I've got a song in D (Dorian) - it has a Major focus, how do I convert it to a minor feel ?

[jamcat]

Now you're in D minor, which is the saddest of all keys.

Really? Why is that? In what way is it different from any other minor key? Minor is always the same mode - it's just transposed.

Just listen how sad this sounds:

https://youtu.be/eTDEKk3bB04

[vurt]

Now you're in D minor, which is the saddest of all keys.

Really? Why is that? In what way is it different from any other minor key? Minor is always the same mode - it's just transposed.

[fmr]

Now you're in D minor, which is the saddest of all keys.

Really? Why is that? In what way is it different from any other minor key? Minor is always the same mode - it's just transposed.

Glad I made you laugh. Apparently, I was more successful this time, when I was serious, then when I was trying to be funny

Admittedly, there's a bit of a "blague" in the statement, but technically it's what it is.

[vurt]

comedy has its fools and straightmen

[jancivil]

https://youtu.be/b76WPoTefO0

(there is a fair bit of Dorian in the guitar solo so not totally offtopic)

[jancivil]

Let’s review what happened here. Before I chose to chime in, this thread was a disaster.

The original post has one actual ‘music theory’ question, and it can’t be addressed on its face because the premise is false. ‘Recommend me resources’ is not a question. The reliance on websites or youtube tutes is not very different than reliance on ‘Scaler’.

This subforum = resources. If you ask a real question, I, for one will endeavor to sort you and I will go someways towards that. So will others. It’s interactive, give and take. Potentially a rich experience.

Some vague stuff about ‘a major feel in Dorian’ is all we ever got from the OP; who could have given us something concrete to work with, but no.

‘Dorian mode’ was not an intention of the OP’s. It wasn’t an idea; it was a dumb machine’s “determination” that some unknown to us white keys material is that mode.

Sorry, but already the OP has shown he’s good with wasting our time.

Nonetheless, after the thread continued (zombie-like) to live, finally I - after seeing numerous posts conflating major and minor key w. the question - wanted to clarify what Dorian mode really entails; which probably addresses the initial problem (<this is not Dorian mode>).

Imagine, if you will a world with no machine to determine what your material is, technically. Where there are no websites spoon-feeding you at every turn (and potentially giving you bad answers).
Dorian mode will tend to be an intention; you found out about modes somewhere, you related it to, or identified it as what you’re hearing in some music; and since in this world you’re a fledgling musician because there is no way to fake it, you do the thing: you’ll recognize by your ear D Dorian is a different whole thing than C major.
You’ll tune yer sixth string down to D and noodle.
Believe it or don’t, but this whole confusion is a product of relying on machines to do all your work for you.

The OP didn’t prepare himself to ask any question, and since what was posted could not be directly addressed, people have to guess from this hopelessly vague language and make suppositions.
I chose to get into what modes are really for the potential reader who is actually interested, by this point I don’t think the OP is that. At the least, he’s fled the scene.

So, we’re supposed to give this the same respect as the person who asks real questions and recognizes 1) they are in fact asking for help (instead of insisting all they wanted was to be pointed to outside resources) and 2) there is a necessary dynamic between a beginner and the ones who can help?

Sorry, I don’t live in that world, don’t want to.

[jancivil]

{“Dorian - it has a Major focus” - it does not.}

So, on to interest...
“In what way is it different from any other minor key?“

Begs the question ‘why do composers want different keys’; besides ‘for sake of variety’, people believe keys have a feel, or a color, an essence. I do, but I never could get anywhere very close to explaining it technically. I should think I have the capacity to, but I really don’t know.

[fmr]

Begs the question ‘why do composers want different keys’; besides ‘for sake of variety’, people believe keys have a feel, or a color, an essence. I do, but I never could get anywhere very close to explaining it technically. I should think I have the capacity to, but I really don’t know.

There may be several explanations.

The most direct and simple is: The instruments in which music is created. There are still instruments which sound better (or at least different) in certain keys than in others. That's not the case with piano, of course, but with a clarinet, an oboe, a french horn, a trumpet, etc. there are keys that work better. I imagine that in guitar too, there are keys that sound fuller and rounder than others.

OTOH, Mahler said that, when started thinking about the Eighth Symphony, a majestic Eb Major chord immediately came to his mind. That's how he started his symphony, with that chord played in the pipe organ. Why E Flat? He never explained why... he just said it was what he "heard".

This is one explanation. The other may be related with the phenomenon you referred, which is called, I believe, synesthesia. Messiaen had it, and he talked about it very much. Each note, each chord, resembled him a certain color. Maybe you have that too. I confess I don't. I am very sensible to sound, but I can't devise any color in any sound - maybe because I even don't see colors as the vast majority of people. I have many funny episodes during my life where I was referring to some color as yellow when it was green, or as gray when it was pink, and things like that. I am not color blind, I just see colors different than most people.

But I favor certain tonalities in relation to others. For example, I have a big tendency to flat tonalities, and Ab Major/ f minor or Eb Major/c minor are among my favorites. Especially the minor keys. And when I work with modes, I usually use them with flats too. Maybe I see colors in the sounds after all, but in a subconscient way

[jancivil]

I get it for wind instruments whose construction is built on a fundamental, I know what giving key of B to a Bb instrument sounds like. But I guess piano was what I had in my head when I wrote that.

I don’t have synesthesia, but I get different vibes or something from keys, or tonalities, sonorities. I technically want to relate this to where in the range of frequency the thing is, but I’m not clever enough to write it, or falsify it.

thanks for replying

[jancivil]

I was watching some interview thing, where someone -Wakeman? - in Yes (talking about this in relation to the high-pitched vocal) mentioned Heart of the Sunrise is in Ab.

To me it’s a thing, but I can’t rationalize it.

[fmr]

A good example of the Dorian mode in a modern theme (Dorian mode in E):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jXTBAGv9ZQ