A question I have

[dwest2419]

Could anyone help me out here. Im trying to study jazz and the guy gave an illustration and said for me to learn A Dorain on every string of the guitar fretboard and did well untill he played A Dorain and started on the note E and ended on the note E and he also said that key signature was G major and the tonal center is A minor. That means if all the notes in the key of G would G A B C D E F# and E would be the sixth note of the G major scale. So that means he mustve been playing E Aeolian over an A minor chord instead of playing A Dorain which means you start on note A and end on the note A which is supposed to be played over the A minor chord. Was this an error?

[gtrdave]

E Aeolian is A Dorian. It's also B Phrygian and C Lydian and D Mixolydian and F# Locrian and G Ionian.
They're all the same scale essentially.
Yes, you can play E Aeolian over A minor, but it's the same as playing A Dorian over it.

[dwest2419]

Man, where on earth did this come from. I was always taught that play correct scale over right chord which probably why there was confusion going on. But I guess you learn something new everytime. All I have to do is take it and apply to my playing.

[dwest2419]

Thanks you cleared up alot of confusion for me gtrdave. I was always taught that if the tonal centre was E min then you would play E dorian you would start on the note E and end on E in order for it to be called E Dorian but because Phrygian Aeolain share the same notes along with Dorian that means... your essentially playing Phrygian and Aeolian aswell so you could start on Phyrgian's starting note and it would be called E Dorian, right? It all matters about the chord, right? If F# min was the tonal centre and the key signature was D major and say if I started on note F# and ended on the note F# and I started to play F# Phrygian would that mean I would be playing or could call F# Phrygian the same as E Dorian or C Aeolian because they all share the same notes?