What Scale Is Hip Hop Music Made In?

Many people don’t realize that the music they listen to every day is made in a specific scale.

By understanding the scale that hip hop music is made in, you can appreciate the intricate melodies and beats that make up your favorite songs.

Major Scale

Music is made up of many different elements, but the most important element is the scale. The scale is the foundation that everything else is built on. Without a scale, there would be no melody or harmony. There are many different scales, but the most common one in Western music is the major scale. The major scale is the basis for all major and minor key signatures.

Ionian Mode

The major scale is the granddaddy of all scales. It’s the first one you should learn, and once you’ve got it down, you can branch out and start exploring the other scales. All the other scales are built off of the major scale, so once you learn this one, the others will be a breeze.

The major scale is also known as the Ionian mode. It’s made up of seven notes, and it has a happy, major sound. Here are the steps to follow to play a C major scale:

1. Start on C.
2. Go up to D.
3. Go up to E.
4. Go up to F.
5. Go up to G.
6. Go up to A.
7. Finish on B.
8 . And then come back to C again (an octave higher).

Dorian Mode

Dorian mode is a type of musical scale, or an arrangement of pitch classes, which includes all seven notes of a conventional major scale starting from the second scale degree. This means it consists of a tonic (or i) chord built on the second note (or supertonic) of the major scale, followed by the submediant (iv), mediant (V), subdominant (vi), dominant (VII), and tonic octave.

Phrygian Mode

The Phrygian mode is the third mode of the major scale, and is said to have a “Spanish” or “Eastern” sound (think of flamenco or Arabian music). To create a Phrygian chord progression, you’ll use the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th notes of a major scale. In the key of C, that would give us: D – E – A – B.

Lydian Mode

The Lydian mode is the fourth of the seven musical modes. It is, therefore, sometimes called the mode of the fourth. Like all modes, it consists of seven notes, each a whole step (two frets) apart. These notes are, from low to high:

F-G-A-B-C-D-E

Notice that this is exactly the same as a major scale, except for one note: the fourth note of the Lydian mode is a B, while in a major scale it is a C. This makes the Lydian mode ideal for creating suspension and tension in your solos.

Mixolydian Mode

The Mixolydian mode is the fifth of the seven musical modes. It is similar to the major scale except for the lowered seventh scale degree. The word “Mixolydian” comes from the Latin word for “Mixolyde”, which was one of the three major ancient tribes that inhabited Lydia in Asia Minor. The other two tribes were the Dorians and Phrygians.

The Mixolydian mode was used extensively by early Christian composers such as Hildegard von Bingen and Guido d’Arezzo. It was also used in medieval music, particularly in Sacred Harp and Gregorian chant. In the Renaissance, the mode was often used for music in a minor key, such as Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonatas in D minor.

Classical composers such as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven also made use of the Mixolydian mode. In jazz, Miles Davis’s “So What” and John Coltrane’s “Blue Train” are examples of tunes written in this mode.

The Mixolydian mode is also important in rock music. The opening riff to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” is an example of a riff played in Mixolydian. Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” is another well-known example of a rock tune written in this mode.

Aeolian Mode

The Aeolian mode is often associated with minor tonality and saddening, emotional music. The first, third, and fifth notes of the scale are all minor, with the second and sixth being major. The seventh note is a whole step below the octave, giving it a feeling of resolution when you hear it. The Aeolian mode can be thought of as a natural minor scale with no sharp or flat seventh note.

Locrian Mode

The Locrian scale is the seventh and final mode of the major scale. It’s a bit of an odd duck, as it’s the only major scale mode that doesn’t start on the tonic note. Instead, it starts on the seventh note of the major scale. That gives it a sound that is both dark and unstable, which is why it’s not used as often as other modes.

Minor Scale

The minor scale is one of the most important scales in hip hop music. It is the foundation of many complex chords and progressions. By understanding the minor scale, you will be able to create your own unique sounding chord progressions and melodies.

Natural Minor Scale

The minor scale is one of the most important scales in all of music. It’s sometimes called the natural minor scale, because it’s the basis for many popular songs in a number of different genres, including rock, pop, and blues.

The minor scale is also used extensively in hip hop. In fact, many of the most popular Hip Hop songs are based on the minor scale. If you’re new to producing Hip Hop music, it’s important to understand how the minor scale works and how it can be used to create some of the most popular sounds in Hip Hop.

The minor scale is made up of seven notes. The first note is the root note, which gives the scale its name. The second note is a half step higher than the root note, and the third note is a whole step higher than the root note. The fourth note is a half step higher than the third note, and so on.

