November 15, 2024 • 27 mins
All About Scales Part 2 | Music Theory Podcast
In All About Scales Part 2, we continue our comprehensive exploration of scales in music theory. Whether you're a music theorist, music educator, musician, or music student, this episode dives deeper into the complexities of scale construction, modal theory, and how scales shape harmony, melody, and tonality in Western music.
We expand on the foundational concepts from Part 1, covering major scales, minor scales, and diatonic harmony, while introducing more advanced scale types like pentatonic scales, blues scales, and chromatic scales. Learn how these scales function in different musical genres and how understanding their structure can help improve your composition, arranging, and improvisation skills.
This episode is also a great resource for music educators and music students looking to gain a deeper understanding of how scales relate to musical modes, key signatures, and musical expression. We’ll also touch on the historical evolution of scales and how different musical traditions have influenced modern scale systems.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a solid grasp of how to apply a variety of scales in your music, enhancing both your theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Subscribe now for more insights on music theory!
A Further exploration of MAJOR and MINOR SCALES and a comparison of the 2. Introduction to the 7 GREEK MODES and how they work. Terms introduced are: PARALLEL KEYS, RELATIVE KEYS, GREEK MODES, and THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS.
Lots of Audio Examples Within.
Linear Music Theory Learning For Everyone!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (00:35):
everybody welcome back to the harmonious
blacksmith this is episode sixand i do appreciate all of you
tuning in i am your host kevinpatrick fleming oh thank you
(01:00):
thank you my good people thankyou i appreciate it as always
this is a cumulative and linearpodcast And if this is your
first time tuning into mypodcast, I do suggest going back
to episode one as everythingthat we are discussing is
building on everything else tohave a full, clear picture of
how music theory actually works.
(01:22):
So let's do a little recap aboutwhat got us to this point.
Really, just from the lastepisode, we talked about the
four triad types, major, minor,augmented, and diminished.
and what makes them or how theyare constructed based on major
and minor thirds, which wereyour first introduction to what
(01:45):
we call intervals.
We also ended up the episode bytalking about extended harmony
chords like seventh chords,ninth chords, suspension chords,
and add chords.
But today's episode is all aboutthe re-emphasis of the
importance of scales.
So this is a part two of scalesas I gave one other episode
(02:10):
about scales already.
We're going to go a little morein depth today with the
comparison of major and minorscales.
I'm even going to introduce aconcept called the Greek modes.
We're going to do a little bitmore on the difference between
major and minor.
We're going to compare triadsand their orders in major and
(02:30):
minor keys.
And we're also going to do a fewexamples of minor chords.
So we double back to scalesbecause of the sheer importance
of what they do in music theoryand how everything is born from
them.
Scales contain the amino acidsthat build the proteins in
(02:56):
music, if you will.
Scales contain the bricks thatbuild the infrastructure and
buildings in the music world.
they are quite literally themost important concept in music
theory in my opinion and we areof course focusing on the two
that are most widely used whichare major and minor which are
(03:22):
constructed using five wholesteps and two half steps though
the order of those whole stepsand half steps is different
between major and minor which iswhy they sound different and
yield a different Now, for thoseof you that have been following
my podcast for a while, do youremember the two different
(03:42):
formulas based on whole stepsand half steps for major and
minor scales?
The major scale is whole, whole,half, whole, whole, whole, half.
And the minor scale is whole,half, whole, whole, half, whole,
whole.
And let's do a quickback-to-back aural comparison of
major and minor starting on thesame root.
(04:05):
So I'm gonna bass both the majorand minor scale you're about to
hear in the key of C.
So C major sounds like this.
And C minor sounds like this.
(04:36):
And even though we started onthe same pitch C, based on just
the different ordering of thewhole steps and half steps for
the scale formula, you get acompletely different experience.
So as you can tell, songwritersare going to use these two
different realms, one beingbright, happy, sunshiny day,
(04:58):
which is major, the other beinga little bit more mysterious,
gloomy, emotional, sometimessad, which is minor.
We're going to use these twodifferent realms to express
human experience and emotions.
And most of the time, we'regoing to mix them together just
like they get mixed together inlife.
So I'm going to offer you aninteresting comparison in
(05:21):
today's second lesson aboutscales, which is the two
patterns share pitches and thenhave some that are different.
And those are going to be thethings you can hinge on in your
comparison.
Let me give you an example ofwhat I mean.
First of all, major and minorscales in any key always share
(05:43):
scale degrees 1, 2, 4, and 5.
