Many pop songs use harmonic progressions that imply modes other than major/minor.

A modal schema may be used without the entire song being strictly within that mode.

Modes may be compared to major and natural minor to understand what characterizes their sound (their color notes)

Mixolydian schemas:

Double plagal ♭VII–IV–I

Subtonic shuttle I–♭VII

Aeolian schemas:

Subtonic shuttle i–♭VII (same as mixolydian, but with a minor tonic)

Aeolian shuttle i–♭VII–♭VI–♭VII

Aeolian cadence ♭VI–♭VII–i (or I)

Lament i–♭VII–♭VI–v

Dorian schemas:

Dorian shuttle i–IV

Lydian schemas:

Lydian shuttle I–II♯

Lydian cadence II♯–IV–I

This book covers modes from many different angles. For more information on modes, check Introduction to Diatonic Modes (general), Chord-Scale Theory (jazz), Diatonic Modes (20th/21st-c.), and Analyzing with Modes, Scales, and Collections (20th-/21st-c.).

Chapter Playlist

"Mode" is a really complicated term. The article on mode in Grove Music Online (Powers et al. 2001), which is the standard academic encyclopedia for musicology, is 238 pages long and has nine authors. This means that, even if you think you already know about modes, you may want to set that knowledge aside before learning how modes are used in pop music.

This chapter discusses modes as they appear in certain schematic chord progressions in pop and rock music. Most of this information is based on the work of Nicole Biamonte (2010) and Philip Tagg (2011). After showing the function of modal harmonies as they compare to diatonic harmonies, common modal schemas will be introduced, grouped by the mode they borrow from.

Grouping modes by whether the tonic is major or minor helps with aural identification of modal passages. This grouping is represented in Example 1. The top line shows modes whose \hat3 is a major third above tonic (mi): major, mixolydian, and lydian. The bottom line shows modes whose \hat3 is a minor third above tonic (me): aeolian, dorian, and phrygian. Example 1 also illustrates what differentiates certain modes from major or minor. Each mode has exactly one pitch shown in a lighter color; this pitch is inflected when compared to major/minor. These special pitches are referred to as the color note of each mode.Vincent Persichetti (1961) referred to these pitches as "characteristic notes." These relationships are shown with the dotted slurs.

Example 1. Modes grouped by major vs. minor tonic, with dotted slurs connecting the distinctive color pitch of each mode with its major/minor counterpart.

Function of Modal Harmonies

You may already have learned about tonic, subdominant, and dominant function in diatonic harmony. Modal harmonies basically align in function with their diatonic counterparts, although the additional modal inflections create greater overlap between these functions. This is summarized in Example 2.

[](https://viva.pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/12/2019/05/modal_harmonic_function.png) Example 2. Modal harmony allows many more "flavors" of the same chord to be implemented without changing the function of the chord.

This illustration of harmonic function may help you to understand why certain modal progressions seem as goal-oriented as diatonic progressions.

Mixolydian: ♭VII

Mixolydian's color note is te (\downarrow\hat{7}), as shown in Example 3. In major-mode pop songs, the ♭VII chord is borrowed from the mixolydian mode. ♭VII typically has dominant function, and you might think of it as a substitute for the traditional major-mode V chord in both the double plagal and mixolydian cadence schemas (Example 4).

[](https://viva.pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/12/2019/05/mixolydian-1.png)

Example 3. \downarrow\hat{7} (te) is the color note of the mixolydian mode. Important mixolydian harmonies have that color note in them: v and ♭VII. (iiio is not used.)

Example 4. The double plagal schema and the mixolydian cadence schema are two especially common mixolydian chord progressions.

Double plagal

The double plagal schema, ♭VII–IV–I, which is discussed further in the blues-based schemas chapter, is also a mixolydian schema, due to the major tonic and the \downarrow\hat{7} (te).

Subtonic shuttle

[](https://viva.pressbooks.pub/app/uploads/sites/12/2019/05/tired_of_waiting.png) Example 5. "Tired of Waiting for You" by the Kinks uses the subtonic shuttle in its intro and verses. Transcription begins at 0:07.

The most distinctive chord progression in mixolydian is the subtonic shuttle, ♭VII–I, or B♭–C in C major (Example 4 above). The subtonic shuttle is used continuously throughout the intro and first verse of "Tired of Waiting for You" by the Kinks (1965), where the instrumental parts shuttle between I and ♭VII throughout, while the melody emphasizes \downarrow\hat{7} (te) as an embellishment and melodic goal (Example 5).

Aeolian: ♭VII and ♭VI

You may think of aeolian as equivalent to the natural minor scale. As a key or collection, though, aeolian and minor are different, because aeolian (as used in pop music) will prominently feature le and te (\downarrow\hat6, \downarrow\hat7). These color note scale degrees give us the ♭VI an