Model modality

In jazz theory class this morning, we got a good workout with modes and chords.  In addition to my decision to bring my alto sax in to work on, instead of the easy-to-transpose Bb instruments like clarinet or tenor sax, this was a great way to start my morning.  (I really need work on my Eb transposition skills, they are less than stellar...)  After figuring out how to transpose quickly-er from concert pitch, I was starting to get the hang of it.  The modes are useful to jazz musicians because they describe scales that can be played over a single key.  As I mentioned in the last post, modes are scales built on the different scale degrees over a key.  There are seven commonly used modes, though way back during the Medieval and Rennaissance (and actually even further back to the ancient Greeks) as many as fifteen different modes were used.  These modes are referred to as church modes and were, obviously, used in Gregorian chant and in the church masses.

To make this really long, involved evolution of church modes story less long and involved, different modes were used for different things.  The monks singing the music for the early church services would use modes because music notation wasn't really formed or set at that time.  By knowing which mode to sing in, the monks could all sing together and knew how to end a chant.  Go take a listen to some Gregorian chant, and you'll hear how the notes used are limited and everything sounds, to our modern ears, somewhat predictable and bland.  There are other reasons for this, too, but that will have to wait for another nibble.