Re: (RL) Minor Keys - wtf?

[Maurice Rickard <maurice@mauricerickard.com>]

At 9:45 AM -0400 7/16/01, KWood@lightbridge.com wrote:
> I've got a music theory question regarding minor keys.
<snip>
> Why not say the song is in the (relative) major key but uses the minor
> chords of that key?
<snip>
> If I have a song based around the 3rd (Phrygian) mode of the
> major scale, would I then want to treat that as the I chord and adjust the
> others accordingly?  I have a strong feeling the answer is 'no', but...

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the answer is 
actually "yes," if only because when you're "in" a key, the musical 
"movement" comes from the selection of chords or melody notes in 
relation to the tonic (which is the same as the key you're in, your I 
chord).  So if you have a tune based around the Phrygian mode, its 
tonic is still that 3rd note of the relative major, and the I of your 
tune is the major's iii, and your dominant -> tonic resolution would 
be V -> I for the mode.  In your proposed system, the dominant -> 
tonic resolution would have to be I -> iii, since you'd be basing 
everything on the relative major.  (If I understand you correctly.)

Of course, I might be talking beyond my knowledge here, so anyone's 
welcome to correct me.

--
Maurice Rickard
http://mauricerickard.com/
--------------
To post: Mail matters@richardlloyd.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@richardlloyd.com with the
message "unsubscribe matters"