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Music as a language
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Jung, this is the most useful mode video I’ve come across yet. Thanks for posting! It doesn’t just give examples of different modes, but it explains how you can TELL which mode a song is in, which is something I’ve been struggling with.
I’ve been reading on Wikipedia about the “circle of fifths”, which is a great organizational tool for understanding the relationships among chords. I’ve long known that the interval from C to G is called a fifth, but I didn’t understand why. I was thinking in terms of frequency ratios, and I figured it was called a fifth because it represented 20% of something. Now it makes a lot more sense.
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Hi Jacki, I get where you are coming from, and classical music is an acquired taste. Classical music like Beethoven sounded a little depressing and ominous to me, until one day it just clicked. I heard from many who got a into classical music or said they enjoy some classical, it is Mozart who started it for them often. My classical music journey started with a single Mozart CD that had a collection of some of his brightest upbeat stuff, and my fave was his Turkish March (Rondo Alla Turca). Here in this guitar version, I am confident it won’t get you depressed or negative.
Anyway, I don’t mean to push it on you, just a suggestion, but I totally get where you are coming from and it is an acquired taste for sure and not for everyone, so feel free to ignore me when I start spewing classical music. I’ll try not to do that too much 🙂
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Jung, you just rekindled the memory of my first exposure to this piece, in a short-lived but surreal sitcom from the early 80’s. I couldn’t find just that scene on YouTube, but I found the whole episode, and I’ve cued it to the right point. It ends at 21:01.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwK6t4U_5NM&t=1132s
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David, in my youtube piano lesson series of some 30 videos the instructor talked about getting into the Circle of 5ths later on in the lessons, so I look forward to learning about that.  That video certainly gave me some more clarity about modes and how it is used in songwriting. I will watch it many more times as as I learn more music theory.
Yesterday in my lesson the instructor was explaining “tonal center” and defining a scale as just a group of notes that sound good together. It sounds good because a scale starts and ends on the same note one octave up because it sounds complete when it does, ie the resolution. So for example in a G major scale it goes G,A,B,C,D,E,F# and then next G one octave up. If you stop at F#, it just doesn’t sound complete. The G in this case is the tonal center, and every scale has a tonal center which is the first note of the scale. That concept of resolution and a slight deviation from that perfect progression of notes leading to the resolution becomes a mode that causes a brighter or darker feel is mind boggling.
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That’s a brilliant scene in that video David. 🙂  The last thing you’d expect to hear is that Mozart piece when he sits at the piano to play. It reminds me of downtown where I use to work, the area has a mix of well to do and not so well to do people. In the last few years the city donated somewhat battered up but perfectly working upright pianos in the various parks and squares in the city for anyone to play. I remember at lunch time walking around and seeing some people just off the street who would sit and start playing some amazingly beautiful piano pieces that you would have never expected. Just can’t and shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, or judge a character by their appearance.
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We’re definitely on parallel paths on this music theory journey, Jung. I’ve been reading/watching material on these same topics. I’m just unendingly amazed at the interplay between the analytical and the emotional with regard to chord structures and progressions.
That’s very cool that you’ve seen some real-life examples of the situation in that video. I had always just thought of it as laughably absurd (which was the general attitude of that show), but yeah, people can surprise you.
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I just had an “aha” moment with regard to the utility of thinking in terms of modes. If you’re composing chords for a song, or trying to figure out the chords for an existing song, you can use modes to eliminate “incorrect” chords in places where you can’t decide among two or three similar ones.
For example, if the song is in Ionian mode in the key of C (all white keys on the piano), and you’re not sure whether you need A major or A minor at a certain point, go with A minor because it’s all white keys.
Of course one can always borrow chords from another mode to spice things up here and there, but I imagine by sticking to one mode you’d have a lot more hits than misses on your first draft.
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Wow David, it looks like you are making some good progress understanding and incorporating the scales major and minor, and the shades in between with the modes into composition, and understanding the modal interchanges and borrowing of chords. That’s awesome. For me I don’t know all the 7 chords of the scale yet or figured them out, but I think it will be helpful to take that chart of all the chords of the modes and correlate them on the keyboard first so I can visualize and understand it better. For me the extent of my chords I know are the root, the 2 inversions and back to the root an octave up in the major scales. It’s all quite amazing, and will watch that video a few more times.
