The Dorian Improvisation System

Start with the minor pentatonic. Change one note at a time.

Most guitarists get stuck in the minor pentatonic box, and most advice for getting out of it is to learn a list of new scales. This book does the opposite. You keep the box you already know, add two notes to get the Dorian scale, and from there every other sound in the book is one finger away.

Change the b3 to a 3 and you have Mixolydian. Lower the 6 and you have Aeolian. Raise the b7 and you have melodic minor. Add the 3 and the b5 and you have a blues framework that holds both the minor and major pentatonic in one shape. You never learn a scale from scratch.

What’s in it

• The Dorian scale built up from the minor pentatonic, one interval at a time
• The Dorian Hub: every one-note change on a single page, with the sound it gives and what to play it over
• A blues framework that puts minor and major blues under your fingers at once, plus the blue note
• The diminished arpeggio that’s hiding in the blues framework
• Mixolydian, Aeolian, melodic minor, Dorian b2 and Dorian #4, each with static chords, the chords that belong to the scale, and loops to practise over
• The Dorian bebop scale, including which version actually puts the chord tones on the beat
• Cycling pentatonics: three minor pentatonics hiding in the same box
• All seven Dorian triad pairs
• A reference section taking every device to the other four positions of the minor pentatonic

Every diagram shows intervals, not note names, so you can see what each note is doing. Everything is taught in A around the 5th fret, where most of the music is, before the reference section takes it across the neck.

This isn’t a modes book. If you want Dorian on its own and in depth, that’s the Dorian volume of The Modes, One at a Time. This book uses Dorian as the base for reaching everything else.

Revised 2026 edition. It’s been rebuilt from the ground up, with every diagram redrawn, a new hub page, practice loops for every scale, and all seven triad pairs. 43 pages, PDF, 8.5 x 11.