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Chapters |
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Cycle Of 5ths Putting It All Together Progressions The Color Scale The Backwards Modal Approach |
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Samples |
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| Progressions | |
| When playing over a chord progression in which all the chords are derived from a single key, it can be highly efficient and effective to simply improvise using the scale of that key over the whole progression. | |
| | C F Am G | | |
| This progression comes directly from the key of C Major. Therefore, we can play in C Major throughout the whole progression. To make things a little more interesting, we can play a different mode over each chord if desired. For instance, you can play A Aeolian over the Am chord (which would keep you in the key of C), or you could play in A Dorian over the Am chord. The same can be said of the major chords. | |
| The modes really come into play when you’re playing over a progression in which the chords are not all from a single key. | |
| | C F C G D | | |
| This progression is in C Major, but the D major chord (D, F#, A) deviates from the key. The note F# is not in the key of C, but the C Major scale would work over this progression, as long as the F in the scale isn’t played over the D. | |
| The D Major chord is functioning as the ii chord which is minor in major keys. Therefore, if this progression stayed in key, the D would be a minor chord. Since this is not the case, we must find a way to play over the D Major chord while keeping true to the tonal center of the progression. | |
| A more professional approach would be to use the C Lydian mode over the D Major chord. C Lydian contains the same notes as C major except for one. As we already know, the Lydian mode is a major mode with a raised 4th degree. In C, this 4th degree is an F, or in the Lydian mode, an F#. | |
| You will often see chords written out in their numeric relation to the major key of the song. In a major key, the major chords are based off the 1st, 4th, and 5th notes of the scale. The minor chords are based off the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th notes of the scale. The diminished chord is based off the 7th note of the scale. This should look familiar. The tonality of each mode is the same as the tonality of its respective chord in relation to the major scale. | |
| When these chords are written out numerically, an uppercase roman numeral signifies a Major chord. A lowercase roman numeral signifies a Minor chord. A diminished chord is designated by a lower case roman numeral with a degree sign to its right. | |
| Major | |
| The chords in the major keys are spelled out: I ii iii IV V vi vii° . In the following examples, the chords that do not fit into the key of the progression are in italics. | |
| Ionian | |
| We already have one example above in which we used the Lydian Mode. Below is an example where we substitute the Mixolydian Mode. | |
| | I ii IV V | I ii IV vm | | |
| This progression stays in key until the last chord in bar 2. Here the V chord in the second bar becomes minor. In C, this would be a G minor chord spelled G Bb D. The Bb is a minor 7th degree in C major, therefore we can use the Mixolydian mode as a substitute for C Ionian over the G minor. | |
| Lydian | |
| Here are two progressions based around the Lydian Mode. | |
| | IV I V ii | IV I V bVII | | |
| Because this progression is based around the IV chord in the Major Scale, it becomes a Lydian progression. In the key of C, F Lydian would work over the whole progression, except for the bVII chord which would be Bb Major (Bb, D, F). We have a number of scale options to play over this chord… we could use F Mixolydian because of the natural 4th degree as well as F Ionian. We could also use Bb Ionian or Bb Lydian which would be the better choice of the two. Bb Mixolydian would not be a good choice because of the minor 7th (G#). | |
| | IV im7 ii vi | IV im vii° vi | | |
| Basing this in the key of C, we can use the F Lydian mode for the majority of the progression. For the im7 chord (Cmin7), we can use Mixolydian. Cmin 7 is made up of C, Eb, G, Bb. In F, the 2nd degree is G, the 4th degree is Bb, the 5th degree is C, and the minor 7th is Eb. Therefore, F Mixolydian would be a good scale to use over that chord. When we play the im chord (Cmin) in the second bar, we can choose between F Mixolydian and F Ionian because the 7th degree (Eb) has been left out of the chord. | |
