Here is a video in which you can hear me playing a piece of music I improvised and named Iridescence of the Sky Beneath. The title reflects the shifting colours and angles of light in the combination of modes, and the feeling of duality between upper and lower melodic voices and registers. It brought to my mind a surreal and mysterious inversion of the usual feeling of an expansive sky above us, instead its multiple colours and points of light are reflected below us in the most seemingly mundane and ordinary things. Like the way a puddle of rain reflects the open sky, or dewdrops on blades of grass bounce the sun rays back at us, or when the light from above hits an oil spill on rain-washed tarmac and it splits into all the colours of the rainbow. Finding magic in ordinary real things.
For me, the home mode of this piece — C Mixolydian flat 6 — echoes that idea of finding magic in the ordinary, the way it takes an ordinary major scale, and draws its upper half down into shadow by flattening the 6th and 7th, whilst retaining the bright glimmer of its lower half (with its major 3rd), creating an iridescent shimmer.
A modulation into D Mixolydian flat 6 retains that twilight magic, but changes the angle of light, adding to the iridescent effect.
D Lydian creates more shimmer and light due to its expansive augmented 4th, creating an unresolved weightlessness.
D Lydian Augmented opens out further by adding an augmented 5th to the augmented 4th, destabilising the mode, creating a simultaneously unsettling and bright sound.
B Dorian added darker colours to the shifting light and shadows, with its sorrowful minor 3rd, along with its lifted major 6th — like seeing hope in the darkness below, the depths reflecting the glimmers from the sky above.
Mode Table
| Mode | Note Names | Parent Scale | Modal Relationship |
|---|---|---|---|
| C Mixolydian ♭6 | C – D – E – F – G – A♭ – B♭ | F Melodic Minor | 5th mode of F Melodic Minor |
| D Mixolydian ♭6 | D – E – F♯ – G – A – B♭ – C | G Melodic Minor | 5th mode of G Melodic Minor |
| D Lydian | D – E – F♯ – G♯ – A – B – C♯ | A Major | 4th mode of A Major |
| D Lydian Augmented | D – E – F♯ – G♯ – A♯ – B – C♯ | B Melodic Minor | 3rd mode of B Melodic Minor |
| B Dorian | B – C♯ – D – E – F♯ – G♯ – A | A Major | 2nd mode of A Major |
Interval Formulas
Mixolydian ♭6 Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – ♭6 – ♭7
Root, Major 2nd, Major 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
Lydian Augmented Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – 3 – ♯4 – ♯5 – 6 – 7
Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Augmented 4th, Augmented 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th
Dorian Mode Formula:
1 – 2 – ♭3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – ♭7
Root, Major 2nd, Minor 3rd, Perfect 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
