF, right- or left-handed. Like the rest of the series, it's included with Silver membership and up.
• The series introduction explains how each lesson works and how to practice with it.
• Tom's tab for his own solo on “Bad Blood” is on his Patreon, along with a download of the track.