About This Lesson
This unit is designed for an intermediate music theory course and introduces the concept of modes in music. Students will learn about the 7 modes, how chords work to form a mode, and how to improvise in a mode. This is not a beginning music theory course; students should have already learned about key signatures, scales, and the chord Roman numeral system (either from a previous class or a previous unit in this class).
This unit is spread across 7 lessons where the school is on an A/B schedule and the classes are 70-90 minutes in length. Since class length can vary, material may be moved from one lesson to the adjacent one if need be.
Unit Objectives
Students will demonstrate the ability to do the following at the end of this unit:
• Recognize the mode of a chord progression
• Compose chord progressions in various modes
• Know and be able to perform all modal scales
• Improvise in any of the modes
• Recognize the mode of a melody
• Compose melodies in various modes
Note: Students will be aware of the Locrian mode, but it is exempted from the recognition, composition, and improvisation activities since it is diminished and is not typically used.
