Hot answers tagged modes
14
'Dorian mode on C' does not mean "the Dorian scale that you can find among the notes that are available in the major key of C"!
'Dorian mode on C' refers to the Dorian scale, or set of note intervals, that start on the note C, i.e. C is its root or tonic. This set of notes happens to be the same as the ones found in the Bb major key, thus two flats.
This is ...
12
It partly depends how you read the accidentals at the beginning of each staff, and there are several manuscripts of this treaty and therefore of this Sobria. If one uses the PnD manuscript (from Paris National Library - Ex French Royal Library - Fonds Italien) as you do (I do not have access to something else anyway), and one makes the hypothesis that the ...
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A scale is any sequence of ascending (or descending) notes that can be used as an "organizing structure" for a piece of music. There are many types of scales, including diatonic (the "standard" in Western music), chromatic (containing every half note in an octave), whole-tone (containing notes a whole step apart), and pentatonic (the pentatonic formed from C ...
5
The seven Modes are named thusly. If you start with C, they are spelled as follows:
Ionian (1), or the Major scale: C D E F G A B C
Dorian (2), D E F G A B C D
Phrygian (3) E F G A B C D E
Lydian (4) F G A B C D E F
Mixolydian (5) G A B C D E F G (which is the most common mode for rock and roll)
Aeolian (6), or the Natural Minor scale: A B C D E F G A
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3
As far as I'm aware, Beatles' Eleanor Rigby is written in E Aeolian/minor (with the key signature of a G major/E minor, which is just one sharp at the F).
Although most of the song is mostly played in Aeolian, the verses are alternating with the Dorian mode. The Dorian mode is almost exactly the same as an Aeolian mode, but with a raised sixth! In this case ...
2
While the terms can be used fairly interchangeably, that only speaks to the practical applications; where each comes from is slightly different.
A scale is an ordered sequence of notes with a start and end. A mode is a permutation upon a scale that is repeatable at the octave, such that the start and end points are shifted.
For example, the major scale is ...
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A "scale", technically defined, is a sequence of ascending or descending "unit pitches" that form a palette of notes that can be used to form a melody. Most scales in Western music conform to a particular "key"; that is, a sequence of notes that will be "sharp" or "flat" by default. Not all scales have keys; the chromatic scale is a scale of all possible ...
2
Think of C Major:
C D E F G A B.
Notice how there are 7 notes.
There are 7 modes in a scale, one for each note of the scale.
Modes are the scale, starting from a different note. In this instance, C Major is the parent scale and all the modes are derived from it.
So using the notes of C Major we get:
C Ionian (The same exact thing as C Major)
D Dorian
E ...
2
By way of analogy: Isn't the minor scale just some other key's major scale starting on the sixth note? C minor has three flats, and this because C minor is just Eb Major, starting on the sixth note (that is, the sixth note of Eb Major, which is C). And A minor has no sharps or flats because it is just C Major, starting of the sixth note (of C Major, which ...
1
Well yes, but it won't make any sense.
All of the modes you've mentioned are diatonic to C major. That means that regardless of the tonal center, you're only playing natural notes that also exist in the C major scale.
When you're playing music in a given key, you are tonicizing one note over another. Meaning, the "Do", or tonic note exists in your melodic ...
1
Aeismail is confusing - using the black notes on the piano will give either F# maj.pent (Gb maj pent.) or D# min.pent (Eb min pent).
However, all the basic modes (dorian, mixolydian etc., ) are still scales - groups of notes that work with each other- but the only modes that are scales as we know them are the Ionian as in major, and the Aeolian as in the ...
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