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Modes - Application

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I think you are over interpreting my post to suit your own sensitivities and putting a spin on it that is not there...good grief...I'll leave it at that so as not to get an account warning.

I literally was saying " I really, really doubt they were thinking anything about modes, or really thinking in music theory terms at all "

Okie-deh, massuh!
 
No, it’s clearly c-Moll
This is clearly a sea mole.

1024px-East_Mole_Dunkirk.jpg
 
If anything..this is a choice made by the writer just like debating whether to use a sharp or a flat and sometimes is dictated by note or chord choice at the end of the passage.

No, it's not a free choice. There are established notation conventions designed to ensure that writers write in such a way that readers can read and correctly interpret the music.

...
...
even said so of the top of a page when I was first getting lessons first picking up my bass.

Then I would indeed challenge the 'teacher'. If someone has taken something written in A minor and annotated it to say that it was written in C major just because the key signature had no sharps and flats then they were wrong and I'm afraid you were misled. Plain and simple. Here's the acid test - what did it sound like?
 
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Then I would indeed challenge the 'teacher'. If someone has taken something written in A minor out and annotated it to say that it was written in C major just because the key signature had no sharps and flats then they were wrong and I'm afraid you were misled. Plain and simple. Here's the acid test - what did it sound like?

That’s the world of playing CCM style music at church! Even better: at my now ex-church, songs that had swing eighths in 4/4 were notated as 6/8. :rollno:
 
No, it's not a free choice. There are established notation conventions designed to ensure that writers write in such a way that readers can read and correctly interpret the music.



Then I would indeed challenge the 'teacher'. If someone has taken something written in A minor and annotated it to say that it was written in C major just because the key signature had no sharps and flats then they were wrong and I'm afraid you were misled. Plain and simple. Here's the acid test - what did it sound like?

I wish I could remember the name of the song.. but.. you know it wasn't just the teacher. It was a pretty popular song that it's been a long time since.. but.. it sounded like A minor. But.. was notated C Maj.

I'll give the possibility that the notation may have been incorrect but.. I mean.. I think his name was Joe or something.. a jazz student of guitar who couldn't really do jack with helping me with my right hand technique on bass.

Here's the big point though. Bro you can sit and talk semantics all you want. If Im absolutely wrong by all means.. let me stand corrected.. however.. I'm not trying to pass a test.

If you adhere to the notes contained within A Aeolian, you are still playing the 5th mode of the Major scale in C major. I've heard more than one musician refer to a song in A minor with a natural minor feel, or D minor with a Dorian feel, as being in the key of C major.

That works for me. I'm not here to argue about that nor do I really get too hung up on semantics.

What I can tell you.. is that if you actually sit down and play modes enough and put some thought into them here and there they kind of become ingrained like any other aspect of correlation between tones and they can be used to enhance your music. You CAN effectively change the key of a song by means of a modal shift and a chord change. You can opt to do it momentarily.. you can opt to use it as a transition into a bridge, or chorus, or a improv jam. I.e. I can not unsee that a C7 chord is composed of notes from the 5th mode of the major scale in the key of F. And really it's just that one single note differentiating between that and Cmaj7. The flat 7. But changing that one single note is all it takes. And I've gathered that through utilization of my fretboard, and my ears more than any other aspect of learning music. If anything.. having that muscle memory and ear development down made putting the other pieces together regarding my grasp of theory just a bit easier.

If I didn't have that understanding I probably wouldn't be able to keep up with musicians in an improv situation.
 
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That’s the world of playing CCM style music at church! Even better: at my now ex-church, songs that had swing eighths in 4/4 were notated as 6/8. :rollno:

I don't do CCM or play in church, but my guess is that they used something like Musescore or Sebelius to produce the scores and just use 6/8 (or 12/8) in order to make it sound right when played back, not realising that there are 'swing' settings for that sort of thing.

There is always the maxim 'know your audience' - it might also be possible that they are transcribing for a group where the majority struggle to play with swing whilst reading straight, yet can read and play compound time all day long.
 
I wouldn't lose too much sleep about re-evaluating his 'lesson'

I haven't lost a wink, at least over this. I'm sure it won't be the last time I hear someone refer to music in the ways I've described either. Like i say.. is it this or is it that? "Yes" that's all my mind needs to know. lol.

And I still love modes.. and I still think they're easier to understand through practical application, i.e. playing and listening, than theoretical debates. Just play them.. use them to borrow passing notes for a fill, use them to change the tonality of a chord for a measure, or even just a beat or two from a measure. Combine them with chords. Take two modes from the same key and play one after the other. You take the two corresponding chords you've got a 2 chord progression.

It's another tool in the shed. Experimentation with modes along with all the other ways of thinking about notes can lead to beautiful things. Like all the music that in some cases somebody had to have notated for them because the artist could only play it, where some have spent years dedicated to being able to read and reproduce and explain the theory behind it. Don't get me wrong. I do kind of envy the latter. But, I'm still having a lot of fun without that formal education. Using modes, chord tones, even just going crazy on the chromatic scale after watching Groove Workshop from Victor Wooten one day.. sometimes it may take a few minutes.. but I'm never far away from making something I've never played before sound like music.

I do appreciate the conversation even though I still stand behind many of the points I was making, semantics aside.
 
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I don't do CCM or play in church, but my guess is that they used something like Musescore or Sebelius to produce the scores and just use 6/8 (or 12/8) in order to make it sound right when played back, not realising that there are 'swing' settings for that sort of thing.

There is always the maxim 'know your audience' - it might also be possible that they are transcribing for a group where the majority struggle to play with swing whilst reading straight, yet can read and play compound time all day long.

I’ll just say this…I was told “oh, you can do some jazz on this” only to discover that what he meant was “play it like it was a 1950s mainstream pop song for white audiences”.

There was nothing to “read” either - just a chord sheet.

His approach to everything made the Gatlin Brothers (white southern gospel) sound like P-Funk in comparison. I got yelled at for “playing staccato” for things like having rests, or actually having a perceptible attack when I played a note.

So glad I’m never playing there again! :thumbsup:
 
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