Questions tagged [modes]
For questions concerning the musical modes. These can include historical views of mode by the Greeks or the various rotations of scale collections. Questions about historical views of mode should also include the history tag.
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Can you help me understand Modes from the aspect of chord changes?
I am 70 years old, have played (strummed) guitar all my life, with some multi-year gaps. I never wanted to know theory; was more interested in the occasional surprise of learning something new. I ...
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Modal playing on an instrument designed for just intonation in the major scale (specifically dulcimer)
Sorry if this gets long-winded; I've only recently ventured down the JI rabbit-hole and want to spell out my reasoning in a way that will expose gaps in my understanding.
For those not familiar with ...
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Must a song using the A minor scale begin or end with an Am chord? If not, how can I tell what the scale is?
Is it a must for a song using the A minor scale to begin or end with an Am chord?
If not, how can I tell what the scale is?
For example, how can I differentiate between the C major scale, A minor ...
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Flavor of the modes in melody
I practice modes on my guitar nowadays, but when I try to solo freely (without a backing track) in a mode (D dorian in key of C major), I usually don't find it as a "modal music", I only hear its ...
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Is there a standard set of cadences designed for the seven modes?
On Cadences for Modes and Modal Cadence Options, Dom, Richard, and I came up with a group of modal cadences. Specifically (correct order from Ionian to Locrian):
Dom: ii-I, VII-i, II-i, II-I, VII-I, ...
user53472
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Does the II chord in the Phrygian II-i cadence count as tritone substitution?
In Phrygian modal music, the II-i cadence is pretty common. Does the II chord here count as a tritone substitute chord that is substituting for vo?
user53472
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Are circle of fifths progressions generally practical for modes?
Earlier today I was working on mode utilizations, and as I was making a circle of fifths, here's what I got:
C Ionian mode: C - F - Bdim - Em - Am - Dm - G - C (I - IV - viio - iii - vi - ii - V - I)
...
user53472
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Are modes in jazz primarily a melody thing?
I was wondering when jazz cats talk about how they'd use a Lydian scale to improvise over a major chord, or a Dorian scale to improvise over a minor chord they're mainly talking about the melody? So ...
user34288
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Is Nirvana's 'Aero Zeppelin' intro in Locrian mode?
The song 'Aero Zeppelin' by Nirvana (see here for Youtube video link) begins with a calmer introduction that has a 'creepy' feeling, due to the occurrence of the tritone. I have tried to analyse the ...
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Whole-step technique for figuring out jazz scales?
I was watching a tutorial on how this guy finds scales to play on top of jazz chords. And I was wondering if this a good method to use, and if not how do I know which scales to improvise on chords. Do ...
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Can I borrow chords from Harmonic minor?(Modal Interchange)
I know when using modal interchange I can borrow chords from any of the 7 parallel modes of the major scale. But I'm wondering if it's okay to use chords from scales other than the standard 7 modes.
...
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Jazz greats knew nothing of modes. Why are they used to improvise on standards?
My understanding is before 1970, few Jazz players thought about modes. For certain, Charlie Parker, Colman Hawkins, Bud Powell, Art Tatum, Monk, etc never thought in modes.
Barry Harris shows how ...
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What are the key features to keep in mind when writing melodies in Mixolydian mode?
When writing a melody in the Mixolydian mode, you don't want it to sound as if it were in a major key. So how do you go about writing melodies in the Mixolydian mode, while maintaining the essence of ...
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Why is it called Mixolydian #11 and not Mixolydian #4?
I was watching an instructional video and the guy's talking about Mixolydian #11 being one of the modes of the melodic minor.
The regular G mixolydian looks like:
G A B C D E F G
And the G ...
user34288
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Why weren't Ionian / Aeolian / Locrian modes considered Gregorian modes?
It is said that the Ionian (major), Aeolian (natural minor), and Locrian modes weren't really three of the ancient church (Gregorian) modes. What is the reason?
user53472
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Did Beethoven write any modes other than the Ionian / Aeolian / Lydian modes?
