SLModes is a music software intended to make you think outside of the box.
It’s a songwriting tool that makes it easy to come up with chord progressions that lie outside of your normal music intuition (and that’