What are modes in music? The inspiration for this video comes from a recent comment on my video about the seven positions of the major scale.
A user wrote, "so basically it's just using the modes then?" and the answer is, well not really.
In my scale shapes video, I am playing through a lot of the scale shapes for the modes but that doesn't mean I'm using the modes.
Why is that?
To understand this we need to develop a more sophisticated understanding of exactly what modes are used for in music.
And to explain all this I'm going to talk about shape, colour and (bizarrely) Olympic cycling.
Mode Shapes
As bassists, we're susceptible to a bit of a trick when it comes to modes and that is we're often taught that just playing through the scale shape of a mode means we're using that mode.
The same goes for guitarists, piano players and arguably wind and brass players too.
If I play a C major scale but ascend through the notes D, E, F, G, A, B and C using my dorian mode shape then, yes I'm using the dorian shape but the sound I hear is still C major.
So which one am I using?
To figure out the answer we need to learn something about Olympic cycling.
Cycling And Music Modes
If you watch the team pursuit event on TV you'll notice that each cycling team starts and finishes the race from different points on the same track.
The way that this is like modes is that these cyclists complete circuits of the same track but from different starting points.
If we lay out the notes of a major scale in a circle we can think of this circle as being similar to the cycling track.
Each note of the circle represents a different starting point. And to complete one lap of the track we need to go through all the notes and come back to where we started. Just like the cycling teams do.
Starting at different points in the scale means we create a different musical colour and vibe and it these different colours that we need to understand more closely if we're to really get understand what it means to use a mode in music.
What Are Modes In Music Theory Vs In Practice
In practice, using a mode is about being able to recognise and exploit its musical characteristics.
Each mode has a few distinct intervals and notes which are unique to that mode.
If we look at the intervals of each mode rather than the notes we can see this better.
We can see for example that dorian is the only mode to have a minor third and a natural sixth or that lydian is the only major mode with a sharp 11th.
To really use a mode means we're making use of the characteristics that no other mode has and we're creating a sound and a vibe out of those characteristics.
If I was just to play the notes C, D and E then that could belong to one to of three modes.
I could be C Ionian, C lydian or C mixolydian.
However, if I play C, D, E and F# it can only be C lydian.
Hopefully, this has helped show that using modes is much more than just playing through scale shapes.
It's about creating musical sounds and colours.
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