So no matter what key you're in,I've been playing in C and G and
maybe one or two others, but nomatter what key you're in, scale
degrees one, two, four, and fivewill always be the same.
So then the real differencebetween a major and a minor
(06:07):
scale is just scale degreesthree, six, and seven.
Those are the three that aredifferent.
And specifically, they are ahalf step lower in minor.
And this brings me to a new termcalled...
parallel keys.
Parallel keys are two keys thathave the same exact root note
(06:33):
starting and ending, but theyhave a different pattern of
whole steps and half steps inbetween.
So the example I'm going overright now uses C major and C
minor, and they are consideredparallel keys.
So now that you know that 1, 2,4, and 5 are the same in major
and minor, and 3, 6, and 7 arethe only one's different, let's
(06:57):
do the aural comparison againback to back to hear what that
sounds like.
And I'm going to call out thescale degrees this time as I do
it so you can hear it as itcomes.
So here's major with scaledegrees.
One, two, three, four, five,six, seven, and one.
(07:23):
So now compare that to theminor.
You'll hear the three, six, andseven are lowered by one half
step.
And minor sounds like this.
One, two, three, four, five,six, seven, one.
(07:43):
So again, the minor scale isliterally just the major scale
with those three loweredpitches, three, six, and seven.
And the significance of that isgreat.
When we talk about lowering apitch, a half step in music, it
has this kind of droopingeffect.
It has this effect of it kind ofgetting depressed.
(08:07):
Think about like a tire with airin it when it's a little bit
flatter than It's a depressedtire.
Now, that's a whole differentbusiness if you've got one of
those on the highway.
I hope that doesn't happen toyou.
But the point is that the tirehas a depressed look to it, just
in the same way that a half-steplower on a note in music has a
(08:29):
depressed kind of sound to it.
Let's test that out.
If I just take random notes onmy guitar, for example...
You can tell I just went from anote, and then I went down a
half step, and it just has thislowering, saddening kind of
sound.
(08:49):
So I'll do it again in a randomplace.
And even if I go up high, youcan still tell.
And if I string them together,those half steps, again, you get
this drooping, saddening kind offeeling.
(09:16):
And the opposite is true if youtake the half steps up.
You get more of that rising,brighter kind of feeling that
you get in major sometimes.
So now it's time to get toprobably the most important
(09:36):
concept of this episode, whichis called the modes.
modes refer to all sevendiatonic scales that are based
on the five whole steps and twohalf steps patterns, just like
major and minor as we've beendoing.
(09:57):
They're also sometimes referredto as the Greek modes because it
originated this idea in ancientGreece.
But to be absolutely clear,there are seven total modes and
major and minor Wait a second,Kevin! Yeah, there are five
(10:23):
more, but there are seven total.
And the good news is youbasically understand how they're
constructed at this point.
They're all constructed usingthe five whole steps and the two
half steps.
So in order to understand howthe seven Greek modes work, you
really just need to reach backto the major and minor
(10:46):
understanding that we've alreadyestablished in built up to this
point.
Comparing major and minor, yourealize there's five whole
steps, there's two half steps,but they just happen to be in a
different order.
So as you can imagine, theremaining five modes that we're
going to talk about really morein the future and in a future
episode, but I'm going to atleast mention them here.
(11:10):
They're all based on that samepremise, five whole steps, two
half steps, just all in adifferent order, which yields a
different result and gives you adifferent realm of sound to pull
from.
So major and minor are two ofthe seven Greek modes, and those
(11:30):
seven Greek modes do have thesecool Greek names.
And look, you don't have tomemorize them yet.
I am going to do an entireepisode on Greek modes coming
up, and I'll give you ways tohelp you memorize them and
things like that.
But for now, I just want you tohear the names, which I'll
are...
(11:51):
Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian,Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and
Locrian.
Out of all of those, Ionianrefers to the major scale that
we've been doing the whole time,and Aeolian refers to minor.
So if you don't memorize theother five right now, that's
(12:13):
fine.
We don't use them as much, whichis why we don't talk about them
as much.
But I do think you want to goahead and memorize that major is
Ionian and minor is Aeolian.
And hopefully that gives you apicture that they really are
just two of a group of sevenscales called the Greek modes.
(12:38):
So now it's time to pull outyour keyboard image, or at least
picture it in your mind.
We're going to use this toolright now to understand how
these modes work and where theycome from.
