gtZip wrote:To grossly simplify...
First mode is the base of western music. The major scale.
All other modes are harmonizations of the first mode, just as all intervals are harmonizations of a root note.
Feel free to correct that if someone has a different take.
don't mean to split hairs and prolly this is just semantics but i'm not sure i'd agree that "...all intervals are harmonizations of a root note."
this goes back to a mostly civilized discussion from a cpl of week's back where we got into the definition of "root".
my take on it is that "root" refers to the root note of any chord in a progression.
i.e. a II V I in the key of G Maj would be Am7 D7 G. and each chord has it's own "root". A for the Am...D for the D7...and G for G chord. as i see it every chord has a 'root' just as every chord has a third, a fifth, a....
others opined that "root" merely refers to the key that a song resides in.
still others will define root as the thing that anchors plants and trees.
anyway, back to your statement "all intervals are harmonizations of a root note."
if you're in the key of G and speaking of a G Maj scale...(as i see it) there's only one "root" for that scale...G. so if you you play the interval of G to B you are correct in that you are playing an interval off the root. G to F# is another interval off of the "root".
but in that same G Maj scale if you play the interval B and D ...."B" does not become the "root". it's merely a note you're harmonizing.
as i said, semantics are at play here....and whatever works and floats anyone boat is fine by me. it's all in the end results anyway.