Dorian: Blues with a Minor Flair
The sound of the blues with a minor flair that pairs great with a pentatonic groove.
WHAT IS DORIAN?
The Dorian mode can be described in many ways. I've heard it called the saddest mode when the tonic is D. I'm not sure why D makes the mode sound extra sad as this would come from the listener's point of view. I believe that it may be due to D Dorian belonging to the key of C, which is a very familiar key for most players to start with because there are no sharp or flat notes. I've also heard of this as the brightest minor mode due to its lack of flattened intervals while still retaining the flattened seventh degree, which allows a Dorian chord to be played as a minor seven (m7) and not have too much added tension. To me this mode is the Carlos Santana mode. You can get a feeling of this just by playing the mode ascending through an octave and landing on the tonic from a flattened seventh degree. If this sounds like a lot of jargon, then allow me to elaborate.
Dorian is the second mode of the Major Scale. If you sing "Do-Re-Me-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do", then you have the major scale. To sing Dorian you just need to start and end on "Re". Try it out and if it’s hard to hear feel free to sing that first "Do" just to get in the groove while knowing that "Re" is your home-base tonic note. As sing Dorian in the form of "Re-Me-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do-Re", know that each note has an interval which are 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, b7. If you're wondering why these numbers matter, then focus on the b3 and b7. Those flattened degrees are a big part of the Dorian sound. The Major Scale's degrees are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Flattening the third and seventh degrees make a huge difference in changing the sound because the third degree makes a chord or scale major when it is a natural 3 and minor when it is a flattened 3 (b3). The flattened seventh degree is also important because it take a major-seventh, that is found in bright modes like Ionian and Lydian and turns it into a dominant-seventh. The dominant-seventh (b7) is found dominant modes like Mixolydian and is part of many minor modes like Aeolian and Phrygian. You can even find a dominant-seventh in half-diminished modes, but not fully diminished modes as those modes require a double-flattened seventh degree (bb7).
THE DISTINCTION OF DORIAN
Like Aeolian and Phrygian, the Dorian mode is a minor mode. What sets it apart from other minor modes is the natural sixth degree. This one interval gives Dorian it's flair for two big reasons. The simplest reason is because Aeolian and Phrygian both have flattened sixth degrees (b6). You can play a minor seven chord with Dorian, Aeolian, or Phrygian and it will sound great. But once you play that sixth degree note you are in Dorian, and it will sound that way even if you don't know what to listen for. If you don't believe me, then sing "Do-Re-Me-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do", but without the "Ti". You can hear the "Ti" in your mind because it fits perfectly. That "Ti" note is the sixth degree of Dorian. Without it we could only have a flattened sixth degree and end up with Aeolian.
The other reason is a little less straight forward but has some fantastic usage. If we play D Dorian and play a chord like Dm we are playing the notes D, F, A. These notes are the degrees 1, b3, 5. If we raise the fifth degree to the sixth degree, we get a Dm6, which is D, F, B, or 1, b3, 6. The first thing to notice about this chord is that it uses a b3 to make the chord minor along with the natural sixth degree. That alone makes the chord specifically Dorian as it does not fit with any of the other modes of the Major Scale. If you ever see someone play a m6 chord, then you automatically know that you are in Dorian no matter what key is being used.
THE MINOR SIX CHORD
Looking at the intervals of the Dm6 chord we have a minor third from D to F and a TriTone from F to B. The TriTone is a special interval because it is half of an octave and creates a lot of tension that needs to be resolved. If we play a chord like Bmb5, then we are playing a diminished chord. This chord uses the TriTone interval from the root note to the flattened fifth degree, which is B, D, F, or 1, b3, b5. This chord wants to move up to a C major chord or down to an A minor chord to naturally resolve the tension that the TriTone has created. We can take those notes of the Bmb5 and take the middle note of D out and place it in the bass so it becomes our root. Then we will take the notes B and F and reverse their order to be F followed by B. This process is called inverting, where you take the same notes of a chord and rearrange them. Using this transformation would create a chord that is D, F, B or Dm6.
This means that Dorian provides a natural way to use a minor chord with a TriTone interval that then drives hard to either a major chord that is one whole-step down or to a minor chord that is three and a half steps up from the root note. When playing a song using the Major Scale or Ionian as your true Tonic the m6 chord transforms a Pre-Dominant Dorian chord into a Dominant Dorian chord. Basically, there are three types of chord functions: Tonic chords that act as home base, Pre-Dominant chords that move your song forward, and Dominant chords that bring you back home. Dorian works out of a Pre-Dominant function, but the TriTone is what makes a chord Dominant in function, so a m6 is a great way to return home without going too far from home.
Now playing a m6 chord has it's uses, but there is one big drawback. The TriTone interval is so strong that resolving to an Ionian or Aeolian chord always sounds great. This means that resolving to anything else will have a weaker resolution. It also means that resolving to a Dorian chord gives the weakest resolution because that is where you are starting from. Of course, there is a way to still make this work.
