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Scott Paul Johnson
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Music Theory Monday | 08: Dorian Mode

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In this MTM, I talk about Dorian Mode - how to think of this mode as a kind of minor key and how to play around with the chord progressions that it gives you. We talk about a few songs that use Dorian mode and how to use it in your own songwriting.

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Music Theory Monday | 08: Dorian Mode

Comments

Halo fan

Erdna Seyer

Video not working ugh

Nancy T. Carnahan

How about analysis of Scarborough Fair? I cant quite get it. And I am one of those guys who thought dorian means the scale to play with a ii chord! I never heard that it was a kind of a key to play a song in.

william rubenstein

Ernie vibing in the background, scenes we love to see.

Kristofer Mc Cormack

Write some chord progressions!

Scott Paul Johnson

What's the best way to practice this dorian mode ? Or some sort of homework :)

Andy

Holy s...it! 😱The blanket is moving over there in your back👻! Ohw, is just Ernie! ❤️🐶

DeDé

I was curious so I looked up some other examples of Dorian mode music: Gregorian chants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlr90NLDp-0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TacNIbmDZ4s Traditional: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGyPuey-1Jw Jazz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ATTjg7tpE So cool

Chris Zhang

Thanks Scott :) Looking forward to seeing next vid. Hopefully it will click for me why Use Me is Dorian rather than an Em melodic key.

Leslie

Excellent example - Its just those two chords: Em and A7. A great example of Dorian.

Scott Paul Johnson

Hey Scott, what key do you think Bill Withers's Use Me is in? It's killing me... is it Em, Em Dorian? Something else? If I have it right, he's only playing an Em7 and an A7 in the song (though he seems to neglect the third note in each chord? B and E respectively). Doing some of the things you taught me I thought it might be an Em melodic (turning the IV into a 7th), but maybe there's not enough chords to know? I thought maybe the melody might give it away, but hearing that C# wouldnt't necessarily tell me if it was Em or Em Dorian, would it, since they both would have the C# for the A7? Do we need more chords to know?

Leslie

I’m up for more Dorian.

Mark Cassar

Lol Thx!

Tasha McManus

Hell yeah. I’m going to cover that. This lesson brought up a lot of confusion

Scott Paul Johnson

I thought I was really understanding the concept of how to utilize the dominant seven chord in the Dorian context, but when I went to start making my own progressions, I realized I was confused. Are we using the dominant five chord or the four chord (of the major scale)? If it is the four chord, how do we arrive at flatting seven? Thx!

Tasha McManus

Awww. That was Ernie. She is a terrier whippet mix and just wants to be under a blanket all the time

Scott Paul Johnson

Can you introduce us your little doggo? He really wanted a bit of quiet time sleeping under a blanket 😉

Davide Angeletti

Stay with Dorian. Divide it up into smaller segments.

Earl Varney

I'm for it. Let's keep it going. Deeper into Dorian

RobbieD

More Dorian please.

Robert Morrow


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