The first thing I'm going toexplain is there are seven notes
(12:58):
in the music alphabet and thereare seven Greek modes.
That is not by accident.
A mode can be built on everysingle letter in the music
alphabet.
So therefore, there are sevenmodes, just like there are seven
letters in the alphabet.
(13:20):
So looking at your keyboard orthinking about it, basically,
we're going to start on a C.
It can be middle C.
Just find any note C.
And we're using only white keysright now as we're in C major.
If you go from C to C, that's C,D, E, F, G, A, B, C.
(13:44):
That's a C major scale.
Or now you know it as the Greekmode Ionian.
But now what if you use thosesame keys and instead of
starting on C, you just go up akey and start on D and go from D
to D.
Now you're going D, E, F, G, A,B, C, D.
(14:07):
That is the next Greek mode,which is called Dorian.
Again, you don't have tomemorize these names yet.
Eventually you'll want to.
And then what if we keep thatpattern going and now we go from
E to E on the white keys?
E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E.
That's Phrygian.
Keep going.
(14:27):
F to F.
F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F.
That's Lydian.
Et cetera, et cetera.
So until you get back to Cagain, which would bring us back
to Ionian.
So that's how the modes can bethought of.
Really just think about all thewhite keys from C to C.
(14:47):
That's Ionian.
Then D to D, that's Dorian.
E to E is Phrygian.
F to F is Lydian.
G to G is Mixolydian.
A to A is Aeolian or Minor as weknow it.
And B to B is Locrian.
And if you don't get a chance tolook at a piano while I'm
explaining this, do come back toit.
(15:10):
Remember this concept and whenyou get a chance to pull out a
keyboard image or a keyboard orpiano that you have on Please do
this.
It's a really powerful concept,the way modes work.
And yet, when you pull it out ona keyboard, it's very simple to
think about how it works.
(15:31):
So now let's listen to whatthose sound like on a guitar,
for example.
And I'm going to go ahead andstart with the very first one,
which is one you're familiarwith, which is C major, also
known now as Ionian mode withinthe Greek modes.
and sounds like this.
(15:57):
So remember, now I'm just goingto go up one note from scale
degree 1 to 2, which is a D.
And now on the D, we're justgoing to go from D to D, again
thinking about like we're justplaying white keys on piano.
And that would sound like this.
And that is Dorian mode, whichsounds kind of minor.
(16:27):
So now I'm going to keep going.
We're going to go from E to E.
That's E Phrygian, which kind ofsounds, if you want a
relationship in your mind,sounds a little Spanish to me,
actually.
Like...
(16:49):
That's what Phrygian soundslike.
And we move forward to go from Fto F, which is Lydian.
Otherwise known as the lovemode, as I learned in a theory
class, even as a grad student,meaning that it was often found
(17:12):
that Lydian was used in music,in love stories, in movies, for
example.
And we keep going.
G to G is Mixolydian.
UNKNOWN (17:24):
Mixolydian.
SPEAKER_00 (17:27):
That sounds more like a major scale with just one
lowered note.
Then we keep going to Aeolian,which is the familiar minor
pattern.
And then we're to the very lastone, which is called Locrian,
(17:47):
which is actually the leastcommon one, the least used one.
It just has some strangeresults, but it sounds like
this.
Sounds a little minor, a littlestrange, a little bit like the
Phrygian as well, but has itsown unique flavor.
(18:11):
And so that wraps up anintroduction to the seven Greek
modes.
And to give a synopsis of whatyou just heard for understanding
purposes, major and minor scalesthat we've been studying up to
this point are just two of theseven Greek modes.
(18:32):
Why are those the ones that weknow the most?
Because they yield the mostfriendly and popular sounds in
terms of melodies, chordprogressions and things of that
like and the way they'remarried.
The major and minor, which nowyou know major is Ionian and
minor is Aeolian.
Those are the two most popular,but you do have the other five.
(18:56):
So this was just an introductionto what the modes are.
I'm going to have a full-blownlevel two version episode about
Greek modes coming up in thefuture.
So stay tuned for that.
But hopefully you just have anidea of what the Greek modes are
now.
(19:16):
And having told you that you canflesh out all seven modes just
using white keys on a piano,does that mean that I'm going
crazy and changing keys andbouncing around all over the
place?
Of course not.
If we're using the same sevenwhite keys over and over again
to explain the seven Greekmodes, then they're all in the
(19:38):
same key, or at least that's oneway we can think about them.
And that brings me to my nextterm, which is called relative
keys.
