Visualising the modes... Lydian

This is where you can see how subtle the differences between the musical modes can be. The Lydian mode scale illustrated below is almost identical to the 1st posted Ionian (natural major scale), except that the 4th interval (dotted green wave) is augmented (or a semi-tone sharper), resulting in a sound altogether unique.
The next on my list is the Mixolydian, which is also only very subtly different from the natural major. How reluctant the human mind can be to grasp subtlety. We're all 99.9% genetically identical, 0.01% different. Yet that 0.01% difference makes up probably 99% of our perception of each other. No wonder we're all crazy.

Visualising the modes... Phrygian

Four weeks later, and one tone up from the Dorian, I finally bring you the the Phrygian, which is essentially a natural minor with a flat 2nd (orange):

Sometime in the near future I will bring the Lydian.

This is Africa time.

Visualising the modes... Dorian

So I pried myself away from the B-string just long enough to bring you the Dorian mode. The Dorian represents a minor scale with a regular 6th interval.

You can see in this visual of the wave forms, compared to the previous Ionian/major scale, that the 3rd (yellow) and 7th (crimson) intervals are a semi-tone flatter, or at least dotted. The 6th (violet) is the same.

If you played all the white notes on a hypothetical piano in your mind, using D as your root, this is (in some strange sense) what you'd play:

If you move up the white keys and root on the E, you'll be in the Phrygian mode, pronounced much like the offspring of a fridge and a pigeon. Until then...

Happy Friday! I love the rain :) And Other Truths is arriving today. Tears of joy.

Visualising the modes... Ionian

After the first music visual I posted recently, I thought I should clean up and expand the concept a little. I figured the best way to expand might be to try to distinguish the modes. So I reformatted the waves slightly, and started by defining the Ionian, which is the mode that represents the basic major scale. If the red lines in the diagram are 'C' then the spectrum between them represents the rest of the white keys on a piano (D orange to B crimson).


Music is happiness. The Dorian coming soon...