music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush modern? wait, isn’t this stuff, like, The Modern Modes 100 years old? yes, but we only call them “modern” because we need to differentiate between bunch of unrelated things across music history that, ever so inconveniently, use the same names!

the modern which were, in and those modes’ names turn, named in used the same came from the honor of the names as scale various “keys” lute ranges used tunings discussed used in medieval in later ancient by plato in church music greek music 380 bc!

v. wil hilde aris pl liams gard toxenus ato

and, to make matters worse, each of these things use the names to represent different concepts! fortunately, right now, we’re only worried about the modern modes. these modes are used a lot... one of the primary characteristics of especially in folk music. as for these english modalists is that they standard western repertoire, tended to avoid the strong tensions they are first prominently featured of the common practice period...

in the post-romantic music britain! for example, they avoided chords of the early twentieth century that used a ... and avoided british isles. raising the leading tone in minor keys! so what are they? well, remember when we created the natural by starting with a , but using the sixth note of the scale as the tonic? it gave us a new pattern of whole steps and half steps... a new scale. keeping the same key signature, we use this note as our new tonic!

major œ minorœ œ œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ in fact, these are two of the seven modern modes: major is the , and natural minor is the . by starting on the other notes of the major scale, we get the other five modes. because it has to B: the locrian mode a diminished tonic, locrian is a theoretical to G: the mode... it’s not used in actual practice. to F: the œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ the modes here all share œ œ to E: the the same key signature... œ œ they are related, like to D: the major and a minor! c ionian a more effective œ œ œ œ œ method of keeping œ œ œ œ & œ œ œ œ the modes straight & œ a aeolian œ œ involves memorizing minor + raised 6th c mixolydian each mode’s œ œ œ color tone: œ œ œ #œ œ bœ the scale degree œ œ a dorian & œ majorœ œ + lowered 7th & œ œ that makes it minor + lowered 2nd c lydian unique from the major or minor œ œ œ œ œ œ scale with the bœ œ œ a phrygian & #œ majorœ œ+ raised 4th & œ œ œ œ same tonic. licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more