Modes!

What is a "mode"?

Four Modes.

What does a "mode" have to do with me playing Bluegrass, Old Time, Celtic or etc.

List of some common "modal tunes" and what to do about them...

Matt McConeghy 4/2006

Chuck Morgan was explaining modes and I realized that life would be easier if I truly understood how this worked. So, thanks to Chuck I was motivated to work through this all step by step. At jam sessions we play lots of tunes  that we call "modal",  so what does that mean?   

Modes are a way of describing the most likely choices for the set of notes you can play in a tune. There is a rather long scholarly discussion of musical modes on Wikipedia, for those who can get through it. This note is not scholarly - it is about what modes have to do with playing our roots styles of music.

What I want to get across can probably be seen more easily on a piano keyboard than on our string instruments. So, here is a piano keyboard. Modes work exactly the same way in every key, but I'm going to use the key of C as an example because on the piano the key of C involves the white keys only, no black keys, so it makes it easier to follow. In fact, a piano keyboard is, in a sense, like a little demonstration model of how modes work in C.

There are thirteen notes in an octave from C to C, that is, C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C  plus the five black keys. The black key between the white C and the white D is called C# ( C sharp) - Same thing for the rest of the black piano keys. C#, D#, F#, G# and A# .  (C# is also the same thing as Db or D flat, but let's ignore that.)

OK, so when when you play a tune in the key of C you usually play only eight of the thirteen notes. So, which eight do you play, and which five do you NOT play?  The system for choosing the eight notes is called "modes".  And it makes a tremendous difference in how the music sounds.

What is a Mode?

Four Modes - Major, Minor and the Two 'Modals'

Major Mode

To play a tune in the key of C major on a piano, it is really simple. Just start on the C note and play up and down on the white keys. Don't play any black keys. Nothing to it. 

But what if we want to play the same tune , but starting on the G, D or A note? That is, in the key of G major or D major, or  A major? Things get complicated fast! You have to use the black keys....

What makes these scales "major scales"?

The 'major' scale is our regular everyday do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do scale, just like we are used to hearing. The C major scale is equivalent to playing the white keys of the piano from C to C, that is  C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C

What makes this "major?" It is the intervals between the notes that make it "major." 

When we play in the Major mode we play the same intervals as in playing the sequence C to C on the white keys of the piano. When we check the keyboard, from the starting note C to the next note in the scale, D, the interval C to D is a whole step with a black key in between. Then the next interval is D to E, a whole step with a key in between.. Then the next interval is E to F. That is not a whole step - there is no key between E and F so the interval is only a half step.

Counting all the intervals of whole and half steps up the white keys from C to C we find the steps are W, W, H, W, W, W, H -- these are the intervals between notes in a "major" scale.

You can start playing a scale on any note, but to have a major key, you have to keep the same intervals. W, W, H, W, W, W, H as you go up the scale. In common tunes by far the most common starting notes are D, A, G or C so the most common keys are D major, A major, G major and C major..

Checking off the notes according to the intervals of a major scale starting with D note.

If you want to play in D major you can start with the D note and go up the scale. You have to keep the same "Major" intervals.

Start with D, then a whole step, so the second note is E. Then the step between the second and third notes of the D major scale has to be a whole step with the notes separated by a note in between. if the second note is E, the third note can't be F. Why not? Because F isn't separated from E by an intermediate note as required by the sequence. So instead of F you have to use the next note F#. The the following step has to be a half step, so you play D - E - F# - G - A - B - C# - D to choose the eight notes from D to D if you follow the whole W, W, H, W, W, W, H. sequence. 

You really need to count these out on the piano keyboard to understand it....

You play the notes D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D for the key of D major. Why? because those are the notes that fall on the "major mode" intervals. To play in A major, start with A and count the intervals. You get the notes A, B, C#, D, E, F# and G# as the notes of the A major scale.

To get a 'major' scale based on any note you can count the same way starting with the note and going up the scale according to the intervals. 

You are playing 'major' mode if you start on a note and find the next notes up the scale according to that - W, W, H, W, W, W, H sequence. If your first note is C then you are playing in C Major.

Minor Mode

Suppose we play a tune and use the same notes as in the key of C major, but we start the tune from the A note instead of from the C note...

