Understanding Modes

[farmerjones]

The "WWHWWH" thing makes this a nice chart I think.
Fretted instruments in particular.

[J Walsh]

Everything I read about modes shows that 7th chords should be used. If you were playing a melody in A Dorian, what chords would you use?

As Steve L says, you wouldn't have to use 7th chords. If the melody of the tune you're playing is diatonic to A dorian, a great place to start would be the chords that are diatonic to A dorian. that is to say, if you make a triad from each of the notes of the A dorian scale, using only diatonic notes, you'd end up with a collection of chords that work with the A dorian sound.

Disregarding 7th chords, that would mean this: Am, Bm, C, D, Em F#dim, G.

[ombudsman]

Everything I read about modes shows that 7th chords should be used. If you were playing a melody in A Dorian, what chords would you use?

I feel like this question warrants a broad response. I think I know what you're getting at with it, you're looking for some closely related chords, or some that definitely, without question would work and not get you into any trouble, and that's all valid.

That said, the question of what chords go with melody notes doesn't exactly have right answers and gets into all kinds of big topics having to do with not only music theory but also various styles and traditions and with personal taste, interests, and skill level.

It can be a problem when a question like this is answered with way too much information, or with too little information. Some musicians do everything they ever need or want to do with a viewpoint on music that has certain suppositions and limits which would not work at all for other people. You can't know in advance how much someone needs to know; people can be scared off of being interested in the subject if they hear about it in the wrong way, or they might have potential they never realize because everyone assumed they wanted to keep doing what they were already doing.

I think it's good to work on harmonized 7th chords at the same time you work on modes, so that you can see and hear the relationship between them. There is no better time than when you are learning the structure of the modes, to see why a V chord in a major key has a flattened 7th, and why a IV chord in a major key has a #4, for example. These are critical, foundational facts which are not conveyed by their respective triads (or in some cases their 7th voicings).

[lenf12]

ombudsman said "These are critical, foundational facts which are not conveyed by their respective triads (or in some cases their 7th voicings).

I think these are concepts that are best understood "aurally" rather than "visually" as with the HHWHWH nomenclature. That's a visual aid to learning the concept but you still have to absorb them organically into your subconscious by endless listening and playing to make them a part of your melodic and harmonic vocabulary.

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

[ombudsman]

I think these are concepts that are best understood "aurally" rather than "visually" as with the HHWHWH nomenclature. That's a visual aid to learning the concept but you still have to absorb them organically into your subconscious by endless listening and playing to make them a part of your melodic and harmonic vocabulary.

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

Len I certainly wouldn't argue against learning them and defining them by their sounds, but I don't think you can entirely separate it from the visual - not in terms of half/whole jargon, but rather as spatial thinking about the sizes of these intervals and how that relates to distances of half steps (on a fretboard or otherwise).

I mean literally, the usage of the term interval that applies here is of space between points.

A basic example would be relating the sound of a minor third to the distance of three half steps/frets, even when that may not sound very minor in some contexts (like when you are going from a major 6th up to a root).

A more subtle example would be "seeing" in spatial thinking that

1) since the lydian mode uses the same set of notes as a corresponding ionian,

2) playing lydian by starting on the 4th of ionian produces a #4 because

3) the 4th and 5th of lydian correspond to the major 7th and root of ionian

this is important, and I'm not sure it can be grasped without visualization/spatial thinking.

[David L]

Everything I read about modes shows that 7th chords should be used. If you were playing a melody in A Dorian, what chords would you use?

You have probably been reading jazz theory. In jazz theory, it is understood that you can (and should) add 7ths (major, minor, diatonic, or altered) and other extensions to all chords. Other styles might just play triads or open fifths.

[Beanzy]

I did this one to help me visualise the relationship of whole and half tones in modes.
I used resistor colours for the scale degree number as those are embedded in my head already.