The Ionian and the Aeolian modes are considered major and natural minor keys, and all composers used these modes all the time, including Beethoven, who also wrote Lydian mode in one of his string ...
user53472
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Analysis: How to determine what scale/mode a score uses
I'm learning music theory with the hopes of being able to analyze sheet music.
My question is -- What if the piece I am analyzing is in some other mode than major or minor? Or even stranger, like ...
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Is Locrian a minor mode or is it a diminished mode?
I have heard 2 different schools of thought when describing the Locrian mode. The first one that I heard several years ago, when I first heard about modes is that it is a minor mode, despite its ...
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Locrian mode is not part of standard usage?
I got this answer on one of my questions:
The Locrian mode is mostly a music theory concept in western music
history, and it is very rarely used for music pieces that use western
harmony, but ...
user53472
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What is the key/mode of "you are the government" by bad religion?
I'm trying to make sense of keys and modes, and I'm studying simple songs note by note to reach this goal. One of them is "You are the Government" from Bad Religion.
It starts with a riff that goes : ...
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How to get a more major sound without going directly to major?
So I am composing a piece for piano trio to represent the transition from winter to spring. I have finished the first part where it is all in minor, D minor to be more specific, to represent winter. ...
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Relationship between extended diatonic chords and modes?
If we have C major, the diatonic chords are:
C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, Bdim, C
If we turn each of these chords to diatonic 13th chord versions of themselves:
Cmaj13, Dmin13, Emin13, Fmaj13, G13, Amin13, ...
user34288
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Different modes with same root
I am a self taught pianist that played purely by ear for most my life. Only recently have I journeyed into understanding music theory and man, I keep thinking how I should have done it a long time ago....
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Can someone explain what a key is? [duplicate]
I feel like I shouldn't be asking this... ugh.
Every explanation I've encountered left me feeling like a key is the same as a scale. I've been using the word "key" to mean the primary scale the song ...
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Do Half steps in a diatonic scales need to be separated by two whole steps? [duplicate]
I've been reading about what makes a scale diatonic, and so far it seems that any scale that is constructed with a pattern of 5 whole steps and 2 half steps inside an octave could be considered ...
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Why do some phrygian dominant pieces end on the iv chord?
I was looking at Itzhak Perlman playing Shalom Aleichem It starts (0:14) in E Phrygian Dominant with the i chord, but ends (4:16) in A minor, the iv chord.
I've seen the same thing happen with Hava ...
user34288
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Are all modes relative to Ionian (major) in Roman numeral analysis?
I saw in this Wikipedia article that there are a lot of flats and sharps in the modal natural chords. And I was wondering if it's because they all refer to Ionian.
So in Aeolian the "bIII" chord is ...
user34288
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What do 'dominant' and 'plagal' mean in medieval music?
In classical style brief definitions would be...
Dominant: a major chord, built on the tone a perfect fifth above the tonic, used to form authentic, half, and deceptive cadences.
Plagal: a cadence ...
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What scale shape does Enter Sandman intro use?
I am learning Enter Sandman. I know it's in E minor key. But How do I find out what scale shape does it use? Does it apply to the CAGED system?
None of the online videos talks about that. They just ...
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Are scales usually 7 notes in Middle-Eastern music?
I noticed that the Phrygian dominant (aka hijaz maqam) is used a lot in Middle-Eastern music. I also noticed that the oud, which is capable of playing microtonal intervals, is used a lot too.
Although ...
user34288
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Are the 1,4,5 the primary chords in all modes?
I know in both major (Ionian) and minor (Aeolian) the 1 4 5 chords are the primary chords. as they seem to come up more often than other chords. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_triad
In Aeolian ...
user34288
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Chord progression leading using B lydian (and others)
I'm reading the book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory, and in the book is a cool table with chord leading patterns.
The explanation in the book is this: So if you have a scale with the ...
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Key and possible missing "tonic chord"
I just figured out in this tune the chords F major and e minor fit, and they are repeated all over. Surely its a simple and repetitive piece, but what I am wondering is, the only key where both chords ...
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How do I tell which mode this extract uses?
