EJE DE POLÍTICA 5: PROCESO DE GESTIÓN DEL CAMPUS

Of course, you can have progressions which are diatonic to any particual scale so you’ll want to be totally familiar with the concept of chord progressions in the context of the minor scales as well.

i- ii˚ bIII iv- v- bVI bVII

Am B˚ C Dm Em F G

So for example, if we had a minor progression that went i-, bVI, bIII, bVII we’d get:

i- bVI bIII bVII

Key of Am Am F C G

Key of Em Em C G D

Key of Bm Bm G D A

And if we added a little “harmonic minor” (chapter 7) twist to that

progession by replacing that bVII chord at the end of each progression with a V7 chord we’d get:

i- bVI bIII V7

Key of Am Am F C E7

Key of Em Em C G B7

Key of Bm Bm G D F#7

Notice that this would be a non-diatonic adjustment because the four chords in the progression are not created from the same exact scale and also because a harmonic minor scale is not technically “diatonic” in the first place.

Of course, you can also play the above progressions in seventh chords, with tensions etc... In the next chapter we’ll look at “modes” and see that we can have diatonic progressions within them as well.

In summary, this chapter was a brief exploration of some ideas within a diatonic context. These are the simplest types of progressions and can sometimes be dull. There is nothing wrong with using chords that step out of key intentionally and with musical purpose. In fact, that can often be the best part of a song so explore all the options.

CHAPTER 10 QUIZ & EXERCISES

What does “diatonic” mean ?

What are the seven diatonic triads in any key ?

What are the seven diatonic seventh chords in any key ? What is a I, IV, V progression in E major ?

What is a I, V, vi-, IV progression in A major ? What is a I, V, vi-, IV progression in Eb major ?

What is a vi-7, ii-7, V7, Imaj7, IVmaj7 progression in the key of Eb major ? What is a vi-7, ii-7, V7, Imaj7, IVmaj7 progression in the key of Bb major ? What is a ii-7, V7, V7, Imaj7, IVmaj7 progression in the key of G major ? What is a ii-7, V7, V7, Imaj7, IVmaj7 progression in the key of Db major ? What does the term “key of the moment” refer to ?

Write the following chord progression using diatonic suspended chords:

C#m A B F#m

Write the following chord progression using diatonic suspended chords:

Gmaj7 Am7 Cmaj7 D7

What is a I-, bVII, bVI, bVII progression in C minor ? What is a I-, bVII, bVI, bVII progression in A minor ?

What is a i-7, bVImaj7, iv-7, bVII7 progression in the key of B minor ? What non-diatonic chord could you include in that progression to give it a sense of B Harmonic Minor ?

CHAPTER 11 MODES

The idea of a “mode” is simple. It’s really just a familiar scale where the tonal center or resolution point has been shifted to some other note within the scale. When we learned the natural minor scale, we saw that it was actually the same notes as a major scale but the tonal center had been shifted to the 6^th note. Therefore, when we conceptualized the scale as starting, ending and resolving to that 6^th note, we were actually talking about a

“Mode”.

Sometimes modes are taught with the following careless definition:

“It’s just a major scale starting from another note…”.

What that fails to explain is actually the most important aspect of modes.

In “modal” music, the entire tonal center of the music is shifted to another note not just that some scale starts and stops somewhere.

Of course, we can take this approach with each of the notes in the major scale. So for example, if we played the notes of the C major scale but focused the music so heavily around the second note (D) that it actually took over as the tonal center we’d create the second “mode” of the major scale also known as the “Dorian” scale. The funny names of these modes are derived from ancient Greece as is much of our funny tonal system in general.

C Major:

C D E F G A B

D Dorian:

D E F G A B C

Take some time to play the D dorian mode slowly, emphasizing the “D”...So

notes as the C major scale, it is no longer the C major scale and no longer contains the simple, happy sound of the major scale. It has it’s own mood.

