Feature articles, lessons and tutorials on audio and music

I know for certain that there are many talented musicians among you, even though the theoretical side of music has always put you off. Some others might have a classical education, but dropped music …

In the previous article you learned that Lydian tetrachords were absent from the modes of the melodic minor scale. But since we really like the oddest combinations, I suggest we wrap up this brief re…

Last time we started exploring the tetrachords of the altered modes in general and the synthetic scales created from the tetrachords of the melodic minor scale in particular. You saw that apart from …

After having reviewed in our last article the synthetic scales resulting from the taking apart of natural modes and the redistribution of their tetrachords, let's see what you get when you do the sam…

In the previous article I introduced synthetic scales, which made us dig up an element of scales and modes which we had already touched upon before: tetrachords. So before we move on I think it's imp…

Last time I told you we would discover a couple of somewhat particular scales: the harmonic major and double harmonic major scales. But they belong to a larger group called synthetic scales, which I …

Today we'll continue studying the modes of the harmonic minor scale we began last week. I invite you to discover with me...

After having studied in the previous article the altered modes of the melodic minor scale, today we'll look into those of the harmonic minor scale.

After the brief deviation in the last installment, it's time to continue with our favorite altered modes.

Dear friends, do allow me to open a brief parenthesis in our harmony series with this article.

You might be wondering why I'm writing about these scales as a "particular case" even though I hadn't mentioned them when talking about the altered and Bartok scales. Well, these two scales often lea…

In the previous article we started studying two particular cases among altered modes. Remember that altered modes are those built from a scale that is not major. The two cases in question are the alt…

In the previous article we made a brief pause in the study of the characteristics of the different modes to introduce two particularly useful forms of writing in the modal system: the pedal and the o…

In this article we'll continue on the same path as last week, reviewing the characteristic cadences of each mode.

There's probably not one single article in the first 45 articles of this series, which dealt essentially with the tonal system, where I didn't mention cadences.

In the previous article you saw the rules for the Phrygian, Lydian and Mixolydian modes. Today we'll look at the Aeolian and Locrian modes.

In the previous article we started to discuss the specific rules that apply to the different harmonic modes. Today we'll continue with the Dorian, Lydian and Mixolydian modes. If you just took up rea…

In the previous articles we began to study the different means to identify modes. As we continue our way into the depths of modal harmony, today we'll start discovering the harmonic rules that determ…

In the previous article we started to see how you can differentiate modes from each other. And we'll keep on doing the same today.

After the very brief historical and philosophical considerations of the previous article, it's time to get back to more concrete aspects.

In the previous article, I introduced you to modal harmony and recovered, with a slight change of perspective, the concepts of mode, scale and key you saw at the beginning of this series. Before cont…

Today I invite you to continue on this harmonic trip with a completely new topic. But it's not just any topic! In fact, it might just shatter some of your most deeply entrenched beliefs and fundament…

As you already saw, due to orchestration (delegating the root to the instrument carrying the bass line) or simplification (making voicings lighter), you can take away all sort of notes from your voic…

In the previous article we started to discuss how to apply to the piano everything you've seen so far regarding voicings. Today we'll continue doing the same.

Today I will change a bit the usual approach of this article series. What I intend to do this time is to leave aside the purely theoretical aspect and put into practice, in a very simple manner, what…