Dorian, the Funk Mode

Play a natural minor scale over a funk vamp and something is slightly wrong. It sounds heavy, a bit mournful, and funk is rarely either.

The fix is one note. Raise the sixth degree of the minor scale a half step and you have Dorian — still minor, because the third is still flat, but with a brighter colour sitting where the gloom used to be. That single raised note is most of what separates a funk vamp from a sad ballad.

You can hear it in the harmony too. When a minor vamp has a major IV chord in it — G minor moving to F and C, rather than to F and C minor — that major chord is the raised sixth showing up in the chords rather than the melody.

G Dorian

G Dorian. Compare it to G minor and find the one note that differs — that note is the sound you are after.

Gm7

Gm7, the home chord of the vamp below — compact and movable.

This track is built on Gm7 moving to F and C6 — a textbook Dorian vamp, and the title says so.

Play rhythm on it first, using the Gm7 voicing above. Then, without stopping the track, switch to single notes and walk through G Dorian slowly, one note per bar if you like. Land on the raised sixth and hold it while the F chord goes by. That is the sound of the mode agreeing with the harmony.

A long G Dorian vamp. Rhythm first, then one slow pass of the scale over the top.