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Double Bass what mode is it?

I

icie

Oct 30, 2008
1
0
#1
Hi everyone!

I'm new here

I have a question about two sequences (the notes are not in any particular order), and I'm not sure what mode they are in. There are 7 modes: Aeolian, Locrian, Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian.

Here are the sequences:
1. A-flat, B-flat, C, D, E, F-sharp, G,-sharp
2. D, E, F, G, A-flat, B-flat, C

please let me know what the modes of these 2 sequences are. #1 has all whole tones in between, and #2 has semitones appearing at weird locations..so that's why i'm confused. but they do belong to a mode though, I just can't figure it out.

Thank you!!! :hyper:
 
#5
Jazz Ad said:
Which makes it a locrian #2.
Click to expand...

Well, Locrian is (as I understand it) - root, flat 2nd, minor 3rd, fourth, diminished 5th, minor 6th, minor 7th and root. The original question listed a scale with a normal 2nd position instead of the flat 2nd of a locrian, hence the #2 suffix.

It really is only a harmonic minor scale with a diminished 5th. Some may argue differently though.
 
#7
icie said:
Hi everyone!

I'm new here

I have a question about two sequences (the notes are not in any particular order), and I'm not sure what mode they are in. There are 7 modes: Aeolian, Locrian, Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian.

Here are the sequences:
1. A-flat, B-flat, C, D, E, F-sharp, G,-sharp
2. D, E, F, G, A-flat, B-flat, C

please let me know what the modes of these 2 sequences are. #1 has all whole tones in between, and #2 has semitones appearing at weird locations..so that's why i'm confused. but they do belong to a mode though, I just can't figure it out.

Thank you!!! :hyper:
Click to expand...

First is whole tone as someone else pointed out.

The second is VI-7b5 as derived from I-min/maj7 (i.e. F melodic minor in this case). Or again as someone else pointed out, sometimes referred to as Locrian #2. Also heard it called half-diminished, Aeolian-b5, minor7b5, Locrian natural 2.
 
#9
Except music isn't spoken language. We has humans have a need to describe and categorize everything with words. What we call this particular collection of notes (locrian #2, aeolian b5) is not important. How we use it is and how it serves Music is.

Naming scales for the sake of it is like diagramming sentences. You don't need to know that a particular thing is called a verb to understand that every sentence needs one and how they function.

I think what is more important is to understand how it functions in the overall picture. A batch of note names with a label attached is just that. It is not Music.

-Swami Fingers
 
#14
icie said:
Hi everyone!

I'm new here

I have a question about two sequences (the notes are not in any particular order), and I'm not sure what mode they are in. There are 7 modes: Aeolian, Locrian, Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian.

Here are the sequences:
1. A-flat, B-flat, C, D, E, F-sharp, G,-sharp
2. D, E, F, G, A-flat, B-flat, C

please let me know what the modes of these 2 sequences are. #1 has all whole tones in between, and #2 has semitones appearing at weird locations..so that's why i'm confused. but they do belong to a mode though, I just can't figure it out.

Thank you!!! :hyper:
Click to expand...

If you start scale two on F it's a melodic minor ascending.
 
#15
fingers said:
Except music isn't spoken language. We has humans have a need to describe and categorize everything with words. What we call this particular collection of notes (locrian #2, aeolian b5) is not important. How we use it is and how it serves Music is.

Naming scales for the sake of it is like diagramming sentences. You don't need to know that a particular thing is called a verb to understand that every sentence needs one and how they function.

I think what is more important is to understand how it functions in the overall picture. A batch of note names with a label attached is just that. It is not Music.

-Swami Fingers
Click to expand...

Swami,

I think you're trying to point out that music is sound, and I agree that the essence of "knowing" music is being familiar with sounds and how they relate.

With that acknowledged, you seem a bit hostile toward music vocabulary. Why?

Why do you assume the OP is "naming the scales for the sake of it"? My assumption was that he was naming them so he could talk about their musical qualities with an instructor or maybe band mates. What is wrong with that?

How would you efficiently teach what you seem to know without "describing and categorizing"?

It helps to know the rules if you want to break them.

Didn't mean to hijack the post, I just felt compelled to respond to what I think is an interesting point that might go a bit far and end up throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
 
#18
Les Izmore (BTW, am I really talking to a bunch of Izmores? I rather doubt it -- do you mind if I go the grammatically correct route and call you Le Izmore? Perhaps it's feminine: La Izmore?),

If you read carefully, you'll see the Finger Swami (Les Fingers? The Finger? Who knows....) started off by asking simply and directly "why is it important?" In your post -- which contains reasonable questions and points of view -- I read assumptions about why the OP wants to know. You assume he needs to know the "correct" name for that scale or mode so he can discuss things with his musical pals or, perhaps, so that he can teach them later on, once he figures it out. Then you refer to the need to know "rules" so that, once known, they may be "broken".

And I say it ain't like that. I'm with the Swami. Music "theory" is only a descriptive language that talks about aspects of music. It's not music, not by a long shot or any stretch of the imagination. Real music is in your head and then in the air and then in listeners' ears. Theory is ONLY a tool for talking about music and, at the end of the day, talk don't matter. Music does.

As per Paulie's story about Chet Baker, if you're on the stand with Chet (or with Bird -- according to Red Rodney, who spent several intimate years with Bird, Bird didn't know chords either) the only language that matters is what's coming out the horn. In the real time of the musical moment, if the playing's any damn good at all, it's not coming from any kind of theoretical perspective, it's coming from heart and soul.

I wouldn't like to see the discussion turn into a binary, for or against thing. Theory's a language about a thing, it's not the thing itself. (That, BTW, is where the comparison to the grammar of real human language breaks down, because that grammar is a language about the thing itself. In real human spoken language, you CAN garble your meaning completely if the "rules" are broken. It's interesting, though, that most people learn these "rules" intuitively, not in any grammar class. Most writers don't know very much formal grammar at all, but it's a good thing their editors do....) Whether you're a learner or a master, the theory language is only of limited use and application. In real music you can say whatever you want (whether anybody listens or cares or feels good about the music is a different kettle of fish.)

So I would go back to the OP and ask again "why do want to know?" What is the OP's real musical context for needing to know this?
 
#19
Exactly.

I think "Why" is the important question. "What" serves to stimulate us intellectually but has nothing to do with Music.

I have no hostility towards using language to talk about music. Quite the contrary. I am a frequent poster here. I'm just encouraging the poster to ask what I think is the more important question.
 
#20
mynewfoundlove said:
Music "theory" is only a descriptive language that talks about aspects of music. It's not music, not by a long shot or any stretch of the imagination. Real music is in your head and then in the air and then in listeners' ears. Theory is ONLY a tool for talking about music and, at the end of the day, talk don't matter. Music does.
Click to expand...

My soul mate. Damon. I liggityluv you.

or is it Ligeti-luv?

Man, I'm such a geek.
 

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