Cool tunes using aspects of the Phrygian color? Find a recording of Chick Corea's "Spain" and explore the magic he creates in this ancient color. Also, the intro of the Beatles tune "Bungalow Bill" uses a classical type Spanish / Phrygian idea to get things started. There's lots, Flamenco guitar players such as Carlos Montoya often hang at the Phrygian cafe. Explore. Click Phrygian mode for more ideas on this important color.

Aeolian mode. Although not historically recognized as one of the true, ancient church or Greek modes, the Aeolian mode is the center of the minor tonal universe of the equal tempered system. So much of the music we love is created with this ancient group of pitches. Commonly referred to as the relative or natural minor within the major / minor dichotomy of the equal tempered system, the Aeolian mode provides the other half of our musical foundation, balancing the joyous and uplifting major tonal environment with the humbled, more somber and darkly passionate minor coloring. Theoretically, the relative major and minor colors are created by the same group of pitches, it is in the intervalic relationship between the pitches that creates the two distinct colors and environments.

So why is the Aeolian mode so important? Well, like all of the modes discussed, its origins potentially go back thousands of years, so folks have been creating melodies with it for a long time. For many modern players it is the center of their creative musical universe and resources, and as such, provides the basis of how they view the musical world. There are societal aspects within America that drive artists towards certain elements to express their ideas and tell their stories. Not all of these stories are joyous or have happy endings, but the story must be told none the less. The Aeolian mode and its variations can become the vehicles to tell the sadder story. There is a tremendous power in the minor tonal environment not limited to expressing the everyday world of experience we live in, but to the spiritual world beyond, which as human beings we have the thinking capacity to contemplate and recreate in our music.

Another key aspect of the Aeolian mode and the minor tonality is in its ability to "balance" the emotional content of the major tonality within the same piece of music. Pairing the two tonalities together in one piece could very well provide the ultimate "ying and yang" for telling our tales of human experience. There are enough cool compositions from the literature that combine the two tonal environments in one musical piece to easily justify this statement. This shifting between the tonalities goes both ways of course, from minor to major as well as major to minor. Although I’ve never been, there is told stories of a tradition in New Orleans, Louisiana where the jazz musicians would help to "escort a beloved" to their final resting place while playing their jazz music. On the way to the internment, their music would be somber, humble and reflective of the toils of our day to day world and how we interact with one another. Once these ceremonies were completed, the return passage of the players back to the "world of life" would be articulated in the joyous nature of their music. I think some of the music for this important ceremony comes down to us today as "Dixieland Jazz", and that maybe the duality of the ceremony is reflected in our major / minor tonality of our equal tempered system. I believe. Here are a few titles of jazz standards that combine the two tonalities in one composition.

Needless to say this listing is just the beginning, but most of these titles are callable at most jazz sessions, are oftentimes requested at work and are classic jazz standards and fun and challenging to play. Click Aeolian mode for more ideas on this important color.

The Locrian mode is historically not one of the said to be "true" church modes like Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian and Mixolydian, and was possibly created by theorists to fill a gap that was created while reshaping the older, modal musical system into the more modern equal tempered system. Combining these four modes with the Ionian and it's relative minor, the Aeolian mode, six modes where then available. Well, there are seven different pitches in the major scale / Ionian mode, and although banned for centuries by some of the local authorities, the Ionian modes emergence at the center of equal temper not only signaled a breaking of tradition and a newly emerging consciousness for mankind but also a new and vast resource to explore. The name of this 7th mode? Locrian.

So why is this mode important? Not generally used as a tonal center as with the other modes, perhaps due to the absence of a perfect fifth above the root, the Locrian modes cool contribution to our tonal world is to diatonically create the "minor seventh flat five" harmony. This distinct minor color creates the total "yearning / longing" feel within either the major or minor tonal environment, it is potentially such an essential and unique color within the system and the emerging jazz artist. Lets compare the pitches, arpeggio and create this important chord. Example 1.