Relative keys are keys thatactually have the same exact
pitches shared between them.
They just start and end on adifferent root note.
(20:01):
When we talk about relativekeys, we're actually referring
to a major key and a minor keythat share the same exact
pitches.
But really, this refers back towhat we call modes because
remember what the exercise thatwe just did, which was to play
only the white keys on thekeyboard to explain all seven
(20:25):
modes?
Well, guess what?
All of those were in the samekey or in relative keys.
But really, when we talk aboutrelative keys, we're referring
to a major key and a minor keyor Ionian and Aeolian.
So let me demonstrate.
So I'm going to start with Cmajor.
So again, if you're referring tokeyboard, that's all the white
(20:47):
keys from C to C.
And on a guitar, it would soundlike this.
Okay.
So the relative key or relativeminor of C major would be A
minor.
(21:07):
Because when I go down to A andI play from A all the way back
to A on a keyboard or anyinstrument, A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
and back to A, it's all whitekeys on a keyboard as well.
It's the same key.
So we call them relative keys.
So A minor would sound likethis.
UNKNOWN (21:30):
A minor.
SPEAKER_00 (21:31):
And so you get the minor sound.
But did you know that's the sameexact set of pitches as C major?
UNKNOWN (21:44):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (21:46):
despite the fact that they sound completely
different, right?
So C major and A minor arerelative keys.
So the way to talk about itwould be like, if you're in C
major and you say, what's therelative minor?
It's A minor.
Or you can talk about it viceversa.
If you're in the key of A minor,you can say, what's the relative
(22:08):
major key?
And that would be C.
And really, understanding whatkeys are relative to each other
is really just aboutunderstanding which major and
minor pairs share the samepitches.
The easiest way to do that is inan organizational tool, which is
absolutely brilliant, which iscalled the Circle of Fifths.
(22:30):
I will get into that as I createa complete episode around the
Circle of Fifths in the future.
But for now, I'm just going togive you another example.
Let's take, for example, the keyof G major.
So the pitches of that are goingto be G, A, B, C, D, E, F sharp,
(22:55):
G.
So now we have the introductionof a black key from the piano,
for example, as in the sharp.
And so now we're going to wantto find the minor key that has
also the same exact pitches withthat one sharp, F.
And in this case, it's actuallyE.
So E goes E, F sharp, G, A, B,C.
(23:16):
Same exact pitches with the Fsharp included.
It's just we're going from E toE.
So G major and E minor are alsorelative keys.
Kevin, I do not know why we needto know all this.
What in the world is this?
(23:36):
That is the question that youshould always ask when you learn
anything, really.
But really what it boils down tois relative keys is a powerful
concept because when a minor keyand a major key share the same
pitches, they therefore alsoshare the same triads and the
same chords.
(23:57):
So if you're playing an A minoror C major, you're going to have
the same exact triads.
They're just going to be in adifferent order.
And so the chord progressionsare going to work a little bit
differently, but you're going tohave the same scale, the same
triads, just in a differentorder.
And yet you still get thatcompletely different realm of
(24:21):
sound, whether it's major, thatbright, happy sound, or minor,
that sad, emotional sound.
So we have keys right Okay,phew, that was a lot, I do
admit.
I'm going to take a breath herefor a minute as I've introduced
(24:46):
a lot of concepts to you today.
A lot of powerful concepts,actually.
I will also remind you as atheory student that just because
you hear something for the firsttime or even the second time
doesn't mean it's necessarilygoing to fully sound.
sink in until you have somecontext for it multiple times.
So again, that's why I repeatthings throughout my episodes
(25:11):
here and there, because it'simportant to hear it repeated
and use it repeatedly in orderfor it to sink in.
I will also let you know thatI'm going to have a full blown
episode on modes, as Imentioned.
So we'll go deeper into those.
And I'm also going to have afull blown episodes on the
circle of fifths.
For those of y'all who find thecircle of fifths strange and
(25:34):
mysterious or not learned muchabout it it's actually a way to
organize multiple things but oneof the concepts that we talked
about today which is relativekeys so the circle of fifths
organizes the relative keys in away that you can just calculate
them on the spot it's reallybeautiful it's a brilliant tool
I will most likely have anentire episode on the circle of
(25:56):
fifths or at least part of oneand now it's time for breakdown
We started with a comparison ofmajor and minor scales back to
back and next to each other.
And how both of them share scaledegrees 1, 2, 4, and 5.
