Man it's gotta be about 92 degrees today. I
know why they call it Hotlanta. Anyways today we're talking about modes. Modes are these elusive things that people
are always asking me about. What is a mode? Well it's just a subset of a scale, it's
actually pretty easy. What I like to talk about is what you do with them. That's what's up, today on Everything
Music Okay let's see how these modes sound. We're going to start with C Ionian Also known as C Major. If I play in the
key of C from D to D... I'm playing a D Dorian mode. If I play
from E... to E, I am playing E Phrygian. If I play
from F to F it's an F Lydian mode. So the mode
position always follows the same pattern Ionian Dorian Phrygian Lydian mixolydian
Aeolian Locrian. There's also modes of the melodic minor
and harmonic minor scale that we're going to get into later. Probably a later episode. The real question
is: what actually makes these modes have their particular sound? Or another way
you could say it is: what makes one mode different from another? If we take in a major key the 1, 4,
and 5 chord they all are major chords in the key of
C it's C, F, and G. Well each of them has a corresponding mode. C Ionian
because Ionian goes with the one chord, F Lydian because Lydian goes with the four
chord, and G mixolydian. It goes with the five chord mixolydian always goes with
the five chord. Well any of those can be played over any
particular chord for example... over C major chord... I can play C Ionion. I can also play C Lydian. I can also play C Mixolydian. I can actually also play C Lydian
augmented. And a whole host of other modes. I could
play C Mixolydian sharp eleven. Anything that works on a major
chord, I could play. So what gives these modes
their characteristic sound? That's the real question. D Dorian So basically... any of the notes of D Minor or D Dorian...
any notes of C major... will work. That's a D Dorian sound. But really what is
a D Dorian sound? I'll tell you what one is Right there that's a D Minor 6/9 sound. Why? Well... you get the minor 3rd which F and
you have the six right there. That natural six the B on a D Minor chord is
what gives Dorian it sound. If i were to play Aeolian, it would
have this kind of sound... What is different between Dorian
an Aeolian? That note... Dorian. Aeolian. It's the sixth. In Dorian
the sixth is natural. In Aeolian the sixth is flat. So that
sixth is a very important note in describing the sound of a mode. Let's put this into use now. I'm going to
go from A Dorian to E Flat Ionian. Listen to this... That's called a modal modulation
actually because I changed keys. We're going to do a whole video on that. Let's say I go from C Lydian now... to F Mixolydian What did I do in C Lydian? Well I simply
had C Lydian Triad (C, F Sharp, G), I've got C G in the base... And then for F Mixolydian... I have the root... fifth... the sus4 or the fourth of the scale, flat
7 and third. Okay well the flat seventh means a campy Ionian,
because Ionian would have this... That would be an F Ionian voicing. This
is a new F Mixolydian voicing. Let me go from F Mixolydian... to G Phrygian. Then I'm gonna go to a B Dorian sound. So I've got B, F Sharp, A, D, E, G Sharp. There's my natural six to give
the Dorian sound. Let me go back. C Lydian... F Mixolydian. G Phrygian B Dorian F Aeolian D Flat Lydian D Aeolian C Sharp Altered Dominant Now you can hear how these modal chords
have really distinct characteristics to them. What you need to do to have a modal
chord voicing is: describe the mode and their essential target notes,
meaning the notes that make a mode different from another in the chord. If
I'm going to have a Lydian voicing, it's got to have the sharp 4 in there. Now you can do things like taking Aeolian Sound in this case we'll do it in G... I would call that a G Aeolien passage. So I'm outlining the notes... I'm outlining the notes in G Aeolian
throwing in that flat sixth in there to really give it its characteristic sound.
ok let me review to see Lydian Okay let me review. C Lydian... F Mixolydian... G Phrygian... B Dorian... F Aeolian... E Flat Lydian... D Aeolian... C Altered Dominant. We're going to be
doing more videos on modes talking about things like modal mixture and modal
modulation. Please stay tuned and subscribe. I'm
Rick Beato.
