If I had to sum it up, I’d say Ionian sounds safe. And sure, safety can be boring, if what you want is adventure. But if you’ve spent a while feeling unsafe, it sure is a relief to hear that sincere “welcome home” kind of sound.
Very true. That’s why I used to dance to music when I would come home from school, and as a kid I would turn on the TV and watch cartoons for a similar reason :3 Btw, I’m supposed to be a “young adult” now, but I still enjoy both of these things XD
That's a very interesting distinction. It's like how people normally think of vanilla ice cream when they think of ice cream, but asking the question of what does vanilla itself actually taste like?
Vanilla vs vanilla bean maybe. We're used to mass marketed vanilla and dont think often of the flavor of vanilla that is a little closer to its source.
The tritone observation was pretty cool, I remember hearing before that the reason why Major and Minor (from Ionian and Aeolian) are the most stable because the tritones are not on any of the tonic chord tones, Mixolydian and Dorian are slightly less stable because the tritone is on the 3rd of the tonic chord, and Lydian and Phrygian are the least stable (after Locrian of course) because the tritones are on the 1st (Lydian) and 5th (Phrygian) of the tonic chord.
In the functional harmony (related to negative harmony)... The tritone of Ionian and Aeolian are in the unstable (2 of Aeolian and 4 of Ionian) and leading notes (b6 of Aeolian and 7 of Ionian). The tritone of Dorian and Mixolydian are also in the modal notes (b3-6 of Dorian and 3-b7 of Mixolydian). It's less preferable than of Ionian and Aeolian since the modal notes is very important. The tritone of Lydian, Phrygian, and Locrian are in the stable notes. Which means that those 3 scales' tritone are extremly unstable.
I don't know whether phrygian as a scale is very stable in itself, but the 3rd mode of the major (being the phrygian mode) is actually rather stable, as in when you play a simple minor chord on the 3rd of the major key, it doesn't want to resolve with the same necessity, as lydian (4th) and dorian (2nd) would--them being subdominants. Although, 3rd degree doesn't feel like home as aeolian and ionian do of course.
It’s interesting to think of the lydian chromatic concept though, since the natural fourth has a “key-destabilizing” function- if it’s the case that there is some tonal gravity down 5ths
The way you presented the major scale as distinct from the Ionian mode really blew my mind! I’m really grateful for this series and everything it taught me, and I’m really looking forward to the the harmonic minor modes video!
Relm's Theme is one of the most beautiful melodies Uematsu has ever written and interestingly the second part of it is very similar to what FF8's theme song Eyes on Me eventually came to be. "Never said my words, wishing they would be heard"
In Ori and the Blind Forest, "The Waters Cleansed" is the perfect contrast to the original Aeolian moded "Thornfelt Swamp" theme. During the prologue, "Naru, Embracing The Light" is similarly contrasted with the preceding "Ori, Lost in the Storm" and the following "Calling Out". In the darker and edgier sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the Ionian is used much less often, but still gets its moment to shine in the game's central village, the Wellspring Glades.
Took the words right out of my mouth! Although, notably, in the Wellspring Glades there is some mode mixture (you can hear it near the end with the bVI chord).
once I learned the importance of tritones, it was very gratifying to have been a simpsons fan since childhood. never had a problem hearing those intervals hehe
Thank you for doing this.This is the first series on modes I've encountered that actually spends any time on Ionian mode examples. Others gloss over it as something the audience already knows and doesn't need to hear again.
something really important about modes that i don't see any youtubers talk about: all of the Greek modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, etc.) are all the same scale! it's just a matter of where you're starting. C ionian is CDEFGAB, and D Dorian is DEFGABC. it's the exact same notes, you're just using different notes as your starting point other than not really explaining that to people who may be overwhelmed by the idea of modes, this is an amazing video! i hope that maybe this comment helps some people out :)
I’ve known the major modes for a long time, but it has been cool to watch these videos and see how they are practically implemented. Now then, I’m absolutely stoked about the minor modes! Those I haven’t had time to learn yet, so I’m deffinitely going to watch your vids on them!🎉
Wow that’s fascinating that the tritone shows you the notes which are characteristic of that mode. I’ve never thought about that. Loved the series on modes. Now the exotic ones? (Phrygian dominant, Lydian dominant, fifth mode of melodic minor, etc??) 😅 WOW! Right after I wrote this you dropped that at the end. Can’t wait!!! Kevin ZMT
Finding and applying Tritones was hard for me as a baby music student. Your summary of where to find them and why that’s important in any mode was so well said!!