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Well, Jung, I’m just piecing things together as I go, but I find it easiest to think in terms of C Ionian, i.e., all the white keys, and extrapolate to other modes and other keys from there. It only makes sense to me on the piano, not on any stringed instrument.
The chords of C Ionian are the ones with no black keys. So position three fingers for C major and slide them to the right one key at a time: C major (C-E-G), D minor (D-F-A), E minor (E-G-B), F major (F-A-C), G major (G-B-D), A minor (A-C-E), and whatever you call B-D-F. (I think that’s B diminished, but I’m still working on all that diminished / augmented / sustained stuff.) If you write an Ionian mode song in the key of C, these are all the three-note chords you can choose from, assuming you stick to an every-other-key finger spacing.
There are also some four-note possibilities, such as D minor 7 (D-F-A-C), E minor 7 (E-G-B-D), G major 7 (G-B-D-F), and A minor 7 (A-C-E-G). I imagine you could also have C-E-G-B, F-A-C-E, and B-D-F-A, but I don’t know what you’d call them. Anything with any black keys is excluded, and if used would be borrowed from another mode.
Right now I’m in the process of writing chords for a melody that I came up with 30 years ago, but until now I had no idea how to start. This mode stuff really helps; thanks for turning me onto it!
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And…I’m still boggled and confused, by and with all this however, I’m getting my entertainment value out of it…glad you know what you are talking and understanding about and communicate effectively, and enjoy how you are musician tech theory talking, whereas I’m more about touch and see and hear and sense approach concept, like how it sounds, feels right to my ears, eyes, etc thecsense I get from what I do, I would not use any music books, etc but rather rely on my instincts of playing by ear, how it sounded, felt, what the instincts of whether a note or whatever is high or low, not if it it’s flat, minor, sharp, etc….to just pickup an instrument or start singing, no music books, etc, just play/sing by ear, instinctively… lol… I don’t think I’m ever meant to grasp music theory stuff ,all this classical, nodes, stuff… I’d be happy to just join in a music jam, if I think the song needs tambourine input, a backing vocal, harmony, eyc, that’s more likely my way I’d do, if it felt, sensed it needs that, then I’dcdo, tomlearn the way you do, not for me….lol…But Kudos on you learning, applying this stuff. It’s just not meant for me, no matter how much you try to simplify it for me to understand and perhaps be inspired, inclined , to try…I just know what works for me, and best I stick tobwhatvmethod I know best works, visual, intuitive, instinctive, touch, sense, feel…???????
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I just know what works for me, and best I stick tobwhatvmethod I know best works, visual, intuitive, instinctive, touch, sense, feel…
Jacki, I agree. 🙂  I think you are describing what is in the realm of the imagination, and “imagination is more important than knowledge (theory)” indeed.
Click on image to enlarge
I find there is something satisfying about laying down a line of liquid ink on paper. Excuse the nerdiness.
David, thanks for that detailed info about the chord and finger layout on the white keys. Your explanation makes sense. I will work it out on the keyboard to try to better understand it.  That’s awesome about your melody from 30 years ago. Hopefully the modes will really enhance the emotional impact of your composition.
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I’m quickly learning why songwriters say to start out with some chord progressions and then fit a melody to them: it’s proven to be impossible for me to go in the other direction. I had written a two-part vocal harmony that sounded good on its own, but chord sequences that follow those combinations of notes have turned out to sound so incredibly contorted and random that I’ve gone back and slightly changed some of the vocal parts to fit the closest Ionian mode chords.
It definitely has to be Ionian: it’s a happy, early British invasion type tune, with jangly guitars (in my mind, at least). I think I’ve managed to salvage it now. The chords seem to flow naturally, and the melody nestles into them well. I just wish I could get my ukulele to jangle.
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So great to hear about your song and impressed David. Would love to hear it on your jangly ukelele. I never even considered ever writing a song, but if I can get my music theory up to par with my piano lessons (more musuc theory coming in my YouTube piano lesson series in later episodes), you’ve inspired me to try compose something. Thanks. Maybe a simple piano piece in Dorian or Myxolydian. ?
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David & Jacki Song Collaboration Update:
I’m currently in the midst of writing different song lyric variations to David’s tune ….. Everytime I go to listen to his tune, I get a different set of lyric words going off….I have to sing outloud what I’m hearing, then go write accordingly…it’s work in progress, and I again thank David for this creative opportunity to something a tad outside my creative comfort zone…?????
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That’s great Jacki! Will be wonderful to hear what you guys come up with.
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