In this exercise, the key signature has two flats but it's marked as C minor. There's a footnote that simply says 'modal key signature'. How do I work out which mode to use in my harmonisation?
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What key do I assign for neither minor nor major scales?
I'm composing a song that is in E♭ phrygian which can also be regarded as A♭ aeolian. Do I note this in the key E♭ minor (6 flats) or Aflat; minor (7 flats)?
In general:
Is the key ...
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Melodic minor and the ii chord
I am curious about the following. If you look at the Melodic Minor scale (ascending) it is really just Dorian with a major 7th.
In Jazz we do not alter this mode when descending. In classical ...
user50691
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What does it mean for a mode to be "tonally effective"?
The web site http://www.tonalcentre.org states that there are only two "tonally effective" modes of the diatonic scale (viz., the Ionian and Aeolian modes) [http://www.tonalcentre.org/Scales.html] and ...
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common tones and the keys they are in
for example the tones C and Eb appear in Db(-5 flats), Ab(-4 flats) Eb(-3 flats) and Bb(-2 flats)(relative to the key of C).
in each key they appear in, those two tones have diffrent functions(...
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Why is the 'standard chord' on the first step of Dorian b2 (second mode melodic minor) a sus-chord for jazz?
Why is the 'standard chord' for Dorian b9 a sus chord? More specifically, a sus4.
Instead of stacking triads, i often see people (most notably Rick Beato on youtube) use a sus chord on the first step ...
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Can someone please explain differences between Ionian dorian phrygian (etc) scales [duplicate]
If you have C scale, C, D, E, F, G, A, H, C this is already Ionian.
C dorian scale is when you play same tones but start from second tone, in this case D. I am correct?
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What are all the modes (scales) based on the major scale?
I've heard that there are 7 different scales based on the major scale, like the minor scale, which is made by shifting the major scale pattern 6 to the right. What are the names of the other scales ...
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What's the point of connecting chords to modes when writing in an established key?
Let's say I am in the key of C and trying to write a simple melody over some chords on the piano.
Chord progression: I (Cmaj) IV (Fmaj) V (Gmaj) I (Cmaj)
Let's take the IV chord for instance.
What's ...
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Understand this progression/harmony
I've found a song that uses the next progression. Is a 4 "simple" 4 bars progression:
Cm / D / D# / F
In the first 3 bars, it plays notes from this scale: D D# F# G A A# C
In the last bar, basically ...
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Is there such a thing as a Harmonic key besides for Harmonic Aeolian?
My understanding of the various modes is that, relative to the base note’s natural major key:
Ionian is the same as natural major;
Dorian flats the third and seventh;
Phrygian flats the second, third,...
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How do you establish a feel of the mode?
I have been trying to learn some music theory and I'm kind of a confused about modes. Reading explanations and watching numerous videos about subject just don't seem to clarify it enough.
What is the ...
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When describing the melodic minor scale, I hear it referred to as a "minor major 7th", but isn't the harmonic minor also that?
The melodic major consists of 1 2 b3 4 5 6 #7 while the harmonic minor consists of 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, #7.
Both appear to be "minor major 7th" chords.
So when someone refers to one of these, how do ...
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Why don’t we use the term “scale signature”, rather than “key signature”?
This would avoid the confusion to some, of saying that the key/mode of A dorian has a key signature of G. I’m all for making things clearer for people learning music. If a piece is in D dorian, I ...
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Modes of scales other than C major
I was learning modes. But I'm confused now. My problem is that I don't know how to apply the modes in other scale. For example I know in c major, mixolydian is form g to g and all keys are flat. But ...
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Analysing "Dust to Dust", John Kirkpatrick
I've been trying to analyse the song "Dust to Dust" by John Kirkpatrick to perhaps get some insight into how one writes in Locrian without sounding it sounding ugly. The only thing I've noticed is ...
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Does borrowing chords from a parallel mode change the key?
I was watching a video how a guy uses chords from different modes. Let's say I'm in C major, my understanding is that I can borrow any chord from any of the 7 parallel modes to make my chord ...
user34288