Форум гитаристов

Самое унылое - это когда вместо того, чтобы просто задать вопрос, пишут какое-то свое невразумительное частичное понимание вопроса, подчерпнутое из каких-то источников (ссылки на них, конечно, не даются) и спрашивают - это правильно? А кто его знает, что в голове у ТС - что-то правильно (есть здравые фразы в вашем объяснении), что-то нет - совершенно нет желания разбираться в рассуждениях человека, что он имеет ввиду, и который сам признает, что не разобрался еще в предмете.

Тем более, когда это касается такого сложного вопроса, как модальность и тональность, по поводу которого здесь сильно ломали копья и вообще в высоких теоретических кругах нет единства в трактовке темы...

Tonal Versus Modal Music

 To be able to use modes properly in practice, you must first understand that it's not possible to apply modes to every musical situation that you'll encounter. Most music that you're familiar with probably isn't suitable to apply modes to. That's because music needs to be composed modally from the start, constructed carefully with the use of modes in mind... and music like that is not very common.
 
A. Tonal Music

 The most common type of Western music is "tonal music". This type of music is already familiar to you, although we never used this term for it... basically, tonal music is any music based around the system of Major and Minor scales functioning as the "key" to any piece of music. The entire music piece, both the progression and the melody, revolve around this key, which is the tonal centre for the piece.

 For example, let's consider a music piece written in C Major. The notes that can be used to construct this piece of music are the notes in the C Major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, and B), and the chords that can be used are given by the harmonized C Major scale (without chord extensions: C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, and Bdim). Both the melody and the progression in this music piece will consist mainly of these notes and chords, and both the melody and the progression will always resolve to C, the key of the music piece. This is the first characteristic of tonal music.

 The second characteristic, which is the one that distinguishes tonal music from modal music, is that you're free to use "accidental" notes and chords (i.e. notes/chords that doesn't necessarily belong to the key of the music piece). As an example, take a look at the chords in the chorus of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters":
C A D                         C  A
... Never cared for what they do
D                         C    A
Never cared for what they know
D     Em
But I know

 Nothing Else Matters is a song in the key of E Minor. The chords you'll find to be available in that key through harmonizing the scale are Em, F#dim, G, Am, Bm, C and D. However, in the above tab, you see that an A (Major) chord is used instead of an Am (Minor) chord! This is because, like I said, accidental notes and chords can be used in tonal music. In this case, the C in the Am chord was replaced with a C# accidental, so that the Am chord became an A chord.

 Why is that accidental there, you may ask? Well, it was the composer's choice, he might as well have used the "regular" Am chord... but by using the A chord with the C# accidental, a nice transition is created, from the C chord (which contains a C) over the A chord (which contains a C#) to the D chord (which contains a D). Can you see the chromatic transition from C to C# to D? As you can see, chromatics (sequences of semitone steps) are a big part of tonal music as well.

 So, in short, tonal music is based around Major and Minor scales, which function as the "key" of every piece of music. The key of the piece determines what notes and what chords can be used in said piece. However, you're not limited to the notes and chords determined by the key of the music piece; you can also add "odd" notes to the piece (accidentals), make transitions between notes through semitone sequences (chromaticism), or "borrow" chords from other keys.
 
B. Modal Music

 The second type of music, which we're going to study in this and the following article, is called "modal music". As the name implies, it's not based around the more common (and easier!) system of Major of Minor scales as "keys", but around the system of the 7 modes of the diatonic scale. This sounds like a simple premise, but it's a lot harder to define, recognise or compose modal music than it looks!

 The first characteristic of modal music is that, like all tonal music is written "in a key", all modal music is written "in a mode". The chosen mode of the diatonic scale determines what notes can be used in the melody, and what chords in the progression. For example, we consider a modal music piece written in E Phrygian. The notes that can be used are the notes in the E Phrygian mode (E, F, G, A, B, C, D), and the chords are given by the harmonized E Phrygian mode (without extensions: Em, F, G, Am, Bdim, C, Dm)... do those look familiar? Indeed, they're completely the same as the notes and chords in the C Major scale... but we're not in a tonal context here, we're talking about modal music! Therefore, the term "C Major" is out of the question, it's E Phrygian we're talking about now.

 You may be asking yourself now: "if the notes and chords in a piece in C Major and in E Phrygian are the same, how do you know the difference? How to distinguish between a tonal piece in C Major, and a modal piece in E Phrygian, for example?" This is because, other than the first characteristic I just explained, there are other characteristics to modal music that distinguish it from tonal music. These characteristics together form the "modal setting" of a modal music piece. Confused? I'll clear it up for you by explaining first what a "modal setting" is.

 For a music piece to be considered modal music, it needs to be written in a modal setting. This means, from the start, you need to be aware of the mode you're composing the piece in, and the options that are available to you - as well as the options that are restricted to you. Both the melody and the progression have certain requirements that they need to meet in order for the entire piece to be considered modal. If these requirements are fulfilled, the piece is said to have the necessary "modal setting". Here is a short list of these requirements, both for the melody and the progression.
 
