This summer's project was learning about modes - what they are, how to use them, how to recognize them... Thought I had it in the bag - signed up for a workshop at camp (5 successive days with 1.5 hour sessions) - surely I thought this would clarify that confusing mix of names, sounds scales and key signatures. Sadly it didn't work out that way. Pretty much all I learned from that 7 or so hours in class was that there is supposed to be lots of classical, pop and Irish music that is modal, and that Mixolydian, Dorian and Lydian are arguably the most common. I had already read my music theory books on the topic and even tried to memorize them using my own silly acronyms - anyone for "I Don't Pat Little Minxes After Lunch"? (well I never said I was any good at acronyms, though I do have to say I like my version of sharps in the circle of fifths - " Fat Cats Get Dizzy After Eating Bees"..... or in reverse for the flats- "Bad Elves and Dead Goblins Can't Fight").different than looking at the pattern in a book. Suddenly all that stuff about major and minor modes, added sharps and flats, and relating them to our regular major (Ionian) and minor (Aeolian) scales made total sense. After a little experimentation, and reproducing the patterns on the guitar, I felt a lot more knowledgeable. Of course I had only scratched the surface, and I still haven't watched the Fisk part 2, but that's next on my agenda.
Apart from the tactile/aural stuff, I also remember things better when I work them out for myself. So I sat down and tried to make myself a summary.... I hope I got it right.
Major modes
Fingers Note! all accidentals are with respect to the Ionian
Ionian 24 124 134 Major ( the interval of course being the major third)
Lydian 24 134 134 Raised 4th (If I forget, I can get it from the finger pattern)
Mixolydian 24 124 124 Flat 7
Minor modes Note! All accidentals with respect to the Aeolian
Aeolian 134 134 13 Natural minor (such a simple pattern :))
Dorian 134 13 - stretch-4 13 Raised 6th. (My favorite. And I'm never going to forget it now I saw Elliot Fisk talk about fingering it this way to make it tough and easy to remember)
Phrygian 124 134 13 Flat 2. (Very recognizable sound...)
Locrian 124 124 13 Flat 2 flat 5. All I can say about this one is I'm glad it's rarely used.
And for completeness..
Harmonic minor
134 134 23 Raised 7th to give the leading tone
Melodic minor
134 13-str-4 23 Raised 6 and 7 on the way up only.
Next challenge was to figure out how to tell if your music is modal.
Took me a bit of head scratching but I came up with this...
First figure out if its major or minor by checking the key sig.
Let's take a key sig with two sharps, F# and C# for demonstration purposes. We know it's usually either D major or B minor and can tell which by the tonal center (or for me anyway, what note/chord it finishes or starts on). If it starts on B, fine, its Bm. If it also has consistent accidentals such as A# a raised 7th, then it's probably the harmonic minor ... or perhaps G# and A# for melodic... IOW we are in our regular minor keys.
But what if the key sig is D, it starts and ends on D, but there are flat C's throughout? Compared with the parallel major (D major), Mixolydian has a flat 7 (see above) IOW the usual C# would be flattened to C natural. Bingo! we are in D Mixolydian.
What if the piece has a key sig no sharps or flats, starts on A but then has F# accidentals throughout? We know it's an A minor key because A minor key sigs have no sharps or flats. Compared with the parallel minor, A Dorian has a raised 6th. Which is F#. So it's A Dorian. I guess if was an Am key with a Bb throughout it would be A phrygian, and so on. Similarly if it started on C with C major key sig (no sharps or flats) but had F# throughout it would be C Lydian.
What about the reverse? How do we decide on a key signature for A Dorian for example? We take the key sig for A minor, (no sharps or flats) and then add F# accidentals. To check we can ask ourselves, what is the major scale of which A is the second note? Well G of course, and G major has the F#.
So having worked all that out, I feel like I've made major progress.Then I got talking to some acoustic guitar friends - you know - play fantastically by ear but theory is another language. Their point was, well, who cares? no-one actually uses it, right? "Name me some recognizable songs that are Dorian", they say. Indeed I cannot. However a quick google search comes up with some possibilities - A Horse with No Name, by America, Mad world by Tears for Fears, Scarborough Fair by Simon and Garfunkel. (not to mention Toccata and Fugue by JS Bach). What? Really? I have the music for both Mad World (here's a recording I made a while ago) and Scarborough Fair... so I check it out. Yup - both have the key sig of A minor with F# accidentals throughout....raised 6th so they're in A Dorian. I did get a bit confused at one point - there are some examples out there of A Dorian with an F# key sig and no accidentals, which had me going in circles to figure out what was going on. I mean, you see an F# and you think G major or E minor right? Then when it starts on D you kind of jump through hoops backwards trying to figure out what's going on. Much easier (and apparently the norm for the Church Modes)to notate modes in the same way as harmonic and melodic minor keys - use the key sig appropriate to the mode (major or minor) and add accidentals pertinent to the mode.
Now recognizing the sound is going to be a whole other matter.....
Wow, I'm impressed. Sadly about all I know is 2 half-steps, 1 half-step, 3 half-stepa, 1 half-step for a major scale. Other then that it's all Greek and I don't even know where (or why) to get started!
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