(26:23):
But that a minor scale is reallylike a major scale with a
lowered 3rd, 6th, and 7th.
And in turn, we learned thatwhat parallel keys are.
The idea that they start on thesame root note, but have a
different pattern in between.
We introduced Greek modes andthe seven Greek modes.
(26:51):
Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian,Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and
Locrian.
And that the two that we've usedso far that we know as major and
minor are Ionian for major andAeolian for minor.
And in the end, we learned whatrelative keys are.
(27:13):
The major and minor keys thatshare the same exact pitches.
They just start and end on adifferent root note.
Thanks again for tuning in toThe Harmonious Blacksmith, and I
can't wait to continue thismusic exploration with all of
you.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (00:35):
everybody welcome back to the harmonious
blacksmith this is episode sixand i do appreciate all of you
tuning in i am your host kevinpatrick fleming oh thank you
(01:00):
thank you my good people thankyou i appreciate it as always
this is a cumulative and linearpodcast And if this is your
first time tuning into mypodcast, I do suggest going back
to episode one as everythingthat we are discussing is
building on everything else tohave a full, clear picture of
how music theory actually works.
(01:22):
So let's do a little recap aboutwhat got us to this point.
Really, just from the lastepisode, we talked about the
four triad types, major, minor,augmented, and diminished.
and what makes them or how theyare constructed based on major
and minor thirds, which wereyour first introduction to what
(01:45):
we call intervals.
We also ended up the episode bytalking about extended harmony
chords like seventh chords,ninth chords, suspension chords,
and add chords.
But today's episode is all aboutthe re-emphasis of the
importance of scales.
So this is a part two of scalesas I gave one other episode
(02:10):
about scales already.
We're going to go a little morein depth today with the
comparison of major and minorscales.
I'm even going to introduce aconcept called the Greek modes.
We're going to do a little bitmore on the difference between
major and minor.
We're going to compare triadsand their orders in major and
(02:30):
minor keys.
And we're also going to do a fewexamples of minor chords.
So we double back to scalesbecause of the sheer importance
of what they do in music theoryand how everything is born from
them.
Scales contain the amino acidsthat build the proteins in
(02:56):
music, if you will.
Scales contain the bricks thatbuild the infrastructure and
buildings in the music world.
they are quite literally themost important concept in music
theory in my opinion and we areof course focusing on the two
that are most widely used whichare major and minor which are
(03:22):
constructed using five wholesteps and two half steps though
the order of those whole stepsand half steps is different
between major and minor which iswhy they sound different and
yield a different Now, for thoseof you that have been following
my podcast for a while, do youremember the two different
(03:42):
formulas based on whole stepsand half steps for major and
minor scales?
The major scale is whole, whole,half, whole, whole, whole, half.
And the minor scale is whole,half, whole, whole, half, whole,
whole.
And let's do a quickback-to-back aural comparison of
major and minor starting on thesame root.
(04:05):
So I'm gonna bass both the majorand minor scale you're about to
hear in the key of C.
So C major sounds like this.
And C minor sounds like this.
(04:36):
And even though we started onthe same pitch C, based on just
the different ordering of thewhole steps and half steps for
the scale formula, you get acompletely different experience.
So as you can tell, songwritersare going to use these two
different realms, one beingbright, happy, sunshiny day,
(04:58):
which is major, the other beinga little bit more mysterious,
gloomy, emotional, sometimessad, which is minor.
We're going to use these twodifferent realms to express
human experience and emotions.
And most of the time, we'regoing to mix them together just
like they get mixed together inlife.
So I'm going to offer you aninteresting comparison in
(05:21):
today's second lesson aboutscales, which is the two
patterns share pitches and thenhave some that are different.
And those are going to be thethings you can hinge on in your
comparison.
Let me give you an example ofwhat I mean.
First of all, major and minorscales in any key always share
(05:43):
scale degrees 1, 2, 4, and 5.
So no matter what key you're in,I've been playing in C and G and
maybe one or two others, but nomatter what key you're in, scale
degrees one, two, four, and fivewill always be the same.
So then the real differencebetween a major and a minor
(06:07):
scale is just scale degreesthree, six, and seven.
Those are the three that aredifferent.
And specifically, they are ahalf step lower in minor.
And this brings me to a new termcalled...
parallel keys.
Parallel keys are two keys thathave the same exact root note
(06:33):
starting and ending, but theyhave a different pattern of
whole steps and half steps inbetween.
So the example I'm going overright now uses C major and C
minor, and they are consideredparallel keys.