Modal melody is of course different from the "regular" tonal melody in that it can resolve to a tonal centre other than the Major and Minor tonal centres. E Phrygian shares all its notes with C Major, for example, but it resolves to E instead of C, so it sounds vastly different. A second characteristic of modal melody, is that it is restricted to the notes given by the mode in which the piece is written. No accidentals or chromatics are allowed; if any are used, there is no longer a "modal setting", so the piece is not modal. This is an important difference with tonal music, where accidental and chromatics are common; so, the use or lack of accidentals and chromatics allows us to distinguish between tonal and modal music.
The modal progression accompanying a modal melody is possibly even more important. For a progression to create a modal setting, it needs to restrict the melody to the notes in the used mode, allowing no accidentals... What does this mean? It means that you should use extra notes ("extensions") in the chords you use, so that only the mode you're playing in can (and therefore must) be used over the progression! This is because, in tonal music, the tonal centre is strongly established and the entire piece always "gravitates" automatically towards the tonal centre... Modal music, however, does not automatically resolve to a certain tonal centre (as if there is no "gravity"), you need to establish a tonal centre, create tension and resolve it yourself! It's important, therefore, to establish clearly what mode you're playing in and what the tonal centre is, as this is not set in stone like in tonal music.

 Let's look at E Phrygian, as an example. The root chord in E Phrygian, without extensions, would be E Minor, which consists of the root note, a minor 3rd and a perfect 5th. The Phrygian mode contains these 3 intervals, so it could be played over this chord; but so could the Aeolian and Dorian mode, since they contain the same intervals! Therefore, we use extensions to the E Minor chord, to make sure only E Phrygian can be played over this chord. A possible "extended" chord in E Phrygian progressions is Em7b9, which is an E Minor chord with an added minor 7th and flat 9th interval. Since these intervals are exclusive to the Phrygian mode, no other modes but E Phrygian can be played over this chord! We say that this extended E Minor chord "declares" the use of the Phrygian mode, since it's constructed of notes exclusive to this mode...

 So, if we're writing a progression in E Phrygian, we must make sure that the chosen chords limit the melody to the mode of E Phrygian only, i.e. that each chord "declares" this mode, like we did for the root chord!

  So in short, with a melody revolving around the modal notes and a progression that clearly declares the mode you're playing, a piece of music can definitely be considered to be set in a modal setting... and therefore, it can be considered modal music. Any music that doesn't meet these requirements, however, is not modal, and one shouldn't apply modes to it! Modes can be "implied" in pieces like that (through accidentals, emulating the sound of a certain mode), but never actually applied.

So, in short, tonal music is based around Major and Minor scales, which function as the "key" of every piece of music. The key of the piece determines what notes and what chords can be used in said piece. However, you're not limited to the notes and chords determined by the key of the music piece; you can also add "odd" notes to the piece (accidentals), make transitions between notes through semitone sequences (chromaticism), or "borrow" chords from other keys.
Итак ,тональная музыка основана на маж. и  мин . гаммах ,с функцией тоники в каждой такой пьесе. Тональность пьесы определяет какие ноты и аккорды могут быть использованы.
Но вы не ограничены только нотами и аккордами тональности.Можно добавлять хроматизмы и заимствовать аккорды из других тональностей.
The first characteristic of modal music is that, like all tonal music is written "in a key", all modal music is written "in a mode".
Первая особенность модальной музыки –модальная музыка написана в модах ,а тональная в тональностях.

A second characteristic of modal melody, is that it is restricted to the notes given by the mode in which the piece is written. No accidentals or chromatics are allowed; if any are used, there is no longer a "modal setting", so the piece is not modal. This is an important difference with tonal music, where accidental and chromatics are common; so, the use or lack of accidentals and chromatics allows us to distinguish between tonal and modal music.
Вторая особенность .Мелодия ограничена нотами мода. Если нет – это больше не модальная музыка. Это важная разница с тональной музыкой в которой хроматизмы и отклонения приняты.
in tonal music, the tonal centre is strongly established and the entire piece always "gravitates" automatically towards the tonal centre... Modal music, however, does not automatically resolve to a certain tonal centre (as if there is no "gravity"), you need to establish a tonal centre, create tension and resolve it yourself! It's important, therefore, to establish clearly what mode you're playing in and what the tonal centre is, as this is not set in stone like in tonal music.
В тональной музыке тональный центр очень устойчивый ,и вся пьеса автоматически тяготеет к тональному центру. В модальной музыке нет автоматического тяготения .И поэтому
нужно создать самому тональный центр и тяготение.

So in short, with a melody revolving around the modal notes and a progression that clearly declares the mode you're playing, a piece of music can definitely be considered to be set in a modal setting... and therefore, it can be considered modal music. Any music that doesn't meet these requirements, however, is not modal, and one shouldn't apply modes to it! Modes can be "implied" in pieces like that (through accidentals, emulating the sound of a certain mode), but never actually applied.
Итак коротко- с мелодией вращающейся вокруг модальных нот и  последовательности аккордов которые чётко показывают какой мод вы играете пьеса может считаться модальной.
Если пьеса не соответствует этим требованиям то она не модальная.  Моды  могут предполагаться в таких пьесах через
случайные ноты имитирующие какой либо мод ,но но применить к модальная к такой музыке уже нельзя.