TONICIZATION OF DORIAN
It can be hard to find our way back to Dorian's Tonic due to the arrangement of the chords. Using D Dorian as our example we can use the chords Dm7, Em7, FMaj7, G7, Am7, Bm7b5, and CMaj7. The roman numeral analysis of these chords would be im7, iim7, bIIIMaj7, IV7, v7, vim7b5, and bVIIMaj7. The bVII degree is where Ionian is located and can cause people to want to hear a C major chord as Tonic. The v degree is the perfect fifth of Dorian and is where our ears can take us to if we are expecting a minor Tonic because that is where Aeolian is located. If you are writing a song and find yourself with a weak resolution, then there are two ways to fix this.
Each major and minor chord has a dominant chord that naturally leads to it. Diminished and augmented chords do not have dominant chords that lead to them, but there are dominant chords that share the same notes. An example of this would be a B diminished triad being part of a G7 chord. Take the B diminished triad and add a G to the bass and you’ll have a G7.
The dominant chord that leads to a major or minor target chord is located a fifth up from the target chord. Using the same example of D Dorian, we have Am7 as our fifth chord. This is not our naturally occurring Dominant seven chord. That chord is G7 and is our fourth-degree chord. To have a Dominant seven chord for our Tonic chord (Dm7), then we need to play an A7. This would be our Secondary Dominant as it does not belong to our set of chords but is the Dominant seven chord that is a fifth above our target chord. Playing A7 to Dm7 tonicizes the note D, which means that D now feels like our true tonic note. We can play a progression like Dm7, G, Dm7, G, Dm6, A7, Dm, and that A7 will help in two ways. First, it has a TriTone interval between the notes F and B, which are also found in the Dm6 chord that precedes it. This helps to retain that interval and voice lead, which is where you take notes in a chord and retain some between chord changes to allow the voicings of notes to gently move through part of a song. The second is that the A7 structure wants to move to a D major or a D minor. Either one is valid because the notes in A7 all move easily to the note D. A7 is A, C#, E, G and those notes are the perfect fifth, leading tone, super tonic, and perfect fourth of D. They are all the notes except for the tonic, mediant, and sub-mediant. In other words, the A7 uses all the notes that help drive towards a Tonic note of D.
Another option is to use a diminished chord. A m7b5 or half-diminished chord can move to a minor chord that is one whole-step down from the root of the diminished chord. In this case Dm7 as a Tonic would have a half-diminished chord of Em7b5. Again, this chord does not belong to our set of chords. Bm7b5 belongs to D Dorian, so using Em7b5 would be another borrowed chord. An example of this use would be Dm7, FMaj7, Am - G7, Em7b5, Dm. The G7 wants to resolve to either a C major or A minor chord. By using the flow of this progression that moves from F down to A and down to G we can continue down to E and use a half-diminished structure. This helps us to tonicize D and make it feel like we are in a natural minor so use caution. The natural minor is Aeolian, not Dorian. You can resolve to a Dorian minor chord, but you may not want to play the sixth degree right away. Waiting even a quarter of a measure can be enough time before playing a natural sixth degree. You could also opt to play Em7b5, Dm (which will feel Aeolian at first), and then a melody that is the fifth, sixth, and flat seventh leading up to the tonic. It’s a simple melody, but it allows you to play the sixth degree note in passing and not make a statement out of that note.
DORIAN AS AN EXTENSION OF THE MINOR BLUES SCALE
The Minor Blues Scale is a minor pentatonic (five note) scale that uses the degrees 1, b3, 4, 5, and b7. The second and sixth degrees are skipped because those are the degrees that can be flattened to create the other two minor modes. Aeolian uses a flattened sixth degree, while Phrygian has both a flattened sixth and second degree. By using a minor pentatonic scale, we can make a section of a song work with any of the minor modes.
Since we are talking about the blues, then we can also look to Mixolydian to add some unexpected spice. It is simply all natural degrees except for the flattened seventh degree. Dorian takes Mixolydian one step further and flattens the third degree to make the mode minor. This means that I can play the Minor Blues Scale without the b3 note to make it sound potentially Mixolydian. Then I can use the b3 to solidify that I am in a minor mode. Think of this like painting a picture with only a few key colors. Take a listen to this clip that uses this concept with the scales uses listed below.
D Dorian: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, b7 with Dm twice. D Minor Blues: 1, b3, 4, 5, b7 with Dm7 twice. D Mixolydian: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7 with D7 twice. D Dorian: 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, b7 with Dm twice.
