etude #10, pt. 2

I settled on the key of B. The two modes, then, are an Enka mode in B, and the folk music In mode.

X:1
T:Enka scale
L:1/4
V:Y clef=treble name="B Minor"
B,^CDE^FGAB
V:I clef=treble name="yonanuki tan-onkai"
B,^CDz^FGzB

Modern, mainstream Enka uses a modified minor scale called ヨナ抜(ぬ)き短(たん)音階(おんかい)　(minor scale without four and seven). I’m assuming that means the natural minor scale, not the harmonic or melodic minor scales.

Using the information outlined in [[Japanese modes]], I constructed the In mode in the key of B:

X:1
T:In mode (B)
L:1/4
V:I clef=treble name="In"
ecB | BG^F

which gives me the tones B C# D F# G

And then using the jumping to convert this to a scale:

X:1
T:In scale (B)
L:1/4
V:I clef=treble name="In"
BG^FECB,

which gives me the tones B G F# E C

And, finally, merging them together.

X:1
T:Polymode
L:1/4
V:S clef=treble name="Shared"
B,zz zz^FG B
V:E clef=treble name="yonanuki tan-onkai"
z z^CD
V:I clef=treble name="In"
z C zzE

So that’s 7 tones to work with. B C C# D E F# G.

• Shared: B F# G
• Enka-only: C# D
• In-only: C E

It’s definitely not the full chromatic scale, which… might be a problem for this exercise. I’m not sure how important that is.

It also doesn’t make the loveliest scale, but that’s not the point. Next step is figuring out what I can make with these – especially what chords.

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The general idea I had for this song was to start out in the Enka mode, do a short transition to In, then finish the song with a section combining the two.

After starting the introductory section, I quickly realized that composing an ambient song probably wasn’t going to work for this exercise. It’s certainly possible, but writing passages that highlighted each mode was tricky without clear melodic phrases.

The opening came together pretty well. I wrote 3 sections & doubled them – A A B B C C. I then had to revisit my notes on modes and rework the passages to highlight the tonic and dominant notes (B & F#) which helped firmly position it as in B minor.

I then wrote a short transition section that only used the tones shared between the two modes (B F# & G), and wrote another passage, this time using the In mode. With this one, I tried to keep the stopping tones in mind, and built the phrases around the “tetrachords”. The stopping tones for this scale are just B & F# again, but this section did end up having a decidedly different flavor.

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around this time I came across the first big problem. But first, I built a harmony around these sections where one voice used a guitar, and another that roughly followed the same melody used a koto. I then tweaked the koto part so it would add a few extra notes, or shift and repeat the phrase a little bit later. This worked pretty well.

But then I wanted to add some chords, and that’s where I ran into issues. Because I’m writing in a pentatonic scale, not all of the minor chords were available, and while I know that Jazz often uses a pentatonic scale, the Enka scale doesn’t quite line up, and so a lot of information in my research didn’t quite line up.

X:1
T:Enka scale
L:1/4
B,^CDz^FGzB

1. B minor (BDF#)
2. C# Minor (C#EG)
3. (DF#A)
4. E
5. (F#AC#)
6. (GBD)
7. A

X:1
T:In scale (B)
L:1/4
V:I clef=treble name="In"
B,CzE^FGzB

1. B dim (BDF#)
2. C Major (CEG)
3. D
4. E Minor (EGB)
5. F# dim (F#AC)
6. G Major (GBD)
7. A

This obviously wasn’t going to work for harmony. Much less adding any sort of chord progression. (also, I’m pretty sure I got the names of some of them wrong)

Finally, I discovered shell chords. This was one of the missing pieces. Basically, I could fill in the missing / invalid chords by using larger (7th, 9th, etc.) chords and just leaving out the unavailable notes.

This gave me several chords to work with (instead of only 2 for the Enka scale and 2 for the In scale), but when I started trying to pepper in chords or do anything, it just didn’t sound right.

And then I came to the second major problem – I just couldn’t figure out how to resolve the song. I tried blending the 2 modes, but it was way harder than I had hoped. Initially, I tried a variation of the Enka mode section for the guitar & a variation of the In mode section for the koto, and have them play off of each other / harmonize with each other. It was a decent start, and I do think it might still be a good idea, but I couldn’t get it to work.

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Ultimately, this exercise turned out to be beyond my current capabilities. I knew it would be challenging, and I knew that I’d have to follow a trail of new concepts like I did with previous exercises, but this one required practice with some of the new concepts before I feel like I’d be ready to tackle it.

Specifically, there are 2 areas I think I need more experience with:

• using modes
• composing with a pentatonic scale

Also, more practice with key changes and chord progressions in general would probably help me.

I do think I want to revisit this song & try to finish it in the future, but for now, this is my unfinished song:

• Etude 7.1 - polymodal chromaticism.mp3