Here are the notes of the A minor scale:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G

As you can see, this scale includes all of the notes between A and G. These seven notes can be played in any order to create a melody or progression.

The key of A minor has a very dark and melancholy sound. This is due to the fact that it contains a lot of flat notes (notes that are lower than they would be in a major key). The flatnotes give the key of A minor a very distinctive sound that can be used to create some truly beautiful music.

Harmonic Minor Scale

The harmonic minor scale is a minor scale where the seventh degree is raised by a half step (semitone), compared to the natural minor scale. For example, in A minor, the seventh degree would normally be G. However, in the harmonic minor scale, the seventh degree is raised to G#.

This change gives the harmonic minor scale a slightly different sound and feel than the natural minor scale. Many popular songs in hip hop are made in the harmonic minor scale.

Melodic Minor Scale

The melodic minor scale is a minor scale that is raised by a semitone (half tone) on the sixth and seventh degrees when ascending, and lowered by a semitone on the sixth and seventh degrees when descending. The ascending form of the scale is sometimes called the jazz minor scale, because it is used extensively in jazz music.

Modes

In music, mode is the scale upon which a piece of music is created in. There are several different types of modes, but the two most commonly used in hip hop are the minor and major scales. The minor scale has a dark, sad sound, while the major scale has a bright, happy sound.

Ionian Mode

The Ionian mode is major. It has a major 3rd, perfect 5th, and major 7th. These give it a bright sound when compared to the Aeolian and Dorian modes. It’s also the only mode with a major 2nd. This note gives the Ionian mode a brighter, happier sound than any other mode. The Ionian mode is used in many popular songs in the key of C Major.

Dorian Mode

Dorian mode is a scale that is built on the second degree of the major scale. The interval pattern for the Dorian mode is as follows: whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step. The notes in a Dorian mode scale are: D E F G A B C D. You can see that the mode starts on the second note of the major scale.

Phrygian Mode

In music, the Phrygian mode (/ˈfrɪdʒiən/ or /ˈfriːdʒiən/)[1] is the third of the ecclesiastical modes. It is considered one of the darkest of the church modes. Its name comes from its initial note, which can be seen as an allusion to the ancient Greek region of Phrygia.

The Phrygian mode is set apart from the major and minor key systems by virtue of its unique tonic: whereas in tonal music, the tonic is always a major triad (except in atonality), in modal music, it may be any degree of the scale. ThePhrygian mode inherits its core interval content from the Lydian mode, and as such, contains both a major second (between degrees 1 and 2) and a tritone (between degrees 3 and 5). However, it also features a minor second between degrees 2 and 3 (unlike its parent scale), giving it a more saturnine feel than either the Lydian or Ionian modes.[citation needed] This unique characteristic often gives rise to it being known as “the devil’s scale”,[2][3] or “the black scale”.[1][4]

The Phrygian mode can be represented in just intonation with either 6-limit tuning,[5][6] or with 3-limit tuning.[7]

Lydian Mode

The Lydian mode is the fourth mode of the major scale, used in jazz and other forms of popular music. The Lydian scale uses a raised fourth degree, giving it a bright sound that is perfect for creating happy and uplifting melodies. This scale is often used in major key songs with a positive and optimistic feel.

Mixolydian Mode

The Mixolydian mode is the fifth of the seven musical modes. It is similar to the major scale except for one thing: the seventh note of the scale is lowered by a half step (one fret on a guitar, or one semitone on a piano). This gives the Mode a bluesy sound, and is used extensively in Jazz and Blues. The Mixolydian mode can be found in many popular songs, such as “Miss You” by The Rolling Stones, “On Broadway” by George Benson, and “Brown Sugar” by D’angelo.

Aeolian Mode

The Aeolian mode is a musical mode or, more specifically, a diatonic scale. It is the sixth of the seven church modes and has a natural minor scale as its basis. The name comes from the fact that it was used in ancient Greece in music theory as one of the original ancestor scales of theoctave.[1] Like all church modes, it is principally characterized by its final (reciting note), which in this case is the sixth note, A. The mode can be represented using either a major or minor scale starting on A, though some argue that the Aeolian mode should strictly be represented by a minor scale due to its medio-modal root status.[2][3]

Locrian Mode

The Locrian mode is the seventh and final mode of the major scale. It’s considered to be the darkest and most unstable of all the modes, which is why it’s not used as often as the others.

The Locrian mode is made up of the following intervals:

– Root
– Minor 2nd
– Minor 3rd
– Perfect 4th
– Perfect 5th
– Minor 6th
– Minor 7th