Pull Your Roots
A simple way to access bold sounds.
Getting to the Root of it All
In the grand world of music, the root note controls what we hear and how we feel music. We don’t even need a musical background to understand this. The song “A Horse with No Name” by America uses two chords rooted in E and D. The magic doesn’t come from the chords. It comes from the root notes D and E against the vocals, which use only two notes: A and B. Take a listen to the song below where the first lyric sings the note B with “first part of” and “journey”. Pay attention to how that note has a little more tension when “journey” is sung. This is because the Em chord causes B to act as the 5th degree note and is a natural note to accompany E, but when the D chord comes in things change. B is the 6th degree note of D and adds a new flavor of tension to the song for “journey” even though it’s the exact same B note.
For those of you that are musically inclined (and I sincerely mean everyone), try playing the following two-note chords (or dyads) to isolate the effect that two root notes (D and E) have on the note B. Even the note A is redefined for a brief moment on the second “the” when the E4 chord (notes E and A) are played. Now that we know that a root note can redefine higher tones, we can start manipulating tones by moving the root note.
Thinking in Modes
We’re going to use modes to better understand what happens when we adjust a root note. If you’re not familiar with modes, the Circle of Fifths, or modes in fifths then check out my archives section for multiple articles on these subjects. For a quick refresher on modes in fifths, take a look at the next chart.
Above are the three major modes (Lydian, Ionian, and Mixolydian), the three minor modes (Dorian, Aeolian, and Phrygian), and the one diminished mode: Locrian. As we descend through the list we add an additional flat degree number and ascending causes degrees to be raised or sharpened. These are all of the modes of the Major Scale.
Since any Major Scale is the same set of seven notes, we can know that all of these modal scales use the same notes. Just like in “A Horse with No Name”, C Ionian has C as the lowest tone and causes the notes D, E, F, G, A, and B to be degrees 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. We can go to another mode in the key like B Locrian and treat B as the lowest tone. This causes the notes C, D, E, F, G, and A to become degrees b2, b3, 4, b5, b6, and b7. By simply switching root notes from C to B we have redefined all of the other notes as new degrees of each root note.
The Lydian-Locrian Slide
What happens if we continue to flatten or sharpen degrees? If we take Lydian at the top and sharpen the first degree, we create Locrian. The same goes in reverse. Flattening the first degree of Locrian creates the Lydian mode.
Now let’s put this to use. Playing a short progression of |C |FMaj7 |G7 |C | sounds alright, but we can make it better. Try playing |C |FMaj7 F#m7b5 |G7 |C |. When playing the F#m7b5 chord you can simply play FMaj7 and raise only the root note. In this way FMaj7 (F-A-C-E) becomes F#m7b5 (F#-A-C-E).
Now let’s try this out in reverse. Starting with |C |FMaj7 |Bm7b5 |C | is fine, but |C |FMaj7 |Bm7b5 BbMaj7 |C | sounds so much more interesting. This time we took Bm7b5 (B-D-F-A) and lowered only the root note to create BbMaj7 (Bb-D-F-A). By altering the root even slightly we completely change the flavor of the other notes between Lydian and Locrian chords. This is why I like to refer to this as the Lydian-Locrian slide. Play around with progressions that use Lydian and/or Locrian chords and slide the root note to alter the behavior of the other six notes.
Keep Pulling Those Roots Apart!
There are plenty of ways to use the concept of moving only the root note to access alternate sounds. We can start with C Ionian and sharpen the root to access C# Altered Scale.
Altered Scale is the seventh mode of the Melodic Minor scale. Thankfully we don’t need to know that scale to play a lead melody over it. We can simply play a |CMaj7 |C#m7b5 |Dm7| and when we get to C#m7b5 we play the standard C Major Scale notes, but with C raised to C#. For a brief moment we go from the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, and B to C#, D, E, F, G, A, and B.
All of the examples in this article have been purposefully centered around Maj7 and m7b5 chords, but you can raise and lower the roots of other chord forms and modes. As you do this, be mindful of the “rubber-band effect”. As you raise a root, the degrees of the other notes are flattened. As you lower a root, the degrees of the other notes are raised.
This is where knowing your modal formulas comes in handy. If you want to learn more about modes and scales outside of the standard Major Scale then look for Harmonic Major, Harmonic Minor, and Melodic Minor in the archives section.
You might also want to check out my articles on Combining Scales, Reharmonization, and Chromaticism if you really want to push the limit of what you can do. Be sure to leave a comment below regarding what you found interesting in this article. You can also leave questions there as well. If you’re not already a subscriber, then now is the time.
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Thanks for reading Music Theory for Everyone! Until next week.
