What Key Signature Would Blast! Relate To?

[rarisgod]

Alright, so I've been working with arranging the song Blast! by Marcus Miller for my school band, and we were thinking about key signatures. Personally, I thought the song fell into the D Phrygian, or something similar, being that it starts on D but it has the D#/Eb in there as well. That might be incorrect, as it also has both the F and the F# at different parts. These could be accidentals, too...

What I'm asking is, if it's in D Phrygian, wouldn't that relate to Bb Major/Ionian, therefore having 2 flats?

Or would it go under D Minor/Aeolian, in which case it would relate to F Major/Ionian, and have 1 flat. Either way, accidentals could just be put to take care of any notes not included, but I'm just wondering for my own curiosity.

[jsingles]

not sure if I am quite understanding what you are asking but if the final is D then yes wouldn't Bb be Ionian? I would use 2 flats for the modal signature, but I am no theory expert so I could be wrong. I am also not too familiar with blast.

[rarisgod]

Well that's what I would think, but I am also no theory expert, hence my asking. Thanks for replying though! It seems to make sense to me...

[jsingles]

I am not quite sure how you are coming to this D Aeolian concept. What was your reasoning there? The Bb Ionian makes sense to me too though.

[rarisgod]

D Aeolian being D Minor, though I think we were discussing the D Harmonic Minor. As for how we came to it, it was a class of us that were discussing it and someone came to that conclusion at some point, it seemed to fit I guess.

[Auditroph]

The D Phyrigan scale and Bb major/ionian scale have the same notes, so they would both have two flats when written out.

[rarisgod]

I think I've finally figured this out (very late reply) that it's a "D Double Harmonic Minor". Someone told me this, maybe someone can confirm?

[onlyclave]

Originally Posted by rarisgod

I think I've finally figured this out (very late reply) that it's a "D Double Harmonic Minor". Someone told me this, maybe someone can confirm?

Is it twice as harmonic as regular D minor? Does it have 2 leading tones? Or is C# actually Cx (double sharp)?

[Jake of Bass]

Found this after about 5 seconds on google...


http://www.tonalcentre.org/Doubleha.html


I always wondered the name of that scale (double harmonic major), seeing as I love it so much.

[Jake of Bass]

Originally Posted by rarisgod

Alright, so I've been working with arranging the song Blast! by Marcus Miller for my school band, and we were thinking about key signatures. Personally, I thought the song fell into the D Phrygian, or something similar, being that it starts on D but it has the D#/Eb in there as well. That might be incorrect, as it also has both the F and the F# at different parts. These could be accidentals, too...

What I'm asking is, if it's in D Phrygian, wouldn't that relate to Bb Major/Ionian, therefore having 2 flats?

Or would it go under D Minor/Aeolian, in which case it would relate to F Major/Ionian, and have 1 flat. Either way, accidentals could just be put to take care of any notes not included, but I'm just wondering for my own curiosity.

It seems to me it's an altered scale of a sorts. Not sure which one however as my knowledge of altered scales is somewhat limited. Either that or the extra changes from the standard modes you've mentioned aren't necessarily part of the song, but more part of the chord being played, a modulation of sorts. It's hard to say without knowing the song but I'm sure someone can clear this up better than my feeble attempt.

[HaVIC5]

I seriously doubt you would interpret the song as being modal D double harmonic minor (major). That just doesn't happen. There are about 50 other things that are likely to be going on besides that.