oh, just guessing.

I'm confused boss. Did I miss something?

He just told us what notes were in his particular melody. Just because a melody doesn't use all the notes in any particular scale doesn't mean it can't fit into any.

He's basically asking what key or mode he's in, and the answer is every mode that those notes fit into. Initially playing those notes, it sounds minor to me... Bb minor to be exact. But it would also be "correct" in the relative major (4 half-steps up): Db major (or C# major). And taking that logic further to all the modes, all these become feasible:

Db major

Eb dorian

F phrygian

Gb lydian

Ab mixolydian

Bb aeolean (or natural minor... my first impression)

C phrygian


You'll notice the starting notes of all these scales spell out a Db major scale, and all these scales use the same notes. Memorize their order and it will do you well in learning modes and how they're related...

minor scales can get confusing because of the different varieties and the fact that they can stray from the "mode" of the natural minor. If you want a dark sound go for the "harmonic minor" (in Bb: Bb - C - Db - Eb - F - Gb - A - Bb). For a more arabic sound try these:

again, in Bb:
Bb - B - D - Eb - F - Gb - A - Bb

or this one, which is kinda like the Ab phrygian, but starting on the raised 7th of a Bb minor scale I think yer using (hence making it harmonic minorish in Bb, if ya can follow that logic  ):

A - Bb - C - Db - Eb - F - Gb - A

Soloing in this key can be fun, and can lead to many modal wanderings  

Hope I made some sorta sense here.

psy

[Edited: 04-Jun-03  |  01:41 PM]

i'm was to lazy to type it all out like that.

Bb minor, the one with an Ab is the most obvious one to play. which you did say (A# though? arrrgh!!!!) but bad guitar person said he wouldn't play dorian coz it's not a proper scale. tell him he's wrong and to just play the god damn notes.

then go all jazz and play other notes around it only resolving back to a nice note when someone walks off to the bar.

mmm, yeah.

Thanks for all the answers... especially Psylichon... that was very informative.  

Maybe I didn't explain it very well but Psylichon got it right... I didn't mean that those 5 notes gonna be the only notes in the track.

But anyway... we ended up using Dorian from A# (A#, C, C#, D#, F, G, G#)... and it's going fine.

Beds... my friend isn't "bad" guitar player....
1. He has played guitar only year or two.... so it's all relative.
2. He has never before used Dorian because he doesn't need it in the music he's interested (rock). So it's quite hard to improvise and make new melodies with it, innit. >:P

Psylichon.... could you suggest other scale(s) that might fit with Dorian if we want change the scale at some point in the track? Maybe that Bb minor you mentioned? No?

 

heh, i didn't say he was a bad guitarist matey.  

i just got a thing against guitarists, that's all. they made me deaf. bad guitar people.

HMPH!

If you want your music to have a Gaelic flavour use the Mixolydian and Dorian modes.If you improvise with these modes using the correct rhythms it will sound relatively convincing.

Listen to pipe(both uillean and Highland) and fiddle music to get the rhythms for the fast stuff.For slow airs listen to Clarsach music and Orain luaidh from the Hebrides and Sean Nos singing from Ireland for the real feel and nuance.

Here's a link to some mp3s to let you hear the genuine article

http://www.cranfordpub.com/mp3s/

This site has lots of tunes in abc format,midi files,and sheet music.

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/

This site has mp3s and sheet music of masters on the feadag(tin whistle) and flute with discussions of the individuals' style.

http://www.rogermillington.com/tunetoc/index.html