Modes Diary 08-07-14
'Now That I've Found You'

NTIFY_06

Here are some alternative right hand inversions. Take the opportunity to:

·         Develop your sense of logical triad fingering – “Next-door note, next-door finger”;

·         Read – and think in terms of – the voice movement diagrams between the triads; and

·         Reinforce your understanding of the circle/square/triangle system of notating the inversions

NTIFY_07

NTIFY_08

So,

• right-hand pairs of…
• closest inversions, where the…
• root falls a fourth…

            take one of three forms:

Look at these two same-two-chords examples. (Notice the new four-four time signature.)

NTIFY_09

NTIFY_10

Bring in your own sensible “Next-door note, next-door finger” fingering from the previous examples.

Knowing these plagal cadence patterns and seeing them in the keyboard will be invaluable in all your keyboard chord work.

So what mode is it?

This progression is Aeolian – most of the chords of the regular major but never cadencing into I (‘One’ – the home major), always returning to A minor.

The analysis is as follows.

• The chord roots all fall a (perfect) fourth, and the final, lowest chord is played often enough for us to feel it is indeed the home chord.
• The five chords in the string are major, major, major, minor, minor (in that order).

You should immediately spot the three major chords a fourth apart and think ‘Mixolydian!’. The only place on the keyboard (white keys only) where this can be found is F–C–G. You would orient from there, whether you know for a fact that the first three chords are F–C–G or not.

• The last three chords are major–minor–minor, and the only place on the white-key keyboard where that happens in G–Dm–Am.

The construction is therefore Aeolian. This is more obvious when you have the music (or MIDI) and the actual performance is white-keys-only, but you should be able to work it out anyway!

Here is the chord sequence with the Aeolian RNS and inversion symbols. Play the sequence from the chart.

The riff transposed

Challenge yourself to get the very essence of this chord sequence by playing it in B Aeolian minor (key signature D major, Fí and Cí).

Your chord chart is now this.

Here are the audio/MIDI samples of 01 through 08 above in Aeolian B minor.

NTIFY_01

NTIFY_B01

NTIFY_B02

NTIFY_B03

NTIFY_B04

NTIFY_B05

NTIFY_B06

NTIFY_B07

NTIFY_B08

Further variations

Make a copy of either of these tables (original key and B Aeolian).

The inversion symbols have been removed. Find your own strings of right hand chord sequence triads and put the circle/square/triangle symbols in. Vary the bass line as you go, using the two patterns outlined earlier.

Here’s the symbol key again to help you.

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