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[juker]

What is 'dorian' mode?

[Lester]

What is 'dorian' mode?

Can of worms alert 

Wikipedia has its say HERE

From a more melodeon based view point quite a few tunes commonly said to be in E Minor are actually in E Dorian as the are played on the D row and have C# in them where as the true E Minor has C nat.

E Minor - E F# G A B C D
E Dorian - E F# G A B C# D

[HallelujahAl]

However  minor keys have a nasty habit of turning up and biting you on the bum when least expected. I remember as a kid having to learn one set of major scales and TWO sets of minor scales for each key namely Harmonic & Melodic Minors (the difference being that one goes up and down the same way & the other goes up one way and comes down another) can't remember for the life of me which is which. More enlightened members of this forum will of course have that stuff right at their fingertips.
But I can still play them! Which is the important thing I suppose.
Don't remember how any of that affects modality however!
AL

[Lester]

Told you it was a can of worms

However  minor keys have a nasty habit of turning up and biting you on the bum when least expected. I remember as a kid having to learn one set of major scales and TWO sets of minor scales for each key namely Harmonic & Melodic Minors (the difference being that one goes up and down the same way & the other goes up one way and comes down another) can't remember for the life of me which is which. More enlightened members of this forum will of course have that stuff right at their fingertips.
But I can still play them! Which is the important thing I suppose.
Don't remember how any of that affects modality however!
AL

There are actually 3 minor keys - Natural - Melodic _ Harmonic

More info [urlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_key]HERE[/url]

[Owen Woods]

However  minor keys have a nasty habit of turning up and biting you on the bum when least expected. I remember as a kid having to learn one set of major scales and TWO sets of minor scales for each key namely Harmonic & Melodic Minors (the difference being that one goes up and down the same way & the other goes up one way and comes down another) can't remember for the life of me which is which. More enlightened members of this forum will of course have that stuff right at their fingertips.
But I can still play them! Which is the important thing I suppose.
Don't remember how any of that affects modality however!
AL

Aye, harmonic and melodic minor brings back bad memories. Presumably the natural minor is just the Aeolian.
The Dorian mode is when you play a scale starting on the supertonic as opposed to the tonic.

[HallelujahAl]

The Dorian mode is when you play a scale starting on the supertonic as opposed to the tonic.

Isn't that the one with 'Seven C's' in it (tonic....etc)
AL

[Ebor_fiddler]

No Al, you're thinking of their cod liver oil. (Seven C's .....  ... ..)

Chris.

[risto]

What is 'dorian' mode?

The short answer

The Dorian mode is a scale where the intervals of the notes of the scale are: w-h-w-w-w-h-w (where w=whole step and h = half step).  The tonic (the note the scale starts from) of the scale is given before the scale name, say A-Dorian means Dorian scale starting from the note A. 

The longer answer

A scale is identified by the intervals (=distances) between the notes in the scale. The most important scale is the Major scale and it's intervals are: w-w-h-w-w-w-h.

The Dorian mode is one of the modes called the 'Church modes' and all the Church modes are derived from the Major scale by changing the order of it's intervals. The intervals are changed as follows, taking the interval in the first position and moving it to the last position. The Dorian mode is the 2nd Church mode. Modes in bold are commonly used in trad music. (When referring to modes the Major scale is called Ionian mode.)

Ionian: w-w-h-w-w-w-h
 
Dorian: w-h-w-w-w-h-w
 
Frygian: h-w-w-w-h-w-w
 
Lydian: w-w-w-h-w-w-h

Mixolydian: w-w-h-w-w-h-w
 
Aeolian: w-h-w-w-h-w-w
 
Locrian: h-w-w-h-w-w-w
 
Hope this helps.

[juker]

Thanks to all for the information regarding Dorian mode . Very interesting indeed. I learned music as a kid and remember learning major and minor scales but nothing about Dorian mode - there is always something new to learn!
Now back to trying to learn 'Daisy, Daisy'.............

[risto]

Here's another way of looking at it.
Try playing the melody of The Drunken Sailor using only the white notes of a piano/keyboard. The starting note has to be A and it finishes on D. It's in D Dorian. Or similarly try playing it on (only) the G row of a melodeon, where you'll be playing in A Dorian (with starting note E).
John

juker,

actual tunes can start from a different note than the Tonic, quite often with the 5th. Just don't let this confuse you. Has nothing to do with the definition of modes.

[Owen Woods]

The Locrian doesn't really count tbh.

And the Lydian is a lovely mode, I think it's used quite a lot in eastern european folk music, but sadly not much british stuff.

[LeFonque]

Hmm! I thought it was Dorion Grey....Long time since I was at school!

[LeFonque]

OOOPS! Dorion Gray.... My bad.

[LeFonque]

How about Dorian Gray. Now I know where I went wrong.

[Ebor_fiddler]

Is that photo really you, or is it the one in the attic?