what moods/emotions does the harmonic minor modes, harmonic major modes and melodic minor modes evoke?

Chords, scales, harmony, melody, etc.
Post Reply New Topic
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

what moods/emotions does the harmonic minor modes, harmonic major modes and melodic minor modes evoke?

i found a lot of people and sites talking about which emotions the major scale modes evoke. but didn't find much about harmonic minor, harmonic major and melodic minor modes.

i know this kind of explanation is generic, because there are a lot of things that influence on the emotions, but i think it does help people that are in a begginer's level.

can someone help?

Post

The augmented second between 'b6' and ^7 tends to evoke a bit of exoticism from the east melodically.
You may further experience it if you flat the 2nd with a major 3rd, so D Eb F# G A Bb C#, sometimes called double harmonic. Found (albeit with flatter flats) in Arabic or Persian music, and in Indian Classical.

Beyond that I would eschew talking about it. Major is supposedly 'happy' but it doesn't have to be, that's pretty simplistic. Find for yourself what happens.

Post

sadoky wrote: Wed Apr 17, 2019 8:28 pm what moods/emotions does the harmonic minor modes, harmonic major modes and melodic minor modes evoke?
Mostly fear, confusion, shame and self-loathing at my musical inabilities.

Post

I'm making something with the mode A Bb C C# D E F G and the effect is not really all that dark. It has shades and nuances, you know.

BUT if you want to think about scalar material and creating a mood, look at Indian raga. Albeit the thing is only complete as the actual composition, which deals with prescribed and proscribed shapes of the material contextually (you zigged where you shoulda zagged). Some things are believed to effect physical phenomena.

Post

Throughout recorded history, people have written about the moods (or affects) of various modes/scales. Accounts rarely agree. When they do, it's usually because one author has copied, either directly or indirectly, from another.

In short, it's all subjective and culturally conditioned.
There are other musical devices which can usually make a much more obvious impact on mood, and a skilled composer can use the same mode/scale in different ways to produce different sounds.

Also, instead of talking about the various minor scales (which only really exist in theory and pedagogical exercises), it would be best to think in terms of one minor key, in which the sixth and seventh degrees are variables.
Unfamiliar words can be looked up in my Glossary of musical terms.
Also check out my Introduction to Music Theory.

Post

Well, eg., harmonic minor for you appears inextricable from harmonic music. As a 'scale' for modal exploits, statically, the intervallic content does produce character same as any mode, the relationship with 1 and then internal interval relations. I know you can't relate. :shrug:

Can you not make the point there is more than one minor scale without reaching for that? Doesn't really exist. ohhhhk.
Here's a hint: 4 (counting both forms of melodic) is not 0. Oddly, elsewhere we catch you saying:
JumpingJackFlash wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2019 10:02 pm The harmonic minor and the melodic minor are indeed different scales.
The melodic minor in ascension and in descension are different scales.

To further explicate my point, rising melodic minor is modalized in modern jazz practice. It has nothing to do with minor key at its tonic per se. It's a scale form, full stop.
One of the more prevalent uses, let's use C D Eb F G A B: this gives what they call an altered dominant type on B7, B7 b9#9 b5.

There is no doubt of its provenance, it's always noted when discussing, eg., 'Lydian Dominant: derivation is the 4th mode of rising melodic minor'; Altered Scale: derivation is 7th mode of melodic minor.

We may have a look at Satie Gnossienne 1: Tonic is F. Scale is F G Ab B C D E Eb. What scale is that? it's the fourth mode of {C} harmonic minor. It does exactly what jazzers did 70 yrs etc down the road.
It is in no way involved with concepts of C minor harmonically. The tonic is F. It does almost nothing harmonically. At a certain point it gets out of that mode and goes to iv. It's about the scale. Pretty sure of consensus on this, to boot.

Post Reply

Return to “Music Theory”