Today, we are revisiting scales, but adding in some Music Theory background. A lot of people know what they are, of course. A scale? That’s that nasty thing I have to play, and know, oh and there’s a dozen of them. Forty-eight if you count all three types of minor scales. Guess what, though? There are more scales than that.
However, scales weren’t always called scales. They used to be something called ‘Modes,’ which goes back to Ancient Greek music. There are seven modes in all. Major and natural minor scales are each their own mode. However, they’re called something different when we’re talking about modes. The major scale is the Ionian mode, and the natural minor scale is the Aeolian mode. Harmonic and melodic minor are modifications of the Aeolian mode.
In a scale, or mode, there is a certain order to the notes being played. It’s no coincidence that all 12 major scales sound alike. Each mode has a different order of semitones (half-tones) and whole tones. For our purposes, we’ll call these half-steps (H) and whole-steps (W).
Ionian: WWHWWWH
Aeolian: WHWWHWW
Dorian: WHWWWHW
Phrygian: HWWWHWW
Lydian: WWWHWWH
Mixolydian: WWHWWHW
Locrian: HWWHWWW
Ionian mode and Aeolian mode became the two modes used most commonly, because either of them can easily be manipulated into one of the other modes.
Another way of thinking of modes is, of course, relative to key signatures or accidentals. Since the C major scale has all naturals, we’ll use that as our example. Flats lower the note, and sharps raise it. Hence, you can replace the C major scale with any scale you want.
Ionian: C D E F G A B C
Aeolian: C D Eb F G Ab Bb C
Dorian: C D Eb F G A Bb C
Phrygian: C Db Eb F G Ab Bb C
Lydian: C D E F# G A B C
Mixolydian: C D E F G A Bb C
Locrian: C Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C
Since modes were based on steps like this, and scales are based on modes, there are technically hundreds of types of scales. It all depends on which pattern you follow. However, due to harmonics, Ionian and Aeolian are the two modes that sound the best when it comes to setting chords. That is, they’re more harmonious. Generally, in 16th and 17th century music, composers avoided tritones and augmented seconds as much as possible. The more modern composers, such as Persichetti and Frank Ticheli favor dissonances like this.
I hope you enjoyed learning that there are more scales than there are people in the world. Join me again soon for a review of Persichetti’s symphony and One Piece episode 425. Any questions or thoughts? Comment here. Thanks for reading!
|