Search Results for: Modes

The Diatonic Scale
Imagine you were given a piano with no black keys. You could still produce a familiar do re mi scale and plenty of melodies using the key of C major, as this doesn’t require the sharps or flats of the black keys. Your white keyboard would effectively be a C diatonic keyboard, offering up the notes of the C major scale in each direction from Middle C. The notes of the C major scale are  C   D   E   F   G   A   B and C again. That’s an eight note sequence, or octave. And it’s exactly what’s in our 10 hole diatonic C harp between holes 4 and 7. Try it for yourself  4B    4D    5B    5D    6B    6D    7D   7B. These are our melody, or soloing, notes.

The Chromatic Scale
If we reintroduced the black keys to our piano, it would become a chromatic keyboard, offering us the luxury of ascending and descending in half note steps. If we did so between two C keys an octave apart, the result would be:

Ascending    :  C    C#   D    D#   E    F    F#   G    G#   A    A#   B    C
Descending :  C     B    Bb    A    Ab   G   Gb   F     E     Eb   D    Db  C

That’s a thirteen note sequence. And, just in case you’re wondering, yes C# is the same note as Db on a chromatic keyboard. This aspect of musical theory is called enharmonics; two names for the same note. Knowing exactly how, and exactly when to use each, is complicated theory we will save for a rainy day. On diatonic harmonicas, and on a bandstand however, you’ll normally hear the notes of the chromatic scale referred to as follows:

Common use :  C    Db   D    Eb   E    F    F#   G    Ab   A    Bb   B    C

How to crack the modal code
Let’s return to our imaginary diatonic, or white key, piano for a moment. To break the routine of the C major scale outlined above, we could experiment by ascending and descending between other like-notes an octave apart; D to D, or E to E for example. In doing so, we would be entering the magic kingdom of modal scales. Tabbing them for the 10 hole harp in sequence from C, the result is displayed in the chart below left. Take some time now to play each line left to right and right to left (up and down) a few times on your C harp. Listen carefully to the end product in each case and note the different character, or flavour, of each scale. How does each one leave you feeling? Can you find any useful or interesting musical licks? Do any of the scales remind you of tunes you have heard before?

C     4B   4D   5B   5D   6B   6D   7D   7B
D    4D   5B   5D   6B   6D   7D   7B   8D
E     5B   5D   6B   6D   7D   7B   8D   8B
F     5D   6B   6D   7D   7B   8D   8B   9D
G     6B   6D   7D   7B   8D   8B   9D   9B
A     6D   7D   7B   8D   8B   9D   9B   10D
B     7D   7B   8D   8B   9D   9B   10D  10B

Now let’s analyse what’s actually happening by mapping out the musical steps, or intervals, we’re making in each case. Referring to the chromatic piano keyboard pictured above right will help you visualise what’s happening. We’ll call a whole-tone step T and a half-tone (or semi-tone) step s.

C        T     T     s     T     T     T     s                                 C   D   E   F   G   A   B   C
D        T     s     T     T     T     s     T                                 D   E   F   G   A   B   C   D
E        s     T     T     T     s     T     T                                 E   F   G   A   B   C   D   E
F        T     T     T     s     T     T     s                                 F   G   A   B   C   D   E   F
G        T     T     s     T     T     s     T                                 G   A   B   C   D   E   F   G
A        T     s     T     T     s     T     T                                 A   B   C   D   E   F   G   A
B        s     T     T     s     T      T    T                                 B   C   D   E   F   G   A   B

And this is almost all you need to know – it’s that hard! In the left hand panel above, you can see how the semi-tone steps shift to the left each time we move up a mode. These are the intervals between E and F, and B and C. The right hand panel demonstrates this too. The semitone shifts are what changed the ‘flavour‘ of the modal scales you played earlier. They move closer to the start note each time you move up; until they eventually become the start note.