| Mixolydian | |
| Here are two progressions based in the Mixolydian mode. | |
| | V I ii vi | V I bviisus IV | | |
| The chord that is out of key is the bviisus chord, or Bbsus in the key of C. We have two options if we are to keep the tonal center of the progression in G as we play over this chord. The spelling of this chord is Bb, C, F. We can play a G Dorian mode or G Aeolian. The only difference between the two is the 6th degree which will either be E (Dorian) or Eb (Aeolian). | |
| | V ii vi IV | V ii VI I | | |
| Since the VI chord is major, the 4th degree of the Mixolydian mode will be raised. In the key of C, this would make the vi chord (Am) a major chord making the C into a C#. Therefore, you can play a G Lydian mode over this chord because it contains the raised 4th degree. | |
| Minor | |
| Often times chords based in minor keys are given the same roman numeral as in the major keys. For the times that this isn’t the case, the minor chords are spelled out: i ii° III iv v VI VII. For the purposes of this book, we are going to approach the minor keys using the roman numerals for the chords in relation to the major keys since that is more commonly seen. | |
| Dorian | |
| Here are two progressions based in the Dorian mode. | |
| | ii iii IV V | ii iii vi VII | | |
| The chord that is out of key is the VII chord. If we’re based in the key of C, you can play in D Dorian over every chord except the VII chord, which in this case would be B major. Because B major contains an F#, we would have to play a D Mixolydian scale over this chord instead of D Dorian. | |
| | ii V ii I | ii bVII I I | | |
| Again, the chord that is out of key is the VII chord, but this time it is flatted. In C, this would be a Bb major. The note in this chord that strays from the D Dorian scale is Bb. In order to play over this chord without the fear of any bad notes, we can play in D Aeolian. This lowers the 6th note of the Dorian mode from a B to a Bb. | |
| Phrygian | |
| Here are two progressions in the Phrygian mode. | |
| | iii I V ii | iii I V II | | |
| By now you should be able to notice that the II chord is out of key. In C, we can play E Phrygian throughout this progression, but over the II chord we will need to change modes. The easiest mode to play over this chord would be E Aeolian, but if the II chord is a major 7th chord, you could play in E Dorian. | |
| | iii ii #v V | iii ii vi V | | |
| This is an interesting sounding progression that utilizes a chord that has 2 notes in it that are out of key. The #v, or in C, the G#min, contains a G# and D# that would cause problems if we just played an E Phrygian scale throughout the piece. Since E Ionian contains both of these notes, that would be a good scale to use over this chord, with the F# that E Ionian provides adding some harmonic flavor. | |
| Aeolian | |
| Here are two progressions based in the Aeolian mode. | |
| | vi I V ii | vi I bVII bVII | | |
| In this first example, the bVII chord in the second measure is out of key. In C, this would be a Bb major chord (Bb, D, F). The note that strays from the key is the Bb. Playing an A Phrygian over this chord would work since the 2nd degree of the scale (B) is flat (Bb). | |
| | vi iii V ii | vi iii viim I | | |
| In this example, the viim chord is out of key. It would normally act as a diminished chord, but in this progression it is acting as a minor chord. In C, this would be a Bmin (B, D, F#). The out of key note is the F#. You can use A Aeolian through this progression except over the viim chord, in which case it would be best to use A Dorian because it contains an F# as the raised 6th degree. | |
| Locrian | |
| Here is a progression using the Locrian mode. Progressions based in this mode are rather uncommon. | |
| | vii° 7 vi7 V iii | vii° 7 vi7 I II | | |
| The chord that is out of key is the II which would normally be minor if we stayed in key throughout this progression. The Locrian mode can be played over this progression provided that the 5th degree isn’t played or is raised while playing over the II chord. An easier approach would be to play the Phrygian mode over this chord since the only difference between it and the Locrian mode is the raised 5th degree. | |
| These examples should give you a pretty good idea on how to use the modes and how to substitute them with one another throughout different progressions and over different chords. Hopefully this will help you to analyze the progressions that you play over in your own music so you can come up with creative melodic ideas. | |
| Section 4 Samples | |