I'm glad you got something out of my (rather long winded) explanation. Like I said before, modes can be tricky at first.WMRhapsodies wrote:I see. So enforce a new tonic is not at all as easy as I naively guessed before.
[...]keeping on the white keys just for pure lazyness. I started on A, holding it with the left hand for some time, later making some easy chords, while improvising with my right hand (this is just "A Natural Minor", right, but still sound a bit nicely archaic to me since I'm more familiar to harmonic or melodic minor scales).
Still, is funny I think how memory works at this matters, since I "stopped" and consciously tried to start from a new scale -while there were no new chord or melodic progression that enforced me to actually take the new note as a real new root-
(M01, by the way, holds the kaoss settings for the entire song, so no chance to make this kind of modulations without stopping and selecting a new scale).
Your trouble with your ear favouring the A tonic on the white keys (yes, it is A Natural Minor or A Aeolian) is certainly normal and a result of our cultural favouring of the Ionian (Major Scale) and it's relative minor the Aeolian (Natural Minor). So it is not only your own memory but a cultural memory as well that keeps you focusing on the same tonic. Modes just aren't part of our daily musical lives anymore; although they're there if you look for them. The "Simpsons" theme (Lydian) or "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles (Dorian) are good examples and there are many more. Film composers use them extensively as well.
As far as enforcing a tonic goes, a drone is one way. Hold a drone long enough and the ear will eventually accept it as the tonic. Another good way to enforce a new tonic is with a "perfect cadence" - V to I. Play a Dominant 7th chord a perfect 5th away from the note you want to tonicize. For instance, if you want to hear the white key Phrygian Mode (E to E) then play a B7 chord (B D# F# A) and resolve it to an Em chord (E G B). Repeat this V - I cadence until your ear hears Em as the tonic.
When I was in school they would have us play the white key modes and to enforce a new tonic and mode we would play a "leading tone" into the new mode. This has a similar effect to playing a Perfect Cadence because the V chord contains a leading tone. The leading tone is by definition a semitone below the tonic. So, if you are playing say, white key Dorian (D to D) and you want to move to white key Mixolydian (G to G) then lead into it with an F# note. Only use the leading tone to get you to the new tonic though as it may not be a characteristic note of the new mode. The characteristic note of G Mixolydian for instance is the F natural; Once you have enforced the new tonic sufficiently you can abandon the leading tone and let the modal sound emerge.
To bad about the M01 having global Kaoss Mode settings. That is rather restrictive.