Name and shame
I’ve used the term ‘flavour‘ with some forethought. I could have used ‘mood‘ but I don’t want to confuse this with mode, so let’s stick with the cooking metaphor for now. In which case, just as we’ve given each tone a letter of the alphabet, so each of the diatonic recipes above, or modal scales, has a given name (in green):

C        T     T     s     T     T     T     s        Ionian
D        T     s     T     T     T     s     T        Dorian
E        s     T     T     T     s     T     T        Phrygian
F        T     T     T     s     T     T     s        Lydian
G        T     T     s     T     T     s     T       Mixolydian
A        T     s     T     T     s     T     T        Aeolian
B        s     T     T     s     T      T    T        Locrian

These are the ancient Greek names attributed to each mode by Pythagoras. Yes the mathematician. You know folks sometimes say music and maths have a lot in common? Well right now you’re at the heart of the matter. The Greeks recognised the science, art and magic of music. Indeed, music was actually part of the ancient Olympic Games.

Pythagoras used musical traditions from remote areas of the known world to describe the character of each mode. The Dorians were one of the four major Greek tribes and came from central Greece – they built temples with plane looking, Doric, capitals to their  columns. Locrians were a minor tribe from north-west mainland Greece. Two of the other major Greek tribes were the Ionians who settled the Ionian seaboard in what is now Turkey, and the Aeolians, originally from Thessaly in mainland Greece. The Phrygian community was from Asia Minor (Turkey), as were the Lydians of Anatolia. Mixolydian means half, or almost, Lydian, and is a technical afterthought rather than an actual Greek tribe of small stature.

Nouvelle cuisine
Relating each of the modal scales to parts of the known world made the ‘flavour‘ of the mode more meaningful to the Greek listener. In the post-modern world we might call Phrygian the Spanish or Moorish mode, Lydian the Scottish mode, Aeolian the Klezmer or Yiddish mode and Dorian the English Folk mode. Meanwhile, philosophers ancient and modern might describe the ‘feeling‘ or ‘mood-changing‘ effect of each mode in the following way:

Ionian             Harmonious or tender
Dorian            Serious or melancholic
Phrygian        Mystic
Lydian             Happy or vibrant
Mixolydian     Angelic or youthful
Aeolian           Sad or tearful
Locrian           Wistful or yearning

Getting real with it
Now that the underlying theory is clearer, one glaringly important question arises; what practical use is there for musical modes while playing the diatonic harmonica? The answer in one word is, lots! But first let’s translate everything into harp speak.

To start with, it’s useful to equate each mode name with a standard key name. We’ll then need to agree a useful root note, or start point, for each key; officially called the point of resolution. Finally, it helps to find a memorable tune we can use as an aide memoire to recall each mode in a practical sense. Using a C harmonica, our shortlist might look like this:

Mode                Key                    Root Note(s)         Memorable tune
Ionian              C major              4B, 1B, 7B, 10B     When The Saints Go Marching In / Buffalo Gals
Dorian             D minor             4D, 1D, 8D             Scarborough Fair / Drunken Sailor
Phrygian         E  minor             5B, 2B, 8B              Knights in White Satin / Misirlou
Lydian             F major               5D, 9D, 2D”           Au Claire de la Lune / Price Tag / Simpsons Theme
Mixolydian     G major              2D, 6B, 9B             Norwegian Wood / Clocks (Cold Play)
Aeolian           A minor              6D, 3D”, 10D         When Johnny Comes Marching Home / Losing My Religion
Locrian           B diminished     3D, 7D                    She’s A Rainbow

Running around in circles
Some of you may be thinking this is all very user-friendly, but you’d really like to get some engine oil under your fingernails. OK, roll your sleeves up, it’s time to haul the whole thing onto the inspection ramp. To truly relate the concept of modes to the 10 hole diatonic harp, we have to embrace a pivotal subject of musical theory. It’s one that can quickly cause harp playing eyes to glaze over; the circle of fifths (or positional playing). Trust me when I say it’s really quite simple. If I can get it, so can you. Let’s gently set the ball rolling using a C harp.

