Ancient Musical Modes Aid Mental Balance
This is number 5 in a series of short articles about using ancient musical modes to help with mental balance and inner harmony
. Previously we have dealt with the first three temperaments and now we will go on to cover the Melancholic.
We are all made up of a mixture of the four temperaments. Usually we find that one dominates a personality. This is why people say they are one temperament or another.
The melancholic is often found to dominate in people of exceptional ability scientists and artists in particular. The Melancholic is the most inward of the temperaments and permits suitable inner experiences for the fruition of unusual artistic or intellectual ability.
A well balanced melancholic humour results in some or all of the following:
* Wholeness
* Decisiveness
* Steadfastness
* Deep thought
* Artistic genius
* Good at memorization
* Mental ability
* An urge to pursue what is sacred
When out of balance it results in:
* Sloth
* Tenacity
* Depression
* Mental imbalance or even madness.
We can awaken the melancholic in us by playing the mixolydian. So it helps with inner concentration, (maybe for some kind of meditation, or for a study period, etc.)
On the other hand, if we have recently been troubled by the more negative aspects of the melancholic, we should diffuse it by listening to the Hypomixolydian.
In my earlier articles I touched on composing simple modal melodies. Now I would like to cover adding harmonies to your melodies to create a more fulfilling experience.
If you play an instrument like, say, a flute, which can not play more than one note at a time, you may not need this information. However, piano or keyboard players, for instance, might like to add harmonies in the left hand.
Let's look at the dorian mode.
The dorian mode goes like this D E F G A B C .
In harmonic language, each note of the scale is named after a number 1 to 7. For this purpose, we always use Roman numerals. So - in the dorian mode
D = I
E = II
F = III
G = IV
A = V
B = VI and
C = VII
Now, if you build 3 note chords (triads) on each of these notes, you can begin to harmonize your melodies.
Chord I = DFA
Chord II = EGB
Chord III = FAC
Chord IV = GBD
Chord V = ACE
Chord VI = BDF
Chord VII = CEG
I don't have much space here to go into any depth, so I will just give you some useful pointers and you will have to experiment.
Rule no. 1: Avoid BDF!!! In the Dorian mode it is Chord VI but it will have a different number in other modes. For instance, in the Hypodorian, it will be Chord II and it will be Chord III in the Mixolydian. All the triads except for this one are either major or minor. But BDF is technically a discord and you should avoid it unless you know what you're doing.
In modal music, the primary chords are I, III, V and VII. These are the most useful chords.
So in the Dorian:
I = DFA
III = FAC
V = ACE
VII = CEG
To give another example, in the Phrygian:
I = EGB
III = GBD
V = BDF
VII = DFA
Remember we don't play BDF so, for Chord V, you could just play BD or just B.
Bear in mind, when you are choosing chords to accompany a melody, that the chords change much less often than the notes. One chord could easily harmonize a whole line of notes.
So, for instance, this hypolydian fragment
AFEF EDCD EGAE F C
could be harmonized by a sequence of 5 chords:
AFEF harmonized by II (DFA) or IV (FAC)
EDCD harmonized by I (CEG)
EGAE harmonized by III (EGB) or I (CEG)
F harmonized by II (DFA) or IV (FAC)
C harmonized by I (CEG), IV (FAC) or VI (ACE)
Just try each short phrase of your tune against the primary chords for the mode and see which sounds best. If none of them seem to work, try one of the 3 secondary chords.
Tip: It often sounds better to miss out the middle note of each left hand chord. Particularly with deep bass notes.
The next article will look at ways of using time-of-day to gain extra power from the modes.
Ancient Musical Modes Aid Mental Balance
By: Cepheus
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