STRENGTHENING THE DORIAN RESOLUTION
Dorian chord progressions can be tricky if you are not familiar with playing in a minor key. Take a standard ii-V-I progression used in Ionian for example. In D Dorian we have an Em as our ii chord, but we have an Am as the v chord and a Dm as a i chord. The change from a major V and I to minor v and i means that we have a very strong Dorian sound, but the resolution is a bit weak. Now this may be what you want if you are trying to give a sense of unending or hopelessness. That would be the way to go. What I want to do most of the time is use the Dorian sound and land hard on the tonic chord to give a strong sense of this minor mode as a resolution. To do this I'll usually borrow a chord with a dominant function. This means that we'll be using the TriTone interval to our advantage in these progressions.
The chart above lists seven chords with dominant functions. Normally we talk about dominant chords as chords that contain the fourth and seventh degree, which are G7 and Bm7b5 highlighted in red. These two degrees are a TriTone apart, so we can think of the TriTone interval (of three whole steps) as being the backbone for a dominant chord. In D Dorian we have the dominant chords G7 and Bm7b5, but they lead strongly to either a C major or A minor chord.
USING A SECONDARY DOMINANT
Since we want a strong resolution to a D minor chord, we will need to borrow another dominant function chord so that D Dorian feels like a strong tonic. A7 is the Secondary Dominant to Dm. D Dorian already has G7 as the main dominant chord, but it is not a perfect fifth above D. A7 is a perfect fifth above D so we can use it Non-Diatonically or "out of the context of D Dorian" as a borrowed chord because it is not one of the chords belonging to that mode. Using A7 to resolve to either D or Dm works great because D and Dm use the root note D and the perfect fifth note A.
TRITONE SUBSTITUTIONS FOR DORIAN
Eb7 is the Secondary TriTone Substitution to A7. A TriTone Substitution, or TriTone Sub, is a chord that takes a Dominant Seven chord like A7 and retains the TriTone notes to create a new Dominant Seven Chord. A7 uses the notes A, C#, E, G. C# and G create the TriTone and by switching their order to be G followed by C# we still have a TriTone. This allows us to take the newly ordered notes and add in a new root and fifth note to create the chord Eb7. The Eb7 leads to D just like A7 does. Check out the chart below for a visual example on how to turn a Dominant Seven chord like A7 into a TriTone Sub.
HALF-DIMINISHED TO NON-AEOLIAN MINORS
Em7b5 is another chord that doesn't belong to D Dorian, but it is a Half-Diminished chord which likes to move up half a step to a major chord or down a whole step to a minor chord. Since Dm is our target chord, we can play Em7b5 to lead to Dm. Doing so makes the Dm chord feel like Aeolian. This is fine if we don't play the note Bb as this is the b6 degree and would confirm Dm to be in Aeolian. We also don't want to use the note Eb as this would make the Dm sound Phrygian. Aside from that, feel free to play what you want and continue with your piece.
FULLY DIMINISHED USEAGE FOR POTENTIAL KEY CHANGES
C#°7 is a Fully Diminished chord that has a unique function. Each interval of this chord is a minor third. Two minor thirds make a TriTone, so this chord is nothing but TriTones. In fact, by inverting the chord you can make any of the notes feel like the root and therefore treat the chord as a version of four chords, each with four TriTones per chord. Check out the chart below.
Because of the ability to invert C#°7 while keeping the Fully Diminished structure we can treat each note as the root note and lead up or down a half-step to any major or minor target chord. The reason why I'm pointing all of this out is because you can use the C#°7 chord and its inversions listed above to move to Dm. Below are four progressions that use this concept.
|Dm7 |G | Am | C#°7 | Dm || |FMaj7|Gm7 |C | E°7 C#°7 |Dm || |Fm7 |C#Maj7| A#Maj7 D# | G°7 C#°7 | Dm || |D#m7 |C#m7 | EMaj7 | A#°7 C#°7| Dm||
MINOR 6 TRITONE TO NON-AEOLIAN MINORS
D Dorian has one naturally occurring (diatonic) minor 6 chord: Dm6. This is not very helpful for a strong resolution because its root is already the tonic note. We can treat the Dm target chord the same way we did with both diminished chords and borrow a Gm6 for the TriTone functionality. Just like Dm6 leading up a fifth to Am, we can use Gm6 to lead up a fifth to Dm. The tension of the Gm7 leading to another minor is unique and may give your progression a nice, unexpected feel.
A FINAL THOUGHT ON DORIAN... FOR NOW
Dorian has a lot to offer within itself. You can make it feel like the blues and borrow plenty of dominant chords whenever you like. There are plenty of songs that are not played in Dorian but use Dorian chords and melodies. Feel free to use any of the topics discussed here to give some extra flavor to those Dorian moments. A simple C Ionian vi, ii, V7, I progression (Am, Dm, G7, C) can be spiced up by adding a Gm7 or Gm6 before the ii chord. Then you could play D Minor Blues in place of the ii chord before rocking back into the chord progression. There are tons of Dorian options. Below is a quick audio clip that uses some of the above examples without a set tempo. Use some of your own ideas and see where it takes you.
|Am |Gm7 |Gm6 |Dm |D Dorian Melody |G7 |G add11 |C ||