Ableton Forum

Hi,

I've recently decided to learn music theory a bit deeper and found out one thing where i don't understand why is it made that way.

If you look a wiki page about dorian scales you'll find out that it's a Major scale played from the second note of that scale. So when C Major is a C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C the C Dorian must be D,E,F,G,A,B,C,D which changes the tonic(root) note from that scale from C to D.

More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorian_mode

Now the thing i don't understand is that when i select C Dorian on push and play the root note pad(the colored one) it still plays C instead of G.

Can anyone explain to me why is that ? Because it really messes with your head when you're trying to learn chord progressions using push patterns.

Hello! You might find this post (or many others if you do a search) to be more helpful than Wikipedia:

https://onlineguitarbooks.com/guitar-modes-explained/

My version:

If I say "C Dorian" I'm describing set of pitches with two limitations:

"C" = the tonic (Note 1) of the set of pitches. (Hence Push still plays C as the root in C Dorian mode)
"Dorian" = the set of pitches starting on degree 2 of a major scale.

So I can then ask: of which Major Scale is C the 2nd degree? voila... Bb Major. So C Dorian uses the pitches of Bb Major using C as note 1 (tonic.)

The set of pitches you described would be D Dorian (Starting on D, and D is the 2nd degree of C major, so using the notes from C major).

I hope that helps!

The method describes above is a trick to find the right scale. It’s like this: Dorian= 1 1/2 1 1 1 1/2 1
Good luck!