We know we can play any number of straight harp tunes, including When The Saints Go Marching In, from 4B right? We also know this is called 1st Position (Straight Harp). Well, to put it politely, these tunes soon feel pedestrian. We want to rock it up and play like Little Walter. So we find ourselves flipping through pages until we come to Cross Harp, where we adopt 2D as our root and range up and down between it and 6B. We then start to investigate draw bends. As we do so, we’re probably aware that we’re playing in G major. We also know this as 2nd Position.

But let’s revisit what just happened for moment. To reach G from C, we’ve ascended 5 degrees, or notes, of the major scale. If we wanted to use posh musical vocabulary, we could call this a diatonic interval of 5. We’ve gone from C, through  D   E   F up to  G in 5 steps. Remember that we include the root note of C as step 1 when we start counting. It’s like the working week from Monday to Friday – five days in all. Hold that thought.

Step back baby, step back
Stepping back into modal terms for a moment (and once again if I can do this, you can too, so stay with it), we’ve moved from Ionian (C) in root note 4B, to Mixolydian (G) in root note 2D. Et voila! It’s that simple. We’ve worked our way from 1st to 2nd position, from 4B to 2D, from Ionian to Mixolydian and it’s all making sense. Ready for the next step?

If we counted up another interval of 5 from G, we’d reach D and that would be Dorian mode. Which is 3rd position from 4D. Hold up the fingers and thumb of either hand and count this out across your digits: G  A  B  C  D. You just used your naturally patented, circle-of fifths, double-checking system. Take it with you wherever you play. By the way, to be absolutely accurate, we actually found D minor. We won’t explain the reason for this right now, as it will interrupt our line of thought. But once you’ve finished this page, had a massage and finished a cold glass of whatever takes your fancy, you can check it all out here.

Back on message. Position-wise, we can keep going round the circle of fifths using our fingers and thumbs until we eventually return to C. In doing so, we will have covered all twelve degrees of the chromatic scale. Or will we? I hear some of you asking ‘how come, when counting round in intervals of 5, it takes us from C to G, G to D, D to A, A to E, E to B, B to F and finally from F to C? That’s only 7 notes on the keyboard, not 12!‘.

Better by half
Here’s the answer. To be empirically accurate, we need to start counting not in diatonic intervals, but in chromatic intervals, or half steps only. This way the chromatic interval between C and G is 8 half-step degrees, instead of five diatonic steps.The keyboard image above will help you visualise this. The chromatic interval from G to D is also 8 half-step degrees. Only now, when we continue counting chromatically, do we actually cover all 12 degrees of the chromatic scale using the white and black keys of our piano keyboard. Let’s check it all out, ascending in 8 half-step intervals from C:

C     G     D     A     E     B     F#    Db    Ab    Eb     Bb    F 

Well done. Here you have an absolute DNA blueprint for all twelve positions on a C major diatonic harmonica. You can take this same 8 half-step formula, apply it to any key of diatonic harmonica, and work out its integral twelve positional note names.

At the same time, you can confidently accept that you’ll encounter our seven modes as you go (in bold above). The modal positions also happen to be the most practical of the twelve options available to diatonic harp players – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 12th – as the root note is not always hidden in an inconvenient bend. Now, just to round everything off, here are the 7 modes again with their root notes and corresponding position on the harmonica, again using a C major harp.

