Good to hear - the reader who suggested it is actually my daughter, so definitely needed to move quickly on it. Tore out some extraneous shrubbery in the post to get it in under the email limit.....
Aaargh! Very hard to get my head around it. I’m sure you’re further along. Here are some questions I’ve never been able to get my head around.
Am I using all the regular chords and harmonies and just soloing with the modality on top of them? In other words am I playing a I-IV-V, but just doing something with a Lydian scale on top of those natural chords and leading the chips, fall where they may? Or am I actually changing the underlying harmonies to match the modality in other words are they cooperating with each other?
Or is the tension that they’re using different notes in the first place? Am I using Mixolydian because I was going to play a C7 in the first place? Are they otherwise just descriptions for the harmony you’ve already chosen to play?
As I move a new chord in the sequence am I also changing modalities per chord. This is a variation of the previous. For example, would I play an Ionian over the 6th creating all kinds of harmonic soup?
Or is the point somehow that you build a melody with the idea of the first tone being “home” is it where the melody naturally resolves itself?
Or is the idea that it breaks with a scale all together, and every chord brings along its own modality baked in?
I get how they are constructed but not how they are related to the underlying chords.
I’m certain I’m not further along! I think I just have a different starting point. You may want to try a different approach to it, that is, from a perspective of first principles. Modes are useful for creating different perspectives (I’m avoiding the word “moods”) in relation to the familiar, such as Major scale tones (Ionian) or minor (Aeolian) scales. Everyone hears songs in Major or minor scales all the time. The other modes give you a way to escape the expected or common. I put some charts in the Memes And Stuff section yesterday - and there were some links in yesterday’s post as well - I think some of those had tabs/scores that may be helpful (they aren’t for me, my brain just doesn’t work like that for me). You may want to play the different modes’ scale notes in terms of different solo intervals (flatted/not flatted) from the ones you’re using now and see if you hear sad/happy/bright/dark/mysterious etc as differences. Then see if one of those matches the “tone” you’re looking for in the piece you’re working on. Not sure if that’s helpful. Does that make any sense at all?
You may find this helpful. It’s hard to find music theory writers who don’t write in the proprietary language of music theory! It’s like trying to find a lawyer that doesn’t toss in a “res judicata” or “No Habla Pro Bono” every so often.....
For example “cadence” isn’t exactly synonymous with resolution, as in a IV-V-I (or similar) resolution, but close enough, certainly. Anyway - you could read through it and see if it helps. Gotta mow the damn lawn, but after that I’m back on the case...
That is a fabulous question! My answer - I don’t know right at the moment. Here’s why: when I wrote that I “only knew a little “more” about modes after writing Friday’s post”, I wasn’t kidding. Introducing the concept of modes in scales at the same time as modes in keys seemed to me a bridge too far for probably most of my readers and not the least me! So I’ve scratched the surface of “modes as chords in keys”, but not much further. The preliminary, tentative answer I’d give is “maybe, but....”
Let me get a little further down this road and I’ll send you links to what I find most useful (if any) and those will probably be the ones I draw from and include in next week’s posts. Holy smokes - I had no idea how far down the rabbit hole I was going when you handed me this “jagged little pill” (see what I did there?)🤣
Thanks for bringing back “That I Would Be Good”, an all times favorite of Alanis and probably one of the seeds of what Reflect & Relax Cafe is today.
Good to hear - the reader who suggested it is actually my daughter, so definitely needed to move quickly on it. Tore out some extraneous shrubbery in the post to get it in under the email limit.....
Greetings to your daughter 😊
Aaargh! Very hard to get my head around it. I’m sure you’re further along. Here are some questions I’ve never been able to get my head around.
Am I using all the regular chords and harmonies and just soloing with the modality on top of them? In other words am I playing a I-IV-V, but just doing something with a Lydian scale on top of those natural chords and leading the chips, fall where they may? Or am I actually changing the underlying harmonies to match the modality in other words are they cooperating with each other?
Or is the tension that they’re using different notes in the first place? Am I using Mixolydian because I was going to play a C7 in the first place? Are they otherwise just descriptions for the harmony you’ve already chosen to play?
As I move a new chord in the sequence am I also changing modalities per chord. This is a variation of the previous. For example, would I play an Ionian over the 6th creating all kinds of harmonic soup?
Or is the point somehow that you build a melody with the idea of the first tone being “home” is it where the melody naturally resolves itself?
Or is the idea that it breaks with a scale all together, and every chord brings along its own modality baked in?
I get how they are constructed but not how they are related to the underlying chords.
It’s not you. It’s me.
I’m certain I’m not further along! I think I just have a different starting point. You may want to try a different approach to it, that is, from a perspective of first principles. Modes are useful for creating different perspectives (I’m avoiding the word “moods”) in relation to the familiar, such as Major scale tones (Ionian) or minor (Aeolian) scales. Everyone hears songs in Major or minor scales all the time. The other modes give you a way to escape the expected or common. I put some charts in the Memes And Stuff section yesterday - and there were some links in yesterday’s post as well - I think some of those had tabs/scores that may be helpful (they aren’t for me, my brain just doesn’t work like that for me). You may want to play the different modes’ scale notes in terms of different solo intervals (flatted/not flatted) from the ones you’re using now and see if you hear sad/happy/bright/dark/mysterious etc as differences. Then see if one of those matches the “tone” you’re looking for in the piece you’re working on. Not sure if that’s helpful. Does that make any sense at all?
Almost! When I play the same chord, progression under each one?
Thank you by the way for the link. That was very nice of you.
“Would I...”
https://hubguitar.com/music-theory/understanding-modal-harmony
You may find this helpful. It’s hard to find music theory writers who don’t write in the proprietary language of music theory! It’s like trying to find a lawyer that doesn’t toss in a “res judicata” or “No Habla Pro Bono” every so often.....
For example “cadence” isn’t exactly synonymous with resolution, as in a IV-V-I (or similar) resolution, but close enough, certainly. Anyway - you could read through it and see if it helps. Gotta mow the damn lawn, but after that I’m back on the case...
That is a fabulous question! My answer - I don’t know right at the moment. Here’s why: when I wrote that I “only knew a little “more” about modes after writing Friday’s post”, I wasn’t kidding. Introducing the concept of modes in scales at the same time as modes in keys seemed to me a bridge too far for probably most of my readers and not the least me! So I’ve scratched the surface of “modes as chords in keys”, but not much further. The preliminary, tentative answer I’d give is “maybe, but....”
Let me get a little further down this road and I’ll send you links to what I find most useful (if any) and those will probably be the ones I draw from and include in next week’s posts. Holy smokes - I had no idea how far down the rabbit hole I was going when you handed me this “jagged little pill” (see what I did there?)🤣