Thursday, May 22, 2008
Understanding Modes through Intervals on the Diatonic Kalimba:
A Pitch Diagram

We can understand the different modes in terms of intervals.

To start our discussion, I have "plotted" the various pitches on the two octave Alto kalimba in the diagram shown at right.

The Alto is tuned to two octaves of a G major scale. Some notes, such as "Do" and "Re", are farther apart than other notes, such as "Mi" and "Fa". We call the former a "whole step" and the latter a "half step".

These are the basic building blocks of any scale. Any modal scale will have two half step intervals, and the rest are whole steps. The nature of any given modal scale is determined by where exactly those half step intervals occur within that scale.

 

 

 

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