Mode                Key                    Root Note(s)          Harp Position
Ionian               C major             4B, 1B, 7B, 10B      1st position
Dorian              D minor             4D, 1D, 8D              3rd position
Phrygian          E  minor             5B, 2B, 8B               5th position
Lydian              F major              5D, 9D, 2D”             12th position
Mixolydian      G major             2D, 6B, 9B                2nd position
Aeolian             A minor             6D, 3D”, 10D           4th position
Locrian             B diminished    3D, 7D                      6th position

Welcome to the human race!
If any of this is page unclear, it’s probably because you’re human, or else you’ve been playing your harmonica instinctively. The message is, it’s time to start playing smart as well as hard, so review the information above and add it to your arsenal. We guarantee it will help shape you into a musician.  Very soon you’ll be surprising those who assumed you were just the harp playe’. Now re-read this page until you can comfortably do it all yourself. Then tell all your harp friends where you found the inspiration.

Now I’m the king of the swingers, the jungle VIP

As diatonic harmonica players we often bring a bluesy signature to musical events. Jumping up and blowing the back of it is what it’s all about. And whether or not we have mastered all our bends, or understand song structure and chord progressions, we tuck in undaunted.

At the outset this is not a bad thing. First time nerves and performance anxiety are important hurdles for any harmonica player to clear. Raw enthusiasm and sympathetic family members will provide ample fuel and reward; at least on the first few occasions.

There comes a watershed however, when novelty value tapers and musical limitations emerge. We realise there is a yawning chasm between a harp player and a musician playing the harmonica. Guitarists are busy shredding song after song and sounding great every time. They also remember all the song keys. Meanwhile the the rhythm section is confidently adding groove and direction to proceedings. Their sorcery is not born of a secret pact with dark forces, nor their ability to drop in chromatic steps that may eclipse our diatonic capabilities.

The difference comes down to basic musical convention, which many harp players take time to discover, beginning with scales. At the Harp Surgery we sometimes often equate learning music to learning a language. If we extend this metaphor, notes are our words, and scales are our dialect. Learning scales and selecting the most appropriate one for any particular song will instantly lift our musicality and the plaudits we receive. With this in mind, no scale is more fundamental to musical safety than the Pentatonic Scale. for now, think of this as the five strongest notes available in any particular key.

The clips above, My Girl and Chuck E’s in Love both capture the pentatonic scale in a nutshell. When it comes to soloing on any instrument, pentatonic scales provide the musical mantelpiece on which you to display all your souvenirs. With practise, you’ll be able to range the full extent of your harmonica in a number of positions and really start to cut it with rest of the band. What’s more, the shapes, sequences and sweet spots you learn on one harp can be readily transferred to any other ten hole diatonic harp.

I reached the top and had to stop
To open up the sound of the major pentatonic on your harmonica (and yes there is a minor pentatonic; it’s the blues scale with the middle note missing), simply play the major scale from 4B (first position) but leave out the fourth and seventh notes of the scale. It’ll sound slightly oriental, as it provides the foundation of a lot of far eastern music.

If you have a piano, simply play the five black keys up and down from F#. This gives the same audible result. In time we can take this arrangement and move to different keys, or starting points, on the same harmonica. When we do this from 2D (second position) we’ll need to include bend 3D”, which in time will introduce a country or old-time aspect to our playing.

And that’s what’s botherin’ me
Using a 10 hole C major harmonica, let’s check out the pentatonic scales starting on each of the seven notes in the C Major Scale. This way you’ll soon be able to play in seven different keys, in seven different modes and in seven different positions, all on the same harp. The index shown is a check list of keys, positions and modes on a C major harmonica. You can find more information about positions and modes on separate pages in our Harp Theory menu.

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Listen to Paul de Lay work up and down the 1st Position Pentatonic:

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Listen to Little Walter use the ascending 2nd Position Pentatonic for the opening of Juke:

Now hear Rod Piazza extend this up another octave:

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This pentatonic is great over minor keys, but it can also be used for major keys.

Here are Madness working the Minor Pentatonic on One Step Beyond:

Other examples are Scarborough Fair, and Sugar Blue on the Rolling Stones Miss You.

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Another useful one for minor playing.

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Another useful one for minor and major playing.

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Another useful one for minor and major playing. (Bend the E to Eb for a more Major sound)
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And back to an essentially major feel with a film score quality to it.