So now that you know that 1, 2,4, and 5 are the same in major
and minor, and 3, 6, and 7 arethe only one's different, let's
(06:57):
do the aural comparison againback to back to hear what that
sounds like.
And I'm going to call out thescale degrees this time as I do
it so you can hear it as itcomes.
So here's major with scaledegrees.
One, two, three, four, five,six, seven, and one.
(07:23):
So now compare that to theminor.
You'll hear the three, six, andseven are lowered by one half
step.
And minor sounds like this.
One, two, three, four, five,six, seven, one.
(07:43):
So again, the minor scale isliterally just the major scale
with those three loweredpitches, three, six, and seven.
And the significance of that isgreat.
When we talk about lowering apitch, a half step in music, it
has this kind of droopingeffect.
It has this effect of it kind ofgetting depressed.
(08:07):
Think about like a tire with airin it when it's a little bit
flatter than It's a depressedtire.
Now, that's a whole differentbusiness if you've got one of
those on the highway.
I hope that doesn't happen toyou.
But the point is that the tirehas a depressed look to it, just
in the same way that a half-steplower on a note in music has a
(08:29):
depressed kind of sound to it.
Let's test that out.
If I just take random notes onmy guitar, for example...
You can tell I just went from anote, and then I went down a
half step, and it just has thislowering, saddening kind of
sound.
(08:49):
So I'll do it again in a randomplace.
And even if I go up high, youcan still tell.
And if I string them together,those half steps, again, you get
this drooping, saddening kind offeeling.
(09:16):
And the opposite is true if youtake the half steps up.
You get more of that rising,brighter kind of feeling that
you get in major sometimes.
So now it's time to get toprobably the most important
(09:36):
concept of this episode, whichis called the modes.
modes refer to all sevendiatonic scales that are based
on the five whole steps and twohalf steps patterns, just like
major and minor as we've beendoing.
(09:57):
They're also sometimes referredto as the Greek modes because it
originated this idea in ancientGreece.
But to be absolutely clear,there are seven total modes and
major and minor Wait a second,Kevin! Yeah, there are five
(10:23):
more, but there are seven total.
And the good news is youbasically understand how they're
constructed at this point.
They're all constructed usingthe five whole steps and the two
half steps.
So in order to understand howthe seven Greek modes work, you
really just need to reach backto the major and minor
(10:46):
understanding that we've alreadyestablished in built up to this
point.
Comparing major and minor, yourealize there's five whole
steps, there's two half steps,but they just happen to be in a
different order.
So as you can imagine, theremaining five modes that we're
going to talk about really morein the future and in a future
episode, but I'm going to atleast mention them here.
(11:10):
They're all based on that samepremise, five whole steps, two
half steps, just all in adifferent order, which yields a
different result and gives you adifferent realm of sound to pull
from.
So major and minor are two ofthe seven Greek modes, and those
(11:30):
seven Greek modes do have thesecool Greek names.
And look, you don't have tomemorize them yet.
I am going to do an entireepisode on Greek modes coming
up, and I'll give you ways tohelp you memorize them and
things like that.
But for now, I just want you tohear the names, which I'll
are...
(11:51):
Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian,Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and
Locrian.
Out of all of those, Ionianrefers to the major scale that
we've been doing the whole time,and Aeolian refers to minor.
So if you don't memorize theother five right now, that's
(12:13):
fine.
We don't use them as much, whichis why we don't talk about them
as much.
But I do think you want to goahead and memorize that major is
Ionian and minor is Aeolian.
And hopefully that gives you apicture that they really are
just two of a group of sevenscales called the Greek modes.
(12:38):
So now it's time to pull outyour keyboard image, or at least
picture it in your mind.
We're going to use this toolright now to understand how
these modes work and where theycome from.
The first thing I'm going toexplain is there are seven notes
(12:58):
in the music alphabet and thereare seven Greek modes.
That is not by accident.
A mode can be built on everysingle letter in the music
alphabet.
So therefore, there are sevenmodes, just like there are seven
letters in the alphabet.
(13:20):
So looking at your keyboard orthinking about it, basically,
we're going to start on a C.
It can be middle C.
Just find any note C.
And we're using only white keysright now as we're in C major.
If you go from C to C, that's C,D, E, F, G, A, B, C.
(13:44):
That's a C major scale.
Or now you know it as the Greekmode Ionian.
But now what if you use thosesame keys and instead of
starting on C, you just go up akey and start on D and go from D
to D.
