Estimated reading time 4 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Do you want to sing blues, gospel, or even mediaeval melodies? Are you confused about how modes work? Modes have the exotic feel of world music and music from ancient times. Singing Shape Note Solfege Mixolydian Melodies helps you discover the sound of the modes.
So far, we’ve looked at these modes:
Today we’ll add the Mixolydian mode to the list. Most of the examples of public domain modal vocal music that I’ve found have been drawn from mediaeval Christmas Carols. This month is no exception.
The Modes and Singing Shape Note Solfege Mixolydian Melodies
Mobile users: for best results reading the music, tilt your screen 90o to the right.
The C Mixolydian Mode:
Sing with the C mixolydian track above to help prepare your ear for singing the shape note solfege mixolydian melody in the next section.
- What types of music use the mixolydian mode? Blues, gospel, and early jazz all have used the mixolydian mode. The mode kind of sounds like the major scale, but with the tension you find in the dominant seventh chord.
- If you look at the C mixolydian mode above, it looks like a C major scale with a B flat. However, C mixolydian is relative to F major.
- This means it has all the same notes as F major, but starts and ends on the note C instead of the note F. Because of this, you’ll sing the solfege syllables like F major, but moving from Sol to Sol instead of Do to Do.
For a basic explanation of modes:
For more info on reading shape notes and performing modes see:
Christ was Born on Christmas Day and Singing Shape Note Solfege Mixolydian Melodies
Christ was Born on Christmas Day:
The tune for Singing Shape Note Solfege Mixolydian Melodies will be Christ Was Born on Christmas Day. It comes from the ancient German chant Resonet in Laubibus from Piae Cantiones.
- Make sure you breathe at the end of each phrase. This helps to support the tone and ensures that your pitch won’t go flat.
- The sing-along song tracks have a tuning that has been specially selected to help train your ear to hear melodic intervals in tune. Be sure to practice with the song tracks every day, because it will help to develop you metal pitch template.
- The song tracks use synthetic voices rather than actual voices. Research has shown that this will help with the ability to identify and produce absolute pitch information. For more information, read: Why Use a Synth Voice Instead of Real Voices.
For your listening pleasure, I’ve included a video of Christ Was Born on Christmas Day. The chant you’ll sing today differs from the one in the video. However, you can still find the tune in there if you listen closely.
Christ was Born on Christmas Day Video
Singing Shape Note Solfege Mixolydian Melodies: Quiz
Once you’ve gotten comfortable performing Christ Was Born on Christmas Day, you can attempt the quiz. Be sure to sing the solfege syllables (not included). For help with sight reading the 6-8 time signature rhythms see:
Concluding Thoughts on Singing Shape Note Solfege Mixolydian Melodies
Shape notes will help any vocalist to better read the score. However, LD, ASD, ADD, and other special needs vocalists will especially find shape notes helpful, because they create a multisensory experience that leads to sight reading skill.
Try performing the modes in the posts listed in the bullet points in section II. You’ll hear that each mode has its own distinctive sound. Singing Shape Note Solfege Mixolydian Melodies shows that this is true for the mixolydian mode as well.
© 2022 Geoffrey Keith
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Good post.