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So give me the secret, man-cub, clue me what to do
Once you spend time exploring the information above, it becomes apparent that different keys are inter-related. When we start to apply these to songs structures and their chord progressions, we can begin to think and play outside the box. When we then go back and listen to the greats, it’s with a fresh understanding of why they’re playing what they do, as well as enjoying what we hear.

Once you’ve figured out the major pentatonic panorama, start to work on the minor pentatonic. This is the blues scale with one note missing. On a C harp play 2D  3D’  4B  4D  5D  6B. This is the sound of the minor pentatonic scale. Now connect 4B and 4D, using 4D’: 2D  3D’  4B  4D’ 4D  5D  6B. Now you have the the blue scale!

Close encounters of the third kind

This question was asked by a student in our Harpin’ By The Sea beginners’ workshop; we had touched on positional playing as a way to extend the scope of the diatonic harmonica. And to be honest, it’s a fair question. Perhaps we accept the fact too easily, without asking or fully understanding the reason why. But we were a group of beginners. So we decided to explain the finer details after the workshop for those who were interested, rather than risk putting the majority off music for life. Here’s the result.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of modes and positions, then I recommend you first check out the post entitled Modes (or visit Modes via the Theory menu at the top of the screen) and come back when you’re comfortable with everything. It’s quick and it won’t hurt!

Ground control to Major Tom
So what are positions all about? In the simplest terms, we can take a C major harmonica and use it to play in different keys just by using a different hole as our root note, or starting point, each time. Some keys will be more useful than others, but in theory we could start from any natural, sharp or flat note (black or white key on the piano) and find some fun phrases. In doing so we are inadvertently working in different musical positions.  By way of example, When The Saints works well from 4B, Juke works well from 2D, Summertime works well from 4D and Au Claire De La Lune is best played from 5D. To forge an answer to our original question however, we need to apply some logic and find a workable formula or DNA to explain what’s going on. Why? Because it will enable us to express ourselves as musicians rather than just harmonica players. And with this comes greater understanding and enjoyment of our instrument and music in general. The solution is where music and maths collide in the form of the circle of fifths.

Thumbing a lift
Take out your patented, circle of fifths, double-checking system; you’ll find one on the end of each arm. Starting with C on the thumb of your right hand, let’s move five steps up the musical alphabet; so, D is on your index finger, E on your middle finger, F on your ring finger and finally G on your little finger. You’ve just counted a diatonic interval of 5 degrees from C to G. Think of it as Monday to Friday if this helps. I know this is technical stuff, but you’d better get used to it. You’ve just moved from 1st position on a C harp (C), to 2nd position on a C harp (G). From your thumb to your little finger. From Monday to Friday.

Now let’s count up five degrees from G to find third position on the same C harp. Thumbs at the ready. Your thumb is now G, so your index finger becomes A, middle finger B, ring finger C and your little finger D. Getting the hang of it? You could keep this pattern going and eventually work your way round twelve different positions. Which is all well and good, but let’s just pause with third position for a moment. When we actually play along to a tune in D, we find we’re clashing badly. And that’s because our third position is actually D minor, not D major.

Beam me up Scotty
The majority of harp players will accept this and run with it, using third position to accompany minor chords. Fourth position does the same thing. Five up from D on a C harp is A – you can check this on your hand. The detail however, is it’s actually A minor. So how can all this be explained? When is a position major and when does it go all minor on us? Our piano keyboard will help illustrate the answer, which is intervals. The relative distance between notes.