Now you're going D, E, F, G, A,B, C, D.
(14:07):
That is the next Greek mode,which is called Dorian.
Again, you don't have tomemorize these names yet.
Eventually you'll want to.
And then what if we keep thatpattern going and now we go from
E to E on the white keys?
E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E.
That's Phrygian.
Keep going.
(14:27):
F to F.
F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F.
That's Lydian.
Et cetera, et cetera.
So until you get back to Cagain, which would bring us back
to Ionian.
So that's how the modes can bethought of.
Really just think about all thewhite keys from C to C.
(14:47):
That's Ionian.
Then D to D, that's Dorian.
E to E is Phrygian.
F to F is Lydian.
G to G is Mixolydian.
A to A is Aeolian or Minor as weknow it.
And B to B is Locrian.
And if you don't get a chance tolook at a piano while I'm
explaining this, do come back toit.
(15:10):
Remember this concept and whenyou get a chance to pull out a
keyboard image or a keyboard orpiano that you have on Please do
this.
It's a really powerful concept,the way modes work.
And yet, when you pull it out ona keyboard, it's very simple to
think about how it works.
(15:31):
So now let's listen to whatthose sound like on a guitar,
for example.
And I'm going to go ahead andstart with the very first one,
which is one you're familiarwith, which is C major, also
known now as Ionian mode withinthe Greek modes.
and sounds like this.
(15:57):
So remember, now I'm just goingto go up one note from scale
degree 1 to 2, which is a D.
And now on the D, we're justgoing to go from D to D, again
thinking about like we're justplaying white keys on piano.
And that would sound like this.
And that is Dorian mode, whichsounds kind of minor.
(16:27):
So now I'm going to keep going.
We're going to go from E to E.
That's E Phrygian, which kind ofsounds, if you want a
relationship in your mind,sounds a little Spanish to me,
actually.
Like...
(16:49):
That's what Phrygian soundslike.
And we move forward to go from Fto F, which is Lydian.
Otherwise known as the lovemode, as I learned in a theory
class, even as a grad student,meaning that it was often found
(17:12):
that Lydian was used in music,in love stories, in movies, for
example.
And we keep going.
G to G is Mixolydian.
UNKNOWN (17:24):
Mixolydian.
SPEAKER_00 (17:27):
That sounds more like a major scale with just one
lowered note.
Then we keep going to Aeolian,which is the familiar minor
pattern.
And then we're to the very lastone, which is called Locrian,
(17:47):
which is actually the leastcommon one, the least used one.
It just has some strangeresults, but it sounds like
this.
Sounds a little minor, a littlestrange, a little bit like the
Phrygian as well, but has itsown unique flavor.
(18:11):
And so that wraps up anintroduction to the seven Greek
modes.
And to give a synopsis of whatyou just heard for understanding
purposes, major and minor scalesthat we've been studying up to
this point are just two of theseven Greek modes.
(18:32):
Why are those the ones that weknow the most?
Because they yield the mostfriendly and popular sounds in
terms of melodies, chordprogressions and things of that
like and the way they'remarried.
The major and minor, which nowyou know major is Ionian and
minor is Aeolian.
Those are the two most popular,but you do have the other five.
(18:56):
So this was just an introductionto what the modes are.
I'm going to have a full-blownlevel two version episode about
Greek modes coming up in thefuture.
So stay tuned for that.
But hopefully you just have anidea of what the Greek modes are
now.
(19:16):
And having told you that you canflesh out all seven modes just
using white keys on a piano,does that mean that I'm going
crazy and changing keys andbouncing around all over the
place?
Of course not.
If we're using the same sevenwhite keys over and over again
to explain the seven Greekmodes, then they're all in the
(19:38):
same key, or at least that's oneway we can think about them.
And that brings me to my nextterm, which is called relative
keys.
Relative keys are keys thatactually have the same exact
pitches shared between them.
They just start and end on adifferent root note.
(20:01):
When we talk about relativekeys, we're actually referring
to a major key and a minor keythat share the same exact
pitches.
But really, this refers back towhat we call modes because
remember what the exercise thatwe just did, which was to play
only the white keys on thekeyboard to explain all seven
(20:25):
modes?
Well, guess what?
All of those were in the samekey or in relative keys.
But really, when we talk aboutrelative keys, we're referring
to a major key and a minor keyor Ionian and Aeolian.
So let me demonstrate.
So I'm going to start with Cmajor.
