3.3 Modes and ragas: more than just a scale  (Page 4/5)

You need to know your major keys and intervals to do this problem. Use the list of "white key" modes in [link] to figure out the following information for each of the four modes below. Before looking at the solutions, check your own answers to make sure that the answers you get for step 2 and step 4 are in agreement with each other.

1. List the flats and sharps you would use if this were a major scale rather than a mode.
2. In this mode, which scale tones are raised or lowered from the major key?
3. What is the interval between the mode and the major key with the same key signature?
4. List the flats or sharps in this key signature.
5. Write one octave of notes in this mode. You may print out this PDF file if you need staff paper. Check to make sure that your "modal scale" agrees with all the things that you have written about it already.

Example

1. D major has 2 sharps: F sharp and C sharp.
2. Looking at [link] , you can see that the Lydian mode starts on an F. The key of F major would have a B flat, but in the mode this is raised one half step, to B natural. Therefore the fourth degree of the Lydian mode is raised one half step .
3. F lydian has the same key signature as C major, which is a perfect fourth lower. So all Lydian modes have the same key signature as the major key a perfect fourth below them.
4. We want D Lydian. The major scale beginning a perfect fourth below D major is A major. A major has three sharps: F sharp, C sharp and G sharp. Adding a G sharp does raise the fourth degree of the scale by one half step, just as predicted in step 2.

Example: d lydian

1. A Dorian
2. C Lydian
3. B flat Mixolydian
4. D Phrygian