Modal Harmony Questions

[BeenJammin]

Hey i was just wondering if anyone could answer a couple questions on modal harmony. Basically what is it? Is it just using the different modes of the key to base progressions off. Like if you were in the Dorian Mode or the second mode of C Major would you build a progression with D minor as the i and root chord and stay in that key and scale. Or is it something completely different?

[bandcoach]

It is as you suggest, using the naming note of the mode as the basis of chord I/i and proceeding to use the other chords in context...

However, modal harmony also brings with it certain substitutes for what we consider to be the normal cadences.

In the Aeolian mode, we are more likely to use ^bVII-i (G-Am) as our main cadence than the modified perfect cadence v-i (Em-Am), which has no sense of the finality of V-i (E-Am) but which does not exist in the Aeolian unless we move it to he harmonic minor scale which defeats the purpose of stating you are in the Aeolian mode.....

The above examples as audio



ask if you would like notation as well or keyboard diagrams......

[BeenJammin]

Ok, thank you for responding bandcoach. I can't hear the audio don't know if it's because my comp but i wouldn't mind seeing the keyboard diagram, if you have the time. And i got two more questions. First, so ever since i heard of modes i didnt really understand what the point was, like if i was in the key of c, and my chord progression was vi-V-I-vi. I would technically be in the Aeolian mode right but im just choosing to call it vi instead of i. Or is there more to it? Sorry if the question is confusing.

And cadences i saw your post on them somewhere in here and took notes on all the different cadences you talked about. But i don't really get cadences are they just like the building blocks of chord progressions, like certain tension and resolution that always sounds nice or is it like something you stop on in a song. Like would i get to a certain point and just leave it at V-I or keep repeating it or something? Again sorry if the question is confusing.

[bandcoach]

Q2:
Cadences are about tension, release, surprise and resting points....

A repeated V-I-V-I....... was the late classical and early Romantic way of signalling we are about to finish, Though Mozart was fond of using the signal and then continuing on to a new idea; i.e. he set up expectations for the finish and then surprised everyone by pressing straight on as if no finish were about to materialise

You can also use cadences to build chord progressions, because each cadence consists of two chords, it is possible to link them together to make longer harmonic phrases.

Q1
vi-V-I-vi is in the tonic major, in the relative minor it becomes i-^bVII-^bIII-i, i.e. Am-G-C-Am beyond that it is simply a way of thinking....

Keyboard diagrams
bVII-i (G-Am)





v-i (Em-Am)





V-i (E-Am)