Chopin Conclusion

Forums Rules

A shortened version of the Forums Rules is given below. The full version can be found here.

By maintaining a user account and by posting to these forums, you hereby agree to abide by these rules.

FORUMS RULES - A SNAPSHOT
- Stay safe - protect your privacy and respect the privacy of others
- No abusive, offensive or aggressive postings
- No insults or personal attacks
- No foul language
- No trolling
- No inappropriate or illegal material
- No advertising (including "For Sale" or "Wanted" adverts)
- No crossposting
- No forum spamming
- No defamatory comments
- Avoid using jargon, abbreviations or "text talk"

Chopin Conclusion, Regarding Etudes

Options

Cyrilla	Nov 28 2005, 12:49 AM Post #106
Unregistered	The danger of describing the modes as purely 'scales on the white notes' can cause this sort of confusion, pianostar! They can, of course, be transposed to any starting note. This is why it is really best to try to understand the structure of each. As noodle says, the raised 4th in the scale of C would be F#. They CAN be viewed in terms of their similarity to a basic major or natural minor scale. The Dorian is like a natural minor scale with a raised 6th; the Phrygian is natural minor with a flattened 2nd. The Lydian is like a major scale with a raised 4th; the Mixolydian is major with a flattened 7th. The Locrian, although its first third is a minor one, has a totally different character to the others because its 5th is a diminished one. Each mode has its own lovely 'flavour'...enjoy!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Dangermouse	Dec 10 2005, 11:55 PM Post #107
Unregistered	Does nobody in the world teach theory anymore????

IrisH - LoonY	Dec 11 2005, 02:04 AM Post #108
Unregistered	QUOTE(Dangermouse @ Dec 10 2005, 11:55 PM) Does nobody in the world teach theory anymore???? Apparently not (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) IrisH - LoonY

noodle	Dec 11 2005, 12:29 PM Post #109
Unregistered	QUOTE(Dangermouse @ Dec 10 2005, 11:55 PM) Does nobody in the world teach theory anymore???? Yes! Why?

pianostar	Dec 11 2005, 05:38 PM Post #110
Unregistered	QUOTE The danger of describing the modes as purely 'scales on the white notes' can cause this sort of confusion, pianostar! They can, of course, be transposed to any starting note. This is why it is really best to try to understand the structure of each. As noodle says, the raised 4th in the scale of C would be F#. They CAN be viewed in terms of their similarity to a basic major or natural minor scale. The Dorian is like a natural minor scale with a raised 6th; the Phrygian is natural minor with a flattened 2nd. The Lydian is like a major scale with a raised 4th; the Mixolydian is major with a flattened 7th. The Locrian, although its first third is a minor one, has a totally different character to the others because its 5th is a diminished one. Each mode has its own lovely 'flavour'...enjoy!! Hello, there! Sorry I didn't reply for such a long time - I didn't notice you've posted! Thank you very much for untangling my confusion about modes... When my teacher at school explained about them...that's exactly what he said: They are scales which only use white notes. That is why I got confused! Because, of course...I misunderstood him! That's why I was kind of...lost when somebody mentioned that a Lydian 4th was, for example, a C to an F#. Because, I thought, that modes only had white notes in them...but I do understand now that that is not necesseraly true. So, if you took the Dorian (I think that's right..) mode, which begins with D: D E F G A B C D , and worked out the intervals: Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, and applied them to the same scale which begins on a different note...e.g. G, it would be: G A Bflat C D E F G. Is that about right? But, oh my gosh - that's like a mixture of G minor (because of the B flat and the F natural) and G major - because of the E natural! Is that, incidentally, why modes sound neither major nor minor?! Thank you for helping me understand. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Cyrilla	Dec 11 2005, 07:06 PM Post #111
Unregistered	I'm glad my description helped a bit, pianostar - it's so difficult trying to explain music in words! Well, as I said, the modes DO sound vaguely major/minor because each one (ignore the Locrian for now!) is either the diatonic major or natural minor scale with one altered note. Three have a major 3rd to start and three have a minor 3rd. (Locrian also starts with a minor 3rd but has a diminished 5th.) Yes, you're right that the Dorian starting on G would be G A Bb C D E F G. If you remember what I said about it being like the natural minor...the natural G minor scale would be G A Bb C D Eb F G. But the Dorian is natural minor with a raised 6th - hence the E natural rather than Eb. So - each one does have a major or minor character, but the altered note gives each one such a strong flavour of its own that, no, they don't 'sound major or minor' in the same way as the 'straight' major/minor scales do. There is a lot of gorgeous folk music from the UK that is modal - singing these really helps imbibe these 'flavours' yum yum (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

« Next Oldest · Viva Piano · Next Newest »