Members gennation Posted June 3, 2008 Members Share Posted June 3, 2008 This is in response to pieware's thread: http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?t=1996104 --------------------------------------- establishing modalityHello everyone, I've been trying to incorporate different modes into my playing lately and I have a few questions. I understand that modality can be used to influence the feel or the mood of the song, and I was just wondering if there are any guidelines for achieving this. For example, in moving from Dorian to Phrygian, would I keep the root note constant and change the other notes or would I shift the root note up one tone and keep all the notes constant. For example, D dorian to D phrygian or D dorian to E phrygian? ---------------------------------------------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gennation Posted June 3, 2008 Author Members Share Posted June 3, 2008 Personally, I will follow the tonal center at the time, UNLESS I can equate two chords as being nothing but a Major->Minor harmony shift from the same Root (or a Minor->Major shift form the same Root. Meaning this... Example 1: Let's say I have a Modal piece that has this... ||: Dmaj7 | Dmaj7 | Fmaj7 | Fmaj7 :|| Dmaj7->Fmaj7E--5-----8--B--7-----10--G--6-----9---D--7-----10--A--5-----8---E------------ You can think of this as D Ionian and F Lydian. But further analysis of these two scales shows you it's nothing more the D Major to D Natural Minor. By viewing it this as just Major to Minor you leave behind the "separation" of the two chords and scales and instead overlap them over the same Root note. By viewing it this way you will find a couple of VERY strong "resolve points" between the two...M3 and m3 as well as M7 and b7. IOW, look at the chords this way instead... ||: Dmaj7 | Dmaj7 | Dm7 | Dm7 :|| Dmaj7->Dm7E--5-----5--B--7-----6--G--6-----5---D--7-----7--A--5-----5---E------------ See how the two notes that change between them are half-step moves? The chord you "resolve back to" is Dmaj7, so Dm7 resolves back to Dmaj7. So when you're on Dm7 you're resolving to Dmaj7. So resolve the m3/F to the M3/F# and the b7/C to the M7/C#. Work with this pattern a bit and you'll hear how it fits like a glove (play this as 8th notes): Dmaj7 Dm7 (Fmaj7)E--------------------------|--------------------------|---------------------------|--------------------------|B--7--5--------7--5--------|--7--5--------7--5--------|---6--5--------6--5--------|--6--5--------6--5--------|G--------7--6--------7--6--|--------7--6--------7--6--|---------7--5--------7--5--|--------7--5--------7--5--|D--------------------------|--------------------------|---------------------------|--------------------------| REPEAT...MAKE SURE you repeatA--------------------------|--------------------------|---------------------------|--------------------------|E--------------------------|--------------------------|---------------------------|--------------------------| You can hear the "half-step differences" between these lines over the chords... BUT YOU NEED TO REPEAT IT to here the resolution from Dm7 to Dmaj7!!!! So, in the case of two maj7 chords a min3rd apart, thinking of them as a Major to Minor shift from the same tonic holds a lot of weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gennation Posted June 3, 2008 Author Members Share Posted June 3, 2008 Example 2: Let's say you have these two chords in a Modal progression... ||: Dmaj9 | Dmaj9 | G7sus4 | G7sus4 :|| REPEAT to hear it resolve!!! Dmaj9->G7sus4E------5--B--5---5---G--6---5---D--4---3---A--5---x---E------3-- The scales used in this progression would be D Ionian and G Mixolydian. See how the upper half of the G7sus4 chords "looks" like either a Fmaj7 or a fragment of a Dm9 chord??? Because of this we can look at this progression as nothing but a Major->Minor movement: ||: Dmaj9 | Dmaj9 | Dm9 | Dm9 :|| Dmaj9->Dm9E-----------B--5---5---G--6---5---D--4---3---A--5---5---E----------- The scales now would be: D Ionian and D Dorian Try the scales like this to hear the movement for yourself: Dmaj9 Dm9 (G7sus4)E--------------------------|--------------------------|--------------------------|--------------------------|B--------------------------|--------------------------|--------------------------|--------------------------|G-----------------4--6--7--|-----------------4--6--7--|-----------------4--5--7--|-----------------4--5--7--|D--------4--5--7-----------|--------4--5--7-----------|--------3--5--7-----------|--------3--5--7-----------| REPEAT...MAKE SURE you repeatA--5--7--------------------|--5--7--------------------|--5--7--------------------|--5--7--------------------|E--------------------------|--------------------------|--------------------------|--------------------------| Here again you can see "what changes", the "differences". And it REALLY helps to pin point notes you want to emphasis between your lines. In this example we again see the change between the M3->m3 and the M7-m7... BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY (since it resolves on the Dmaj9 chord), the m3->M3 change and the m7->M7 change. These are you resolve points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gennation Posted June 3, 2008 Author Members Share Posted June 3, 2008 Summation In both these examples you can see that "each chord gets its own scale", right? BUT... by narrowing the chords down and analysising them from the same tonic you can CLEARLY see them in relation to each other that might not CLEARLY see if you think of them a coming from two different tonics. In looking at them from the same tonic you can see notes to pinpoint to definitely make a statement as to how the chords are really changing...not the scales. Also looking at it this way allows you to "overlap" the scale in