At this point, when you can see how this is exactly the same notes as the C major scale but we’ve shifted the tonal center to “D”, the next step is to compare the differences between this new D dorian scale and the more common D major and D natural minor scales.

First let’s compare D dorian to a straightforward D major scale:

D Major:

D E F# G A B C#

D Dorian:

D E F G A B C

Notice in this comparison that dorian looks like a major scale with a lowered 3^rd and 7^th.

Now let’s look at D dorian as it compares to D natural minor:

D Minor:

D E F G A Bb C

D Dorian:

D E F G A B C

Notice in this comparison that dorian looks like a natural minor scale with a raised 6^th.

It’s vital to see and hear these modes from each of these angles. Consider the major and natural minor scales the most basic scales to which we should compare any more exotic scale.

It contains the exact same notes only with a tonal center of “D” rather than

notes lowered a half-step but it’s actually a better idea to generally think of this scale as a minor scale with it’s 6^th note raised a half-step.

The reason is the dorian scale is more like a minor scale than a major scale because it has a flatted 3^rd. So it’s best to understand and hear this scale as a type of modified minor scale. In this case, a minor scale with a natural 6^th.

So the natural 6^th becomes what we would call the “characteristic tone” of the dorian scale. In other words, its the note which differentiates this particular mode from the standard (natural) minor scale.

Again, It’s very important to clearly understand these modes from two different perspectives. (Using D dorian as an example)

1] The D dorian mode is a C major scale where the tonal center has been shifted to it’s second note (D).

2] The D dorian mode is a D natural minor scale with it’s sixth note raised a half-step.

Let’s look at this in another key…

If we thought about an “A” dorian mode, we could say it was a G major scale with it’s tonal center shifted to the second note (A) or it was an A minor scale with it’s sixth note (F) raised a half-step (F#).

Now that we understand the concept of a mode, it’s time to lay out all of the modes of the major scale using the C major scale as an example (but

C Ionian: basic sense of major or minor tonality. Once you’ve played around with these modes a bit, it’s important to separate them into two categories.

The Major Modes (those that contain major 3^rds) - Ionian, Lydian and MixoLydian.

And the Minor Modes (those that contain minor 3^rds) - Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian and Locrian.

When we look at the modes from this perspective, we can compare them to the basic major and minor scales in order to see how each one differs. This

IONIAN - This is just a major scale with it’s first note as the tonal center so it’s…just a major scale.

MAJOR C D E F G A B

IONIAN C D E F G A B

DORIAN - This is the one we looked at earlier. This is like a minor scale with a natural 6^th. This natural 6^th is the dorian scales characteristic tone.

MINOR D E F G A Bb C

DORIAN D E F G A

B

PHRYGIAN - This is like a minor scale with a flatted 2^nd. This flatted 2^nd is the phrygian scales characteristic tone.

MINOR E F# G A B C D

PHRYGIAN E

F

LYDIAN - This is like a major scale with a raised 4^th. This augmented 4^th is the lydian scales characteristic tone.

MAJOR F G A Bb C D E

LYDIAN F G A

B

MIXOLYDIAN - This is like a major scale with a flatted 7^th. This flatted 7^th is the mixolydian scales characteristic tone.

MAJOR G A B C D E F#

MIXOLYDIAN G A B C D E

F

AEOLIAN - This is simply the natural minor scale we discussed in chapter 7.

MINOR A B C D E F G

AEOLIAN A B C D E F G

LOCRIAN - This is like a minor scale with a flatted 2^nd and a flatted 5^th. Therefore the locrian mode has two characteristic tones. It’s worth

noticing that it’s very hard to establish a tonal center with this scale due to the unstable quality of the flatted 5^th.

MINOR B C# D E F# G A

LOCRIAN B

C

F

Once you feel comfortable with the modes of the major scale, take a look at the modes of the harmonic and melodic minor scales which have some interesting results. Think about which types of chords these scales would fit.

MODES OF THE HARMONIC MINOR SCALE