There are a few errors at 8:35; G Mixolydian, C Ionian, and D Dorian all have their labels mixed up. They were correct when previously focused but the full list seems to be goofed. Regardless, thank you for the great content.
I scrolled down to see if anyone was pointing out that the Onett bassline was written wrong. It doesn't have a step down like the warp song in Wind Waker, but rather repeats a note once before ending lower. Otherwise it's mostly right.
What a nice video to end the series on. We've journeyed through the regal Mixolydian mode, the mysterious Dorian mode, the threatening Phrygian mode, and all these other sounds; it feels fitting to have it end right here at home.
thanks so much for this series! i've been working on a composition portfolio for my music degree and this helped me so much with getting the creative juices flowing!
Its not a coincidence the distinctive notes of a mode are always in the tritone! A mode's notes are a set of 7 adjacent notes on the circle of fifths, the tritone interval is between the notes at the ends (a jump to the opposite side of the circle). Adjacent parrallel modes only differ in one note, removing one note from the end and adding one to the other end, and its these differing notes that are the distinctive ones. So a note sounds "distinctive" for the same reason its in a tritone, they are (in the lens of fifths) at the extremes.
At the pallet town part it occured to me, you always seem to have strong examples lying around for whatever point you might be making. Is it easy for you to think of these examples while writing the script, like they pop in your head, or do you have to go clicking through random tracks in your music library in order to find something that exhibits exactly what you want? Or were you perhaps listening to pallet town for an unrelated reason and noticed, 'oh voice leading of the major scale is very present in this, I'll write this down for when I start that video on the ionian mode I've been wanting to do'?
On the Onett theme : I talked to my teacher about how every 2 chord loop seemed to be I - IV (and never I - V for example, too unstable) and later in the lesson I showed him that I - iim7 loop because I thought it was cool (and different). He reacted by pointing out how similar it was to I - IV because the iim7 is basically a IV in disguise (3 notes in common, you could argue it's a IV/6) I had no idea How cool is that? The major key is such a gigantic place and yet some people say it's boring
This is such an interesting discussion, up until now I hadn't really given much thought to the distinction between a piece being in C Ionian as opposed to C Major! This was a great series, congrats on completing all the full set of standard church modes!
Your content on your major modes series is so cool and educational. It's helped me become a better musician! I'd like to see a video on how to resolve and use tritones in chord progressions next!
I was in the process of learning more about music theory of modes when I found your channel. Thank you so much for this video series about major modes ! Yours explainations are brillant ! It brings me another vision of music as modes theory are a very usefull tool that will perfectly complement my knowledge about tonal music theory and neo-Reimanian theory. I love the way you explain this and I can't help but wonder how you would explain counterpoint music as there are many examples of conterpoint in retro video games. It might be an idea for video series ; I would love it :)
The notion of the tritone's importance in modal scales is very interesting, I'm gonna have to play around with some of the other modes again. Great video!
Really looking forward to the melodic minor ones, melodic and harmonic minor are where I always keep going back to in my own music even though a huge amount of other people’s pieces are in major modes. You’re spot on about the tritone stuff, though funnily enough that’s sometimes why I like some of the alternatively-sized scales - it can be easier to just noodle about endlessly when there’s nothing pushing you toward that tension and release. Obviously not a great idea on a major moment, but can be interesting for calm background music.
8-bit, I love your videos!! Thank you for all the work you put into making them for us. You have an amazing channel and I always learn something. Video game music has played a big part in my life and I was super excited when I first stumbled onto your videos. Keep up the incredible work. I hope you keep making videos for a long time.
Yes! My day has been made because I have finally seen a music theory video on the Ionian mode. As a bonus the Pallet Town theme was the first piece I thought of when I saw the video would be on Ionian. I have similar views about this mode, in that a purely modal Ionian song would be free of accidentals in much the same way that I tend to view Aeolian as distinct from most minor scales. The distinction is more nuanced but it's there. Thanks for the video!