Remember that we’re playing a diatonic instrument in C. This is the same as having a piano keyboard with no black keys. If we chose to play the C major chord using our right hand, this would not present a problem. We’d place our thumb on C (our root note), our middle finger on E and our little finger on G. That’s three notes in all, or a Major Triad. It’s a solid musical building block and it sounds complete. In scientific terms, we’re using the first, third and fifth degrees (notes) of the C major scale. But you don’t have to be scientific if you don’t want to be, just blow 1B-2B-3B together. That’s your C chord and that’s first position done. Just to reinforce things however, let’s play the C major arpeggio – or broken chord – as separate notes up and down:  1B   2B   3B   4B   3B   2B   1B

Now let’s move up to G from C for second position using the circle of fifths and follow the same process. To play the G major triad on the diatonic (white key only) keyboard, we’d place our thumb on G as the root note this time, our middle finger on B and our little finger on D. Once again we’d have a satisfying and complete sound. Try it by playing 2D-3D-4D together. And again we’ve used the first, third and fifth degrees (notes) of the G major scale. And that’s second position nailed. But again let’s reinforce things by playing the G major arpeggio up and down:   2D   3D   4D   6B   4D   3D   2D

Take me to your leader
Are you ready for third position? We move up to D from G using the circle of fifths and place our thumb on the root note of D on our diatonic (white key only) keyboard. Our middle finger then falls on F and our little finger on A. But when we play the chord, it no longer sounds as satisfying and complete as before. It sounds forlorn. This is because it’s a minor triad. But before we explain this change in full, let’s just play the D minor arpeggio, or broken chord, up and down:   4D   5D   6D   8D   6D   5D   4D   Can you hear how 5D is the ‘sad’ note? If we were to ‘cheer it up’, we’d need to sharpen or raise it a half step to make things sound major again. This would turn it into F# rather than F. But we don’t really have an F# because we’re using a diatonic keyboard remember? White keys only. F# is most definitely a black key. So we’re kind of stuck with what we’ve got.

Lowering the tone
I say kind of for two good reasons. Firstly because those in the know – our advanced players – will tell you that you can find F# by overblowing hole 5. In Harp Surgery tab this would be written as 5B#. Overblowing is the technique that bends a reed pitch upwards to find a missing note – a topic we’ll cover another day. However, you’d be very hard pressed to include an overblow in hole 5 as part of a chord combination. The second reason is that by accepting third position gives us a minor key and finding pleasure in this change, we can turn a negative in to a very big positive. Just listen to Sugar Blue!

Better by half
Now here’s the bit you’ve been patiently waiting for; the underlying explanation for the change from major to minor in empirical terms. We count our intervals chromatically instead of diatonically. Cue the J.Arthur Rank gong and sweaty man. This means re-introducing the black notes of the keyboard, then recalculating the total number of half steps between the notes in our triad chords. Back to the drawing board. Starting with 1st position, or C on a C harp, we played C-E-G. Chromatically, that’s 5 half steps from C to E, and 4 half steps from E to G. Check it out on the piano above. The result of this combination of chromatic intervals is a major chord.

Now to 2nd position, or G on our C harp. Here we played G-B-D. Chromatically, that’s an interval of 5 half steps from G to B, and 4 half steps from B to D. Check it out on the piano above. Again, the result is a major chord.

Finally, let’s look at 3rd position, or D on a C harp. This time we played D-F-A. Chromatically things have now switched – that’s only 4 half steps from D to F, and now 5 half steps from F to A. Check it out on the piano above. The result of this combination of chromatic intervals is a minor chord. We’ve effectively ‘flattened’ or lowered the third degree of the diatonic scale. Which is the basic rule for turning a major key into a minor key. Or a major chord into a minor chord. And that’s all there is to it. It’s all about the half-step intervals between the notes.

G’night John Boy!
As a post script, we mentioned 4th position above, which would be A minor on our C harp. So if we know that the A minor triad is A-C-E, let’s see if  you can work out the chromatic intervals for yourself. We won’t actually find this triad chord on the diatonic harp, but the arpeggio would be  6D   7B   8B   10D   8B   7B   6D  You might find use of 7B-8B as a double stop, or two-note combination, in lieu of the full chord however. Try it now and imagine you’ve just watched The Waltons.