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Why It is Important to Understand the Modes
Knowledge of the modes fulfills three important goals.
1. Expanded Musical Pallet
Musicians who understand the modes can modulate a melody to a different mode. This helps a solo player or an ensemble create interest and excitement in a performance. It is possible to weave back and forth between a major tonality and a minor tonality. Being able to move a melody in a different modes means you get a lot more mileage out of a tune and your audience gets a lot more enjoyment.
2. Expanded Musical Expression
Facility with the scale of each of the six useful modes provides the tonal population for improvisation on a tune and the raw material for composing new melodies.
3. Consonant Performance
Knowledge of the chords which are characteristic of each mode is an essential for a guitar, mandolin or banjo player or any string or keyboard player who must support a melody with proper choices of chords. The skill is also helpful to improvisation and composition.
The links below will teach you about the modes. I recommend you move through these in order!
You'll find plenty of theory and general answers about the modes. But you'll also find specific information about the key signatures that are familiar to dulcimer players - D and G. Also, lots of example tunes in those keys associated modes.
Three of the seven modes are major-sounding. Three of the seven modes are minor-sounding. The seventh mode, Locrian, is unstable. The tonal center of the Locrian Mode is a diminished chord and its dominant chord is a tritone above the tonic. Locrian mode shows up in jazz and art music. Its structure will be discussed for the sake of completeness. However, there will be no discussion of how this mode is used.
Discussing the modes requires precise notation. It's easy to get confused. So, look over the table of notation used throughout these notes: Notation used
Happy moding!
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