I was really interested to see what you were going to do with Ionian. I kind of just thought it was going to be a "just tap it in" kind of moment where you just talk about the obvious parts of major. But I was really surprised to think of 4 and 7 as major's "distinctive notes". I guess I never really thought of it that way. But it makes sense that the 4-3 and 7-1 motions are really important. Very cool video. I liked it.
This series was great -- specially this last one. It really shows how modes are a great tool for creating diferent moods and sounds free from the tonal ruleset.(and not just starting a scale in a diferent position lol). Thinking of a song in Ionian, Green Hill (Sonic) comes to mind, with how it uses scalar motion and weak resolutions (believe there's never a v-i). Really look forward for more examples like these, but with... exotic scales? Atonality!?!? Maybe there's enough music for modes volume 2, idk.
I'm very interested in music and like to make my own, but since I majored in 3D Animation for college, I never got the chance to pursue my other interests. You make your videos interesting and detailed so much that, even though I don't understand half of what your saying, I feel like I understand the core concepts and I'm actually learning back in the deepest parts of my mind. Ever since I found your channel I have been watching and learning. Thank you for sharing this wonderful knowledge.
I only last year got into music theory and got put on to the characteristic notes of a major mode scale having distance between the two notes of a tritone. B and F in the case of C major 4 and 7 D Dorian b3 and 6 E Phrygian b2 and P5 F Lydian 1 and #4 G Mixolydian b7 and 3 A Aeolian b6 and 2 B Locrian b5 and 1 Sick pattern that steps through the scale as you go up the scale diatonically. Melodic minor aka Ionian b3 can be done up the same way (if you use strict pattern matching for the names, the note that gets changed from a major.mode goes down by a step, except b1 is kind of whack and b4 on Locrian b4 is correct even though it is enharmonic to a major 3rd because of the alphabetical/nunerical rule for heptatonic scales. It is incorrect to name it 1 b2 b3 3 b5 b6 b7. except there are 2 tritones instead of 1. Below are where the tritones occur: C Ionian b3 C D Eb F G A B b3 and 6 4 and 7 D Dorian b2 D Eb F G A B C b2 and 5 b3 and 6 Eb Phrygian b1 (E Lydian Augmented) Eb F G A B C D 1 and #4 b2 and #5 F Lydian b7 F G A B C D Eb b7 and 3 1 and #4 G Mixolydian b6 G A B C D Eb F b6 and 2 b7 and 3 A Aeolian b5 A B C D Eb F G b5 and 1 b6 and 2 B Locrian b4 B C D Eb F G A b4 and b7 b5 and 1 Harmonic minor can be done similarly. A Harmonic Minor is A Aeolian with a #7, so since the 7th is flat in Aeolian, it makes it natural by saying #7, and saying #6 on Locrian #6 means sharp the flatted sixth, making it a natural 6. , Phrygian #3 (aka Phrygian Dominant or Mix b9 b13) means since Phrygian has a b3, sharp it to make it naturalto make that point clear. It makes the names follow an obvious pattern this way Tritones are between: A Aeolian #7 A B C D E F G# 2 and b6 4 and 7 B Locrian #6 B C D E F G# A 1 and b5 b3 and 6 C Ionian #5 C D E F G# A B 7 and 4 2 and #5 D Dorian #4 D E F G# A B C 6 and 3 1 and #4 E Phrygian #3 E F G# A B C D 5 and b2 b7 and 3 F Lydian #2 F G# A B C D E #4 and 1 6 and b2 G# Mixolydian #1 (cursed like Phrygian b1) aka Super Locrian bb7 aka Locrian b4 bb7 G# A B C D E F b3 and bb7 b5 and 1 Hope this is helpful info. Edit: If you look at the major scale as I've laid it out, follow the two tritones on the left and right, left and right being arbitrary here and below, is Locrian and Lydian. For Melodic Minor, same deal, except it is Locrian b4 and Aeolian b5 on left side and Lydian Augmented and Lydian Dominant on right side Harmonic minor is odd, insofar as Right side is Lydian #2 #5 and Locrian bb7, Left side is Dorian b5 and Lydian b3 Scales from Harmonic Major aka Ionian b6 This concept I learned from Adam Neely and Rick Beato on mirror modal pairs, as those scales are from Harmonic Major, whereas in Ionian and Melodic Minor, each mode's intervallic inversion is a version of another mode or itself.