What's the difference? It's the same notes, right? Yes, but because we are humans, it DOES make a difference.

We start on A and run up the white piano keys from A to the next A. Same notes as C major, but the sequence of intervals is different.  This is SO important. Wow! What a difference it makes when the intervals are different. 

We play A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A

If we count off the intervals on the keyboard we see the sequence of whole and half steps. That is, from A to B is a whole, from B to C is a half, from C to D is a whole, etc.

W, H, W, W, H, W, W.

If you play this set of notes A to A on the white keys you are playing in A minor. We are using the exact same notes we used in playing in C major, but we are using the A key as our home key, instead of the C key.

It is an A key, an A scale, but it is not A Major. Instead it is A Minor - a different mode. The thing that makes it a different mode is that the intervals between the starting note and each note up the scale is different from a major scale.

This mode, called A minor,  is described as "relative to C" because it uses the exact same notes as the key of C major, but in this case, instead of starting and ending on the C note, you start and end on the A note.

It is an amazing quirk of the human ear and mind that this series of notes with this set of intervals sounds "sad" or "dark" or "lonely", in contrast to playing the exact same set of notes starting and ending on C.  So, with the same notes, changing the mode changes the feeling of the tune. This is something that has been intriguing humans since the time of the ancient Greeks. Plato wrote an essay about it over 2000 years ago.

You can play a minor key scale that starts on any note you want, but in our music, the common starting notes for minor scales are A, E, D or B. Playing in A minor means using the same notes as in C major while playing in E minor means using the same notes as in G major, D minor is the same notes as F major, and B minor is the same notes as  D major.

If you take the trouble to actually count these out on the keyboard it may make more sense.

Consider if you were to play in E minor.

Remember that if you played a scale of "E major" the major intervals W, W, H, W, W, W, H would result in the notes

E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E.

E major scale

But if you start on the note E to play an "E minor" scale using the minor intervals W, H, W, W, H, W, W, the notes would be

E, F#, G, A, B, C, D, E

. E minor scale

Ummm, wait... Yes, that's the same notes you use in playing in the key of G. Lots of people know that the minor key "relative to" C is A minor, and this shows that the minor key "relative" to G is E minor.

Another way to think about this is to say that the 3rd, 6th and 7th notes of the scale are 'flatted.'  That is, they are played one half step lower than they would be in a Major scale.  So, G#,  C#, and D#  in E Major become G, C and D in E Minor. In the key of  A Minor you would change the A Major notes of C#, F# and G# to C, F and G.

Again, I think you need to count this out on the piano keyboard to convince yourself how it works.

How would you know if a tune was in a Minor key?

If E minor and G use the same notes, how do you know which key you are playing in? Em or G?

If you are in a jam session and you hear a tune you don't know, then you would try to listen for the main 'home' notes for the tune... Suppose you listen and it is clear that the tune mainly starts and ends on E, but instead of  C# and G# it consistently uses C and G. Well, it probably isn't in E major because E major has C# and G#.  This tune has only F#'s. OK, so it is probably in E minor, not E major. You will probably be playing Em, D and Bm chords to accompany it, rather than the E, A and B chords that you would normally use for a tune in E major.

When you look at written music, there is usually a notation at the left of the staff that shows what notes in that tune should be played as sharps. So, if you are playing in G major, there will be a sharp sign on the line of the note F to tell you to play F# whenever there is an F note. Most players have noticed that tunes in G major will often start on a G note and will almost always end on a G note. The "home note" of the key is the G note. But, what if you look at a staff and it is marked as G major with that F# sharp at the left of the staff but the tune starts and ends on an E note? It might not even have a G note in the tune. Well, a good guess is, the tune is probably in "E minor."

That isn't the only other choice, though. A tune that starts and ends on E could be in E dorian or E mixolydian modes.

Modal Tunes

The two other modes that are useful to know about are "Mixolydian" and "Dorian." Some interesting music is written in these modes… like say, "Norwegian Wood", "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", the theme from "Star Wars" and a lot of old time fiddle tunes and ancient ballads.

Mixolydian Mode or "Modal"

"Mixolydian" is almost the same as "major" but has a minor or 'flatted' 7 th --  the 7 th note in the scale is flat compared to what would be normal for the Major key. So here are two ways to think about this.