Also commonly known as the "half diminished chord", this Locrian chord is used many ways in American jazz and pop music. Rare as a root position chord in folk, rock and blues, the half diminished chord is oftentimes viewed as the upper part of a dominant 9th chord, a popular blues chordal color. In the following idea we create the common Two / Five / One motion in the minor tonal environment based on the Aeolian / relative minor mode, thus our two chord is diatonically half diminished. Example 2.

Click Locrian mode to explore this color further and explore the tonal convergence section for more ideas with the half diminished color.

Hypo / Plagel modal configurations. These modal configurations create in one sense a "mode within a mode", two distinct groups from the same group of pitches. By viewing the pitches from a fourth below to a fifth above, using the same letter names, the hypo or plagel group emerges from the original mode. This simple approach to the resource goes a long way in providing variety in the music, especially back when the melodic and harmonic resources were limited to a few modes ( as far as we know ) and the voice was oftentimes the only available instrument of definite tuning. Here is a chart comparing the Dorian mode to its "hypo-Dorian" using the pitch A as the root. Example 1.

So why potentially important? Well, for a number of reasons. Historically, using these Plagel modes provided early composers with two scales from one grouping of pitches, each having a slightly different color and tonal gravity. How? Basically by the intervals between the pitches and the aural phenomena that if a certain pitch gets struck enough times, it potentially becomes the center of whatever group of pitches it is associated with. So composers could conceivably generate ideas in say in the Dorian mode, move to its Plagel form and create a new idea, then perhaps return to the original Dorian configuration and melody as is so common in our recorded literature. It was an initial way to begin to expand the scales and musical forms used to create music prior to the emergence of equal temper and families of instruments. Here is the chart from example 1 comparing the intervals of the Dorian and hypo Dorian configurations. Example 1a.

The change of the location of the half step in the hypo / Dorian redefines the color, allowing for 2 shades from one group. Here is the sounds of these two groups. Example 1b.

Neat color change huh? A bit primitive perhaps? Well it is by today's standards. These hypo / modal pairings are often associated with the Gregorian chants of the early centuries of the last millenium. So no equal temper, no chords, whammy bars, nothin! Is this pairing like the relative major / minor of the more modern equal temper ...? Tis possibly is ...

Us modernists could use the hypo or Plagel configurations to recreate the ancient music, or create new scales or tone rows from the pitches of equal temper. This hypo / Plagel configuring is a way to move away from the Ionian / major scale / relative minor / Aeolian centered universe while staying within the solar system of the equal temper system. So far, all of the preceding modal ideas have been basically generated from the Dorian group of pitches. The possibility exists of course to create "modes" from within other groups of pitches. The various minor scales discussed in this entire section might be a good starting point for this "hypo / Plagel" venture, i.e., the melodic minor group creates some interesting variations with its minor third, major sixth and major seventh intervals. The harmonic minor with its minor 3rd, minor 6th and major 7th degree also creates some interesting possibilities. Lets create the hypo Mixolydian of C harmonic minor. Example 1a.

Here is a melodic idea using the harmonic minor / hypo Mixolydian over the Two / Five / One in C minor. Example 1b.

Cool huh? So, whether in tonic or hypo configurations, lots to potentially explore. An important aspect to be considered is the harmony and the chord progressions that could be created by reconfiguring musical elements in the above fashion. Finding modes within an established group and creating different "root" pitches within those modes is a potential way to disguise the original group, create new and exciting combinations and perhaps a "modal sound" yet to be discovered. There is no telling what emotional responses lie in the recombining of the modal elements, we simply must seek and discover them for ourselves, then share them with others. Once discovered, we can try to "capture" and recreate the timeless emotion in our artistic creations from these ancient modal colors. Cool with this? The history of the modes is a fascinating and oftentimes very mysterious story.

Where to next?

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"Denial ain't just a river in Egypt." Mark Twain