Modes and Moods

Hello VibesWorkshop community!

I'm a graduate student (working on my DMA) at Southern Miss. I am studying jazz vibes with Toni Miceli and just now have begun learning improvisation.

Improvisation can be challenging when you are trying to apply it to modes and are uncertain of the direction you want to take the melody. I was having this same problem just a few days ago while working on modal improvisation until I noticed how the various modes had its own personality. When I started thinking of the emotion or image in my mind of the particular mode the character of my melody became more clear and expressive. From there I made a list of modes to moods helping me form ideas of the kind of melody I wanted to create for the particular mode. Below are my own ideas of the mode's moods:

ionian- centered, in control, confident
dorian- dark, mysterious, film noir-ish
phrygian- mildly conflicting between light and dark
lydian- spacey, spritely, bright energy
mixolydian- cool, edgy attitude (a la Fonzie)
aeolian- heavy, grey, dreary, like a cold rainy day
locrian- uncertain, lost in the woods

These are some ideas that came to my mind and of course your perception may be different, either way when I thought of these moods and applied them to the modes my improvisation improved! I'd suggest trying this out yourself or with your students!