You can play a scale starting on C up the white keys to the next C, except that when you get to the B you play the black key Bb instead of B natural, like this: C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb, C. - a flatted 7th note of the scale.

Or, you get the same effect by starting on a G note and playing all the white keys up to the next G, that is, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. It's all about the intervals, remember.

In either of these two cases, the intervals count out to W, W, H, W, W, H, W.

So, "G major" is G A B C D E F# G and "G mixolydian" is G A B C D E F G

Or, to use A major and A mixolydian as a second example.

The intervals we are playing from the starting note up:

W, W, H, W, W, H, W.

A mixolydian. C# and F# but no G# unlike A major which has C#, F#, G#.

What do you call that key, "A modal"? Yes, but specifically, it is A mixolydian.

This is the mode of a tune that many of us play, "June Apple." We start the tune on A but we don't play a regular A major scale, instead we play C# and F# but not the G#. We substitute G natural and the result is that we get that haunting melancholy "A modal" sound. Other common tunes in mixolydian mode are Pipe on the Hob, Dinky's Reel and Redhaired Boy ("Little Beggarman") and part of "Growlin' Old Man, Grumbling Old Woman" 

A Mode Problem in Written Music

Say we look at the excellent Portland Collection tune book and on page 194 we see a new tune we haven't played before - "Tom Billy's Jig". We commonly guess the key of a tune by paying attention to what note it starts or ends on. So, we would be quickly tempted to see this tune as in the Key of A major because it starts and ends on an A note and the first chord notation is A chord.  Ummm... wait, the signature on the staff is two sharps (D major), not three (A major). What the heck!

This tune has a has a funny quirk, it isn't like a regular tune in the key of A major which would have A - B - C# -  D -  E - F# - G# - A.  Instead the G# note is mostly played G natural - a half step lower than in a regular A major scale. So in the Portland book they notate the staff with a signature of only two sharps as if it was in D. Just to complicate things, in one measure there is a G note played as a G# so the transcriber has to put in a # sign as an 'accidental.'

What's going on here? Is it in A or D? The answer is, it is neither -  it is not in A major or D major, despite what note it starts or ends on and what sharps are on the staff.

OK, so we sit down at the piano and pick out the notes. The signature tells us to play the notes of the key of D, but we aren't starting on a D note, instead we're starting on A, so we play the notes of the D scale, but start on the A note -- namely: A - B - C# - D - E - F# - G - A.

See what happens. It sounds odd. Not like a D major tune at all. Cool!

This can all be very confusing for accompanists. Redhaired Boy starts with the emphatic E_A notes, has an emphatic G in the fourth measure, and ends on an emphatic A note. It has C# and D# but no G#. The chords turn out to be A, D,  with E (or E7) and a G because of the flatted G note. In writing down this tune, the transcriber might choose to give the staff an A key signature with three sharps, but then every time a G note comes along in the tune they have to put in a natural sign so the G will be played G natural instead of G sharp. The written transcription of Redhaired Boy below takes the alternative route - instead of an A key signature on the staff, the staff is given two sharps for D major...

... but the tune starts and ends on E-A notes and has an A chord to start and an E chord which wouldn't normally occur in a D tune.  It's enough to make your head spin. :(   But it has to work like this. If you play this tune as if it was A major instead of A mixolydian - that is, with a G# in the fourth measure instead of a G - the tune becomes very uninteresting and boring. A tiny change makes a big difference.

Dorian "Modal"

Dorian uses the intervals W, H, W W, W, H, W.

That's the equivalent of starting on a D key and playing up the white keys to the next D.

This includes a minor third and minor 7 th. What? Well, If you were playing a D major scale you would play with two sharps, D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D and there would be two sharps marked on the staff of the music.

But in this case, for D dorian we start on the D and play D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D. The "third" is made D-E-F instead of D-E-F# and the "7 th" is the C instead of C#. That is D dorian

And then other keys are made with the same intervals, like, A dorian would be the same but starting on an A note instead of a D, eh? If you started an A major scale it would be

A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A

but for a A dorian you would have to play

A, B, C, D, E, F#, G, A.

That is, the third is C instead of C# and the 7 th is G instead of G#.

