Relative

Relative Mode is a setting for the EAMIR padKontrol System. It operates similarly to Absolute Mode, but In Relative Mode, the user selects a tonic and a mode before playing. The user may choose from a list of twelve pitch classes and the twenty-eight diatonic modes of the major scale, the harmonic minor scale, the melodic minor scale, and the harmonic major scale, major scale b6. By default, the key of C Major is selected. Each of the four pads in the first two rows is voiced according to the chords that naturally occur in our tertian system of harmony. When pressed, the first pad of the first row will yield a C Major chord, the first chord in the key of C Major; the second pad of the first row will yield a d minor chord, the second chord in the key of C major. If a different tonality is selected, different tertian chords will be built. When a pad is pressed and a chord is played, the software determines the chord function and quality as it relates to the selected mode and tonic, and looks for the chords that normally follow the selected function. When these are found, the lights beneath these pads will begin to blink. If a user pressed the second chord in C Major, pad five begins to blink and he can easily see that the second chord normally resolves to the five chords. If the fifth chord is pressed, the chords that normally follow the fifth chord will begin to blink. This blinking does not cause any change in sound, but provides the user with suggestions for their performance with regard to the function of chords in functional Western harmony. Each of the four pads in the last two rows creates a secondary dominant (V/V, V/ii, etc.) for each of the chords created by pressing pads one through eight, first two rows. The user can change this secondary dominant chord to a secondary leading tone chord, a minor sub-dominant or other borrowed chords that tonicize the seven diatonic chords.