How to HEAR Modes

hello and welcome to ben levin music school many people learn about the concept of modes and music theory but few of those people feel like they really understand how to use them or what they sound like i'm going to show you a way to get the modes in your ears and your music first a quick review of modes in music theory a key is a set of notes that sound good together like c d e f g a b key of c major and a mode is a way of using that set of notes to emphasize a certain note within that set as the one that everything gravitates towards so if you hear these chords in the key of c [Music] it sounds like everything gravitates to this particular note called d [Music] so now that note d sounds like the home note so we're in the key of c that set of notes c d e f g a b but we're hearing the mode that goes home to d d is our home note if i use the same set of notes c d e f g a b key of c and play this [Music] it now sounds like this note c is the home note by changing which note feels like home within that set of notes i've changed the mode and therefore changed the mood of the music that first example was in the key of c but wanted to go home to d the second example was also in the key of c but wanted to go home to c instead same key different mode when two modes are in the same key they are called relative modes they're relatives of each other since there are seven notes in the key of c that means there are seven possible relative modes in the key of c one starting on each note here is what they look like if you were to make scales out of them in musical alphabetical order [Music] and each of these modes has a name by the way let's not worry too much about naming them yet we'll focus more on hearing them first now the tricky thing is if i play the same stuff from when we made d sound like the central home note [Music] now it doesn't really want to end on d anymore it wants to end on c that's because some modes are more stable than others and in this case the mode that had c as its home has out powered the mode that has d as its home and this is also why learning modes is confusing just because you're playing a certain chord progression or scale doesn't mean that you are creating the sound of the mode you're trying to evoke context matters a lot so let's look at a context that really brings out the sound of each mode what we'll do is take all of those scales derived from the modes in c and transpose them so each of them is starting on c so we'll change the key with each new mode that might be confusing so let me walk you through it the first mode scale that we have here c d e f g a b already starts on c so we don't have to do anything to it now for the second mode scale here d e f g a b c we want it to start on c but keep the same structure the same shapes so we have to move everything down a whole step so d moves down to c e becomes d f becomes e flat and you end up with this transposed mode scale c d e flat f g a b flat now let's listen to a jam using the first mode scale c d e f g a b and then compare it to a jam using the second mode scale c d e flat f g a b flat [Music] do [Music] oh [Music] both of the modes you just heard had the same home note that everything was gravitating towards and that's why it was so easy to hear the contrast between them if we repeat that process for all of the seven relative mode scales in the key of c transposing them down so they all start on c without losing their structure we get these seven mode scales these modes that all start on c are called parallel modes relative modes stay in one key but have different home base notes for each mode parallel modes change keys but all have the same home base note and here's how all these parallel modes sound one after the other [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so i put a backing track in the description that is just to see drone and if you play all these parallel modes over that drone you'll be hearing the difference between each of these modes and it will help your ear training a lot [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Ben Levin

Views: 270,082

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Id: tuV99ZV5Qu0

Length: 10min 50sec (650 seconds)

Published: Tue May 31 2022