So, if you were playing a tune that was written in the A dorian mode, like "Ducks on the Pond" in the Portland Collection, then in the written music the staff would probably show just a F# (key signature of G major) and you might get fooled and think it was a tune in G major. Oops! Only you would be able to figure it out because the tune would start and stop on A despite the one sharp (G major) signature printed on the staff.

Other "dorian" tunes are Old Grey Cat, Ballydesmond Polka, Brenda Stubbert's Reel, Cliffs of Moher, Morrison's Jig, Peeler and the Goat, Road to Lisdoonvarna, Ships are Sailing and Swallowtail Jig.

Variations

There are so many terrific tunes that involve fiddling around with these "modal" choices.

A commonly played tune is "Drowsy Maggie" which starts and stops on an E note in the first part, with C# and F# notes and no D# or G#. That makes it E dorian, so the accompanist has to figure out that it needs E minor and D chords. Then the second part of the tune starts and stops on D and has C# and F# notes, that's D major, so the accompanist probably will play D A G as the chords. The tune switches from E dorian to D major - that is, it uses the same notes in the scale in both parts, but the starting note and tune "home" note is different, that is, the note that the tune "wants" to end on is different: E in the first part and D in the second part.

Another tune that jumps modes is "Falls of Richmond" which starts with two A minor parts, then goes to A major , then back to A minor in the fourth part. Each part starts on E and ends on A but the chords shift from Am and G in the minor part to A and E in the major part.

If we were playing the great Canadian tune "Growlin' Old Man and Grumbling Old Woman", the growling low part would be played starting on the low A and with C, F and G notes instead of C#, F# and G#. That makes it "A minor." The accompanist would use Am and G as the chords. Then on the high part of the tune, the mode switches. It's still A but instead of A minor, it is A modal (mixolydian) with a C# and F# but still a G natural. So now the accompanist uses an A chord and G chord. (and there are a couple accidental C notes thrown in instead of C# in the second phrase, just to confuse everyone!). If you have an accompanist who picks up on this tune right away then you know that they are really listening or really well trained, or both.

Figuring all this out takes some practice, but every once in a while you will play with some guitar or banjo player at a jam who will hear a new tune once, and then call out the chords to the other accompanists on the fly. I've been told that this is easy when you know how the modes work and you can immediately pick out the key and mode. Then the chords are automatic. I guess everything is easy when you know how, but I really admire someone who can do that!

Chuck got me inspired so now I'm going to keep working on this until I get it right. You are probably thinking, this is all a terrible headache! But the thing is, it's the music!! That's the way some genius wrote those great tunes. It's the way they HAD to be written to come out right. If you learn the tunes by ear then you can do this all by instinct or, you can take the stance that all of this makes no difference whatsoever and can be totally ignored. On the other hand, if you understand modes and recognize what's happening, it can make learning (and especially, learning accompaniment for) the tunes way easier.

p.s.  the three modes we never use are called -Lydian, Phrygian and Locrian -.so forget you ever heard about them

Summary and some Challenges:

Work through this...

OK, here's a good exercise. Prove to yourself that...

Here's another item to puzzle through... This is a great tune from the excellent tunebook, the Portland Collection

So, this tune starts on a D note and finishes on a D note in the first part, and starts on F and finishes on D in the second part. But it is F natural, not F#, so the key can't be D major. And there are C naturals (with some accidental C#'s) . The staff is annotated with a flatted B, so that would be the key signature for the key of F. But to make matters confused, there are no B notes in the melody. You can think of it as a D major scale with the 3rd and 7th flatted.

Why bother to put in a staff signature marking the Bflat (key of F major) if there are no B notes? You might just as well have no flats or sharps noted, yes? But if the staff signature is Fmajor and the tune starts and stops on the D note, that is a tip-off that the key is Dm, the minor relative to F. If you didn't mark the B note as flatted, then you could still read the tune and play it correctly, but if you tried to figure out your own chords or improvise, you would get confused because the lack of the Bflat signal might leave you in D dorian rather than D minor. The person writing the notation is just trying to give us a break!

What difference would it make to the chords? Not much. In fact, in old time recordings the accompanists sometimes just played major chords on top of tunes like this.