Great video! I would have just written this mode off as ionian = major scale, but your analysis really teased out the unique character of the mode. The piece on the tritone was also a nice little surprise.
I see a lot of comments saying they don’t know what you’re talking about, but I think they only say that because they don’t have much experience with music, but watch your video anyway. You’re very good at explaining thing
ahh love your videos!! they’re my absolute favourite to put in the background or fall asleep to :D would you ever look into the music from spiritfarer ? i’ve been sobbing over gwens theme for. at least a couple months now,,
What you called a fun fact happens to be (to me at least) the best and simplest explanation of modes and how the only thing that changes is where are the "stronger" notes in relation to the root I know it's not that simple or easy but i feel enlightened
I think the reason why Ionian sounds so relaxing might be because together with Mixolydian they are closest to the natural tone / overtone series. People blew into tubes or pipes long before valves were invented to make chromatic scales possible and Pythagoras already described the relation between the frequencies of halving strings in the antiquity. I think that's why it sounds so familiar: it's the scale we can find in nature.
The Pallet Town theme does have strong harmonic motion in the first half. If you analyze the last beat of each four bar phrase it spells out the V chord and the first note of each phrase spells out the I chord meaning every four bars ends with an authentic cadence.
I really like Lillum's leitmotif, it's very pretty. I hadn't particularly connected it with pastoralism, but I totally get it now that you pointed it out.
This series has been incredibly interesting and educational - kinda has become a go to source for showing people stuff about modes even outside a video game music context. Now the obvious question is: are you going to do the modes of melodic minor next? I am sure there are some video game examples at least for Lydian Dominant and maybe others as well e.g. Superlocrian or Mixo b6
There is a distinction, yes. I was asked to analyse Indiana Jones’ main theme as an example of the Ionian mode. The pedal is key. Thank you for this incredible series of videos, absolutely brilliant stuff. Looking forward to seeing what you have in store.
2:24 GUIM would describe this as "tonic prolongation", which is probably the term that best describes the purpose of the seven modes. Speaking of GUIM, it's such a shame he has been inactive for years now; I miss him.
8:51 >You just don't get the same emotional flexibility out of 8-note scales like the Diminished Scale sound, or the 6-note Whole Tone scale for instance. The first 8-note scale I can recall that may reach that level of emotional flexibility is "Major Bebop" - basically a major scale but with a #5 (or a b6) added to it. E.g. C D E F G G# A B C It having no rotational symmetry probably gives it a leg up over Diminished Scale or Whole Tone Scale.
Awesome, thanks for making a new video. I really liked the Relm and Mario Star themes. If you are looking for a challenge, the Music from the Genesis game, "Tyrants, Fight Through Time". Was cool and chill. I bought it from steam, then it disappeared. :( Keep up the good work Dude.
Major thirds feels way more chill than major sixths, to me … with the fourth one descending naresh of ascending, and leading is gently right back to the start … No major 7th - but I’m not sure that matters; in fact, it would only disrupt the chill/‘floaty’ vibe …
Hey, I've loved your videos since before I started my music degree. Just recently finished and I'm going to do postgrad theory and analysis :) Just wondering how you'd feel about analysing the first animal crossing example as a I-II-V(6/4-5/3)-I with missing bits?
I saw six videos in your modes playlist and looking through it, I was like "what the hell is missing?" Funny to think that the shorthand for ionian being 'just a major scale' sort of omits it from typical discussion or consideration of modes. No chance you'll do the modes of the melodic minor scale next, hey?
Pallet Town has functional harmony in the very first measure! It has an imperfect authentic cadence with an inverted D major chord over the third as the V chord resolving to the I chord on the downbeat. I get there's no A in that D major chord, but it doesn't necessarily need to be there for the functional harmony to work.
Wow. Thanks for the video. You did all the modes in the major scale for your videos. Congtats. I was wondering if you could find video game songs that use the melodic minor scale (Ionian b3) and explain why it's a natural minor when it descends. Great video. 👍
Thanks for this series. I'm still a noob on this though. I've been trying to figure out what mode songs like Kings and Queens by 30 Seconds to Mars and What Appears by Yellowcard are in. Viewing your previous videos made me think that they are Ionian, because they didn't seem fit in any of the other modes you discussed (according to my noobish understanding), but now I'm not so sure. I welcome your (or anyone else's) insight into my question about those two songs. Thanks again!
