Here you’ll find a video of a piano improvisation of mine which I named Painting the Night Sky. The improvisation felt a bit like using the keyboard as a palette, applying washes of harmonic colour and texture across the canvas of a dark open space. There was inherent darkness, twilight and silver moonlight in some modes, and bursts of starlight in others, while the violet and green iridescence of the multiple Mixolydian flat 6 modes felt like the aurora borealis being painted across the midnight blue sky.
I started in G Dorian flat 2 (aka Phrygian natural 6), which has eerie nocturnal darkness in its flattened 2nd degree and minor 3rd, but brightness, like silvery moonlight in its major 6th, the combination evoking for me the dark electric blue of an illuminated night sky.
The G Dorian flat 2 mode quickly morphed into C Mixolydian flat 6 and back again, which is a mode of the same melodic minor parent scale, like the shifting iridescence of the Northern Lights.
The three different Mixolydian flat 6 modes (C, G and D) developed this shimmering colour-play across the dark sky even further. For me, the Mixolydian flat 6 mode evokes a violet and green iridescence in its twilit combination of dark minor 6th and 7th with bright major 3rd, like the aurora borealis. This hybrid major-minor scale doesn’t settle into one or the other, hence the feeling of dancing colours.
The brightness of D Lydian with its spacious augmented 4th degree and sense of weightlessness in its ungrounded lack of a perfect 4th injected a burst of starlight into the darkness.
D Lydian Augmented destabilised the sound further by adding an expansive augmented 5th degree on top of the already expansive augmented 4th, introducing an unsettled sense of uncertainty, like reaching up past the night sky to the starry space beyond.
A journey back through D Mixolydian flat 6, and then briefly through G Phrygian (which is like G Dorian flat 2 but with the addition of a flat 6) before settling back in G Dorian flat 2 brought us back to down to the moonlit night sky.
The seven modes painted the night sky like seven colours of the rainbow, creating rays of light in the nocturnal darkness.
Mode Table
| Mode | Note Names | Parent Scale | Modal Relationship |
| G Dorian ♭2 (Phrygian ♮6) | G – A♭ – B♭ – C – D – E – F | F Melodic Minor | 2nd mode of F Melodic Minor |
| C Mixolydian ♭6 | C – D – E – F – G – A♭ – B♭ | F Melodic Minor | 5th mode of F Melodic Minor |
| G Mixolydian ♭6 | G – A – B – C – D – E♭ – F | C Melodic Minor | 5th mode of C 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 |
| G Phrygian | G – A♭ – B♭ – C – D – E♭ – F | E♭ Major | 3rd mode of E♭ Major |
Interval Formulas
Dorian ♭2 (Phrygian ♮6)Mode Formula:
1 – ♭2 – ♭3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – ♭7
Root, Minor 2nd, Minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Minor 7th
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
Phrygian Mode Formula:
1 – ♭2 – ♭3 – 4 – 5 – ♭6 – ♭7
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
