29
votes
Accepted
Is F Lydian mode in the "key" of C Major?
No. A key* is not just a set of notes, it tells you the tonal center** of a piece and the expected harmony and melody of the piece. If that was the case we wouldn't even distinguish between major and ...
Dom♦
- 46.5k
29
votes
Accepted
What are the interval patterns for the modes?
Modes are what we call rotations of the major scale. This means that we can start off with the major-scale interval pattern and just rotate it to begin at different places to create the other modes.
...
- 80.3k
20
votes
Harmony in Phrygian : What chords are tonic, subdominant, and dominant?
You can't really apply these functional terms to modes. A mode refers to a specific scale and its characteristic melodic phrases. The problem with Phrygian, when you try to build classical harmony on ...
- 548
20
votes
Accepted
What does it mean to play in a mode?
The difference is all about what is the tonic and how a tone become perceived as the tonic.
In C major C is the tonic. In E Phrygian E is the tonic.
Unless you're talking about Gregorian chant (no ...
- 51k
19
votes
Accepted
Why are there just 7 modes?
By very definition, the modes are created by taking the Ionian scale/mode and starting at a different point, not by rearranging those intervals at will. According to wikipedia:
Modern Western modes ...
- 1,288
17
votes
Accepted
Why do modes sound so different, although they are basically the same as a mode of another scale?
mode = set of notes + tonic
Modes sound different, because each scale degree's distance to the tonic i.e. home note is different. The home note is in a different location relative to the other notes ...
- 25.7k
16
votes
What is the difference between a mode and a scale?
I think some confusion here could be alleviated with a historical perspective. Many of the explanations above talk about present-day relations between the pair of major/minor "scales" and some altered ...
- 2,765
16
votes
Jazz greats knew nothing of modes. Why are they used to improvise on standards?
My understanding is before 1970, no Jazz players thought about modes.
This is incorrect, see this question: How does modal jazz use chord progressions?
A: Modes became of interest over time as a way ...
- 1,399
15
votes
Accepted
Different modes of pentatonic scale
Theoretically, yes there are five modes that can be derived from the major pentatonic scale and they would be named the same way the other modes contained in the major scale.
Let's look at the ...
Dom♦
- 46.5k
15
votes
Is D minor also F Aeolian?
Key and mode are not the same thing.
In a mode (in the modern/current meaning of the word), your tonic (home note, center pitch) and the intervals around it are fixed in rigid positions, and if you ...
- 25.7k
14
votes
What are modes in the real world?
Try this - play D E F G A and back again. Then play a C major chord (CEG). Does the chord sound like it would fit under the tune? Possibly not. But you've used 5 of the 7 notes that constitute the C ...
- 178k
13
votes
Is the tritone (A4 / d5 / DA3 / Dd6) still banned in Roman Catholic music?
Tritones have been used since Gregorian Chant days. There are several common patterns that outline a tritone and a few instances where a direct tritone is used. The term "Devil's Interval" seems to ...
- 23.4k
13
votes
Accepted
What comes after Locrian?
The diatonic modes — ionian, dorian, ..., locrian — don't apply to octatonic scales. So for any given octatonic scale, the first mode, for example, is not "ionian" (unless you develop your ...
- 62.5k
12
votes
What is the difference between a mode and a scale?
I'm a composition student at UCLA who is in the process of writing his dissertation, which on one level, has a lot to do with modes - so it's on my mind a lot these days (which led me to this site). ...
- 121
12
votes
Different modes of pentatonic scale
Dom's answer correctly explains what the modes of the pentatonic scale are and how they are (not) used. Since this might give the impression that the pentatonic scale is almost exclusively useful if ...
- 19.6k
12
votes
Accepted
What interval do all the modes have in common?
To answer this, we can arrange the modes in order from those that have the highest-pitched notes (largest intervals relative to tonic), to those that have the lowest-pitched notes (smallest intervals ...
- 20.3k
12
votes
Accepted
Why does the minor scale have modes?
The harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are not modes of the natural minor scale. A mode is a very specific idea in music where you start building a scale on another note of the scale.
For ...
Dom♦
- 46.5k
12
votes
Accepted
Arabic Maqam Keyboard?
First of all, let's get this fact out of the way: 24 pitches in an octave is a rather simplistic notational convention. It doesn't reflect the actual state of affairs at all. Actual number of notes ...
- 5,089
12
votes
Why don’t we use the term “scale signature”, rather than “key signature”?
Let's take a step back and look at what a key is first. A key is a very specific concept in music theory. The key tells you what the tonic of a pieces is and the general type of Harmony to expect. A ...
Dom♦
- 46.5k
12
votes
What is the origin and original meaning of "tonic", "supertonic", "mediant", etc.?
This is a little complex to answer, because "dominant" has been used to mean different things over time. In the (late) Middle Ages, "dominant" actually just meant "reciting ...
- 80.3k
12
votes
Music and Maths - Is there a way to prove that there are only 7 Modes of Limited Transposition?
Well, to give a boring answer to how it can be proved – since there are only finitely many subsets of the 12 tones (namely, 4096), you can just list them all and check exhaustively. But we can be a ...
- 33.9k
11
votes
Accepted
How does “The Simpsons” main theme work?
You might almost say they didn't "work" in terms of sounding good as much as those transitions help make the music sound whimsical. It's not like they fit inside some sacred rules of harmony as much ...
- 52.2k
11
votes
What is the difference between C major and C Ionian?
The difference is simple. When you are talking about the major scale you are talking in a tonal context and when you are talking about Ionian you are talking in a modal context. You won't hear anybody ...
Dom♦
- 46.5k
11
votes
Accepted
Does borrowing chords from a parallel mode change the key?
It depends on how you define "change the key."
Traditionally, modulation is understood as a change in tonic. If you keep tonic (say, C) the same, you don't modulate. Even if it's between C major and ...
- 80.3k
11
votes
Why do modes sound so different, although they are basically the same as a mode of another scale?
Stand in your kitchen and look around you.
Now stand on your head in your kitchen, so that you are upside down. Do things look the same?
(Or if you're not so good at gymnastics, lie on your back ...
- 45.6k
10
votes
When to use different scales or modes over chord progressions?
A good starting point is to write out all the notes in the chords you're playing (although if there are more than a few this might be harder). Usually (but not always), these chords are likely to be ...
- 21k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible