In this video you can hear me playing a piece of piano music I improvised and named A Shoreline, A Lifetime Ago. For me, the music felt like seeing in the distance, the boundless and fragile thin line between holding on and letting go, like a faraway shoreline that is eroding, like a fading memory. The light reflects intensely on the water, and there is bittersweet warmth on the horizon, even while the ground dissolves into the darkness of the sea. The tides continually roll in and pull back, surfacing fragments of things that we try to grasp, but that slip through our fingers as they are swept away towards the unreachable coast.
I started this improvisation in the elegiac G Aeolian (aka natural minor), which has sorrow and darkness in its minor 3rd, 6th and 7th degrees, but light and hope in its major quality chords ♭III, ♭VI and ♭VII which I used a lot.
Next I alternated B flat Lydian with E Aeolian a few times. These two modes have tonal centres which are a tritone apart — which is a vast harmonic distance, and yet a bridge was created by a shared tone — the E — which is the tonic of E Aeolian, and the characteristic Lydian note — the expansive and bright augmented 4th — of B flat Lydian.
G Dorian sharp 4 brought more darkness, sorrow, mystery and disquiet in its harmonic minor structure and paradoxically bright augmented 4th.
A return to G Aeolian in a slowly fading coda, was like nostalgia for the receding memories.
Mode Table
| Mode | Note Names | Parent Scale | Modal Relationship |
|---|---|---|---|
| G Aeolian (Natural Minor) | G – A – B♭ – C – D – E♭ – F | B♭ Major | 6th mode of B♭ Major |
| B♭ Lydian | B♭ – C – D – E – F – G – A | F Major | 4th mode of F Major |
| E Aeolian (Natural Minor) | E – F♯ – G – A – B – C – D | G Major | 6th mode of G Major |
| G Dorian ♯4 | G – A – B♭ – C♯ – D – E – F | D Harmonic Minor | 4th mode of D Harmonic Minor |
Interval Formulas
Aeolian Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – ♭3 – 4 – 5 – ♭6 – ♭7
Root, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Minor 6th, Minor 7th
Lydian Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – 3 – ♯4 – 5 – 6 – 7
Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Augmented 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th
Dorian ♯4 Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – ♭3 – ♯4 – 5 – 6 – ♭7
Root, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd, Augmented 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Minor 7th
Further Reading and Listening
Learn more about modes here: Complete Guide to Modes of the Major, Melodic Minor, and Harmonic Minor Scales
How to Improvise on the Piano — A Basic Method
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