[jasoncohen]

what does it mean to think chords and not scales and modes?

[allthumbs]

Originally Posted by jasoncohen

what does it mean to think chords and not scales and modes?

Look at the intervals in a chord. Now compare them to the intervals in a scale. You can see for the most part your dealing with the same notes, some above and or below the chord. If you think chords you tend not to move in a linear way like you do with scales.Therefore you can sound more melodic because melody likes non linear movment.You have more note choices. If you look at most popular melodies that stick in your head, you will see that they tend to follow chords not scales. When you whistle a tune you tend to follow the melody not whistle scales up and down.Works very well for me.

[jasoncohen]

allthumbs,
can you tell me a song that does this so that i could hear an example?

[allthumbs]

Pretty much every lesson here follows chords. I don't think you will find more than short chromatic runs anywhere here. Look at the tabs. Look at the note choices used with a chord and look at the note choices with the next chord and you will see that those choices change with the chord. If you were playing over those chords with a scale,it would not be uncommon to pay little attention to the chord changes and just run the scales which would sound more or less right ,but would not truely reflect the underlying charactor of the tune.
Here is a tune that Plays through chords IMO. In fact ,the first 8 bars are almost all chord tone notes."Things That I Used To Do" by Srv. Look at the tab and think chords instead of scales and you will be surprised how closely it follows the chords.
To really see this you need to be able to map the fretboard very well which is where Kirks' Plane Talk material excels.