So again, if you're referring tokeyboard, that's all the white
(20:47):
keys from C to C.
And on a guitar, it would soundlike this.
Okay.
So the relative key or relativeminor of C major would be A
minor.
(21:07):
Because when I go down to A andI play from A all the way back
to A on a keyboard or anyinstrument, A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
and back to A, it's all whitekeys on a keyboard as well.
It's the same key.
So we call them relative keys.
So A minor would sound likethis.
UNKNOWN (21:30):
A minor.
SPEAKER_00 (21:31):
And so you get the minor sound.
But did you know that's the sameexact set of pitches as C major?
UNKNOWN (21:44):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (21:46):
despite the fact that they sound completely
different, right?
So C major and A minor arerelative keys.
So the way to talk about itwould be like, if you're in C
major and you say, what's therelative minor?
It's A minor.
Or you can talk about it viceversa.
If you're in the key of A minor,you can say, what's the relative
(22:08):
major key?
And that would be C.
And really, understanding whatkeys are relative to each other
is really just aboutunderstanding which major and
minor pairs share the samepitches.
The easiest way to do that is inan organizational tool, which is
absolutely brilliant, which iscalled the Circle of Fifths.
(22:30):
I will get into that as I createa complete episode around the
Circle of Fifths in the future.
But for now, I'm just going togive you another example.
Let's take, for example, the keyof G major.
So the pitches of that are goingto be G, A, B, C, D, E, F sharp,
(22:55):
G.
So now we have the introductionof a black key from the piano,
for example, as in the sharp.
And so now we're going to wantto find the minor key that has
also the same exact pitches withthat one sharp, F.
And in this case, it's actuallyE.
So E goes E, F sharp, G, A, B,C.
(23:16):
Same exact pitches with the Fsharp included.
It's just we're going from E toE.
So G major and E minor are alsorelative keys.
Kevin, I do not know why we needto know all this.
What in the world is this?
(23:36):
That is the question that youshould always ask when you learn
anything, really.
But really what it boils down tois relative keys is a powerful
concept because when a minor keyand a major key share the same
pitches, they therefore alsoshare the same triads and the
same chords.
(23:57):
So if you're playing an A minoror C major, you're going to have
the same exact triads.
They're just going to be in adifferent order.
And so the chord progressionsare going to work a little bit
differently, but you're going tohave the same scale, the same
triads, just in a differentorder.
And yet you still get thatcompletely different realm of
(24:21):
sound, whether it's major, thatbright, happy sound, or minor,
that sad, emotional sound.
So we have keys right Okay,phew, that was a lot, I do
admit.
I'm going to take a breath herefor a minute as I've introduced
(24:46):
a lot of concepts to you today.
A lot of powerful concepts,actually.
I will also remind you as atheory student that just because
you hear something for the firsttime or even the second time
doesn't mean it's necessarilygoing to fully sound.
sink in until you have somecontext for it multiple times.
So again, that's why I repeatthings throughout my episodes
(25:11):
here and there, because it'simportant to hear it repeated
and use it repeatedly in orderfor it to sink in.
I will also let you know thatI'm going to have a full blown
episode on modes, as Imentioned.
So we'll go deeper into those.
And I'm also going to have afull blown episodes on the
circle of fifths.
For those of y'all who find thecircle of fifths strange and
(25:34):
mysterious or not learned muchabout it it's actually a way to
organize multiple things but oneof the concepts that we talked
about today which is relativekeys so the circle of fifths
organizes the relative keys in away that you can just calculate
them on the spot it's reallybeautiful it's a brilliant tool
I will most likely have anentire episode on the circle of
(25:56):
fifths or at least part of oneand now it's time for breakdown
We started with a comparison ofmajor and minor scales back to
back and next to each other.
And how both of them share scaledegrees 1, 2, 4, and 5.
(26:23):
But that a minor scale is reallylike a major scale with a
lowered 3rd, 6th, and 7th.
And in turn, we learned thatwhat parallel keys are.
The idea that they start on thesame root note, but have a
different pattern in between.
We introduced Greek modes andthe seven Greek modes.
(26:51):
Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian,Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and
Locrian.
And that the two that we've usedso far that we know as major and
minor are Ionian for major andAeolian for minor.
And in the end, we learned whatrelative keys are.
(27:13):
The major and minor keys thatshare the same exact pitches.
They just start and end on adifferent root note.
Thanks again for tuning in toThe Harmonious Blacksmith, and I
can't wait to continue thismusic exploration with all of
you.
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