- Hi, in this film I'm
going to talk about modes.
Now you may have heard about modes.
Especially if you're into playing jazz.
Lots of jazz musicians
spend their lives talking
about modes and how to play in modes.
I'm going to go back in
history for a few minutes
to a time before major and minor keys.
Now if you're used to playing music
in major and minor keys, you
might be under the impression
that they've been around forever.
But they haven't really,
because it was only in the years
from about 1600 that we
started to write music
in major and minor keys.
But if we go back before 1600
into a time called the Renaissance period,
or into a time before that
called the Mediaeval period,
we find composers are writing
their music using modes.
Now this all sounds very
complicated I'm sure,
but it's not as complicated as it seems.
Let's just have a little exploration
of what these modes are.
And I'm going to start with a mode
that we will all instantly recognise.
If I start on C,
and I go up to the next C,
that sounds to us like a scale of C major.
Okay, but C to C just using
the white notes like that,
was originally called the Ionian mode.
So if you use those notes from C to C,
that's the Ionian mode.
Okay, well that seems fairly
straightforward, doesn't it?
Now what about if we use
the notes from D to D.
If we were going to play a
scale that went from D to D,
we'd quite likely put an
F-sharp and a C-sharp in it.
That's kind of what we're
used to listening to.
We might even here a scale of D minor.
But back in the days of modes,
the D to D would have been
on white notes, like this.
Hm, sounds slightly strange
to our ears, doesn't it?
Especially this bit at the top, there.
But this is a mode that
runs between D and D,
just using the white
notes on the modern piano.
They didn't have pianos
all those years ago
but we're just kind of thinking about this
in terms of a modern keyboard.
And D to D is the Dorian mode.
And it does sound a little
bit different, doesn't it?
Because what we've done
by putting an F-sharp
in it, and a C-sharp,
is actually we've
transposed the Ionian mode.
Because in the Ionian mode it
goes, tone, tone, semitone,
tone, tone, tone, semitone.
And in D major we do the same thing.
We go tone, tone, so that
means we need an F-sharp,
semitone, tone, tone, tone,
so that means we need a C-sharp, semitone.
So we need that C-sharp to
make the final semitone work.
But if I just go white notes,
I've changed that pattern, haven't I,
of tones and semitones.
So I'm going tone, semitone, tone,
tone, tone, semitone, tone.
Which is why the Dorian mode can sound
a bit strange to our ears.
You can even have chords.
So that would be the Dorian mode.
Sounds strange to us, doesn't it?
We'd probably rather hear this.
With the F-sharp and the C-sharp.
But in the Dorian mode.
It's quite a nice sound when
you get used to it, actually.
But that's the Dorian mode.
Now you can, of course, go from E to E.
And if I use the notes from E to E,
I'm using something
called the Phrygian mode.
My goodness me.
It sounds like something you'd
put in the fridge doesn't it?
Phrygian mode.
But this is the Phrygian mode, E to E.
So it's the same principle.
On the modern keyboard,
or the modern piano,
this just means using the white notes.
So there's the Phrygian
mode running from E to E.
Then of course, there's going to be
a mode running from F to F.
And F to F is called a Lydian mode.
Fun these names, aren't they?
So here's the Lydian mode.
That one sounds very strange, doesn't it?
We'd want to put a B-flat in, wouldn't we?
To make it a scale of F major.
Which really, F major is just
a transposed Ionian mode.
But when you hear the Lydian mode,
with a B-natural, bit strange.
So there's the Lydian mode.
Okay, what's coming next?
Guess what, its G to G.
And this is the Mixolydian mode.
So G to G, Mixolydian mode, okay?
That's what that one sounds like.
You know, we're waiting
for an F-sharp, aren't we?
To make it G major, or the
transposed Ionian mode.
But here it is, the Mixolydian mode.
So that's G to G.
A to A, what's A to A all about?
Well A to A
is about the Aeolian mode.
Aeolian mode.
And A to A sounds like this.
Now that's the same as A
natural minor, as we know it.
But there it is.
That's the Aeolian mode.
Quite an attractive mode
to work in, actually.
And then B to B, is the
last one before we get back
to where we started, isn't it?
And B to B is called the Locrian mode.
So there we have it, B to B.
I think that one does sound
rather strange, doesn't it?
So you can hear that
some of these modes sound
rather better than other modes.
But in the years before 1600,
before we got to major and minor keys,
composers were working in these modes.
And then during the late
1500s, composers started
to kind of mess about with these modes.
And they sort of said well,
if I was playing this,
that I was illustrating earlier,
they might say, "Well, do you know
"it sounds better with some C-sharps?"
So they started adding
in sharps and flats.
What they called musica ficta.
And by the time we get to 1600,
the modes have got so kind of corrupted
that, really, the whole system
of major and minor keys evolve.
But if you're listening
to music before 1600,
you might be hearing modes
with a bit of musica ficta in.
And if you go back a bit further,
you might be hearing modes on their own.
And you might be thinking,
"There's something about
this sounds a bit strange."
And it'll be because those patterns
of tones and semitones are
not what we are expecting,
with major and minor keys.
But they're the pattern that's
given to us by those modes.
You could transpose a mode,
or you could do all sorts of things to it.
And you could do things
with modes starting
on different places in the scale.
And we have things called a
Hypodorian mode, and things.
Let's not worry about that for now.
But that's the basic system of modes.
And it will help you to
access this music before 1600.
And the jazzers will be able
to give you their
perspective on modes as well.