one position. The more you do this you will find you'll MUCH greater control over anticipation, tension, and resolution. Both examples 1 & 2 are similar to many of the Modern Modal Jazz music that's been out since the late 60's and early 70's. Ala Herbie Hancock, Miles, Abercrombie, Chick Corea, etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gennation Posted June 3, 2008 Author Members Share Posted June 3, 2008 Example 3: Now let's look at an example using the chords pieware presented further in his thread: ||: Dm7 | Dm7 | Em7 | Em7 :|| Dm7->Em7E---5---7--B---6---8--G---5---5--D---7---9--A---5---7--E---------- You can think of this as D Dorian to E Phrygian, right??? But why do you need to??? Let break this out just like I did the others using the two scales overlapped... Dm7 Em7E---------------------------|--------------------------|--------------------------|--------------------------|B---------------------------|--------------------------|-----------------------5--|-----------------------5--|G------------------4--5--7--|-----------------4--5--7--|--------------4--5--7-----|--------------4--5--7-----|D------------5--7-----------|-----------5--7-----------|--------5--7--------------|--------5--7--------------|A---5--7--8-----------------|--5--7--8-----------------|--7--8--------------------|--7--8--------------------|E---------------------------|--------------------------|--------------------------|--------------------------| So, what has changed? Where's the difference? Not much at all. Both scale contain the same notes, right? The ONLY thing that is different is the Root movement and the arp that goes with it. So why even think anything other than one set of notes? If you break this out Modally with by using common Quartal chords that you find in many Modal tunes you get these chords: G9sus4 for Dm7 and Am7add4 (which you could call Am7/11 or Am11, or Am7sus11 too I guess), again THESE are actually Modal chords: G9sus4->Am7/sus11E--5----8---B--6----8---G--5----7--D--5----7--A--5----7--E---------- Both these chords reside in the D Dorian and E Phyrgian scales, but both also in the A Aeolian too, right? So, if you want to play Modes in their full-scale form, there's not much that changes but try this... For Dm7 play D Dorian, but for Em7 play nothing but A Minor Pentatonic. Dm7 Em7E---------------------------|--------------------------|---7-----------------------|--7-----------------------|B---------------------------|--------------------------|------8--5-----------------|-----8--5-----------------|G------------------4--5--7--|-----------------4--5--7--|------------5--------------|-----------5--------------|D------------5--7-----------|-----------5--7-----------|---------------7--5--------|--------------7--5--------|A---5--7--8-----------------|--5--7--8-----------------|---------------------7-----|--------------------7-----|E---------------------------|--------------------------|------------------------8--|-----------------------8--| or Dm7 Em7E---------------------------|--------------------------|---7-----------------------|--------------------------|B---------------------------|--------------------------|------8--5-----------------|--------------------5--8--|G------------------4--5--7--|-----------------4--5--7--|------------5--------------|-----------------5--------|D------------5--7-----------|-----------5--7-----------|---------------7--5--------|-----------5--7-----------|A---5--7--8-----------------|--5--7--8-----------------|---------------------7-----|--------7-----------------|E---------------------------|--------------------------|------------------------8--|--5--8--------------------| This is nothing but a D Dorian scale and either an Am9 arp or an Am7 arp. But WHY A Minor Pentatonic??? The best way I can think to describe it is...Em7's "Modal Chord" is Am7sus11. A Minor Pentatonic is a dead-ringer for Am7/sus11. This might be hard to grasp at first but once you get into learning the Modal scales you'll stumble on Quartal Chords at some point as being THE Modal Chords in Modern Modal music. And through an understanding of the scale ideas I've given in the first two examples and the chords you presented, you'll start to see the chords you build with a Major scale look LESS Diatonic and MORE Modal... And you'll find that many times a Modal chord name will have a different Root note than the Mode name you play over it, ala using D Dorian over G9sus4. G7sus4 is the common name given to the "Modal chord" of D Dorian. After observation of some of these things you'll see that the Diatonic set of chords you're used to might end up looking a bit different than you learned in regular Diatonic Theory learnings. You'll find something more like this for Modal chords found when using the note of the C Major scale: Cmaj7 = C6 up to Cmaj13 - C IonianDm7 = G9sus4 - D DorianEm7 = Am7/sus11 - E PhrygianFmaj7 = Fmaj#11 - F LydianG7 = G13 - G MixolydianAm7 = D9sus4 - A AeolianBm7b5 = E9sus4 - B Locrain The ones that really look different are the Minor chords. (hopefully other people will jump in with some of there Modal chords in relationship to the regular Diatonic chord too). You can get a couple of pretty deep tutorials on the Quartal chords here: http://mikedodge.freeforums.org/quartal-chords-t5.html?sid=8d6281b23985b695e3d1de233e54c490 and here... http://lessons.mikedodge.com/lessons/MusicTheory/Diatonic/ModChoGriTOC.htm Seriously though, try the D Dorian/G9sus4 and A Minor Pent/Am7sus4 for Dm7 and Em7 respectively. The sound should be pretty apparent right off the bat. Even though not a lot is changing between the chords you will be dividing up some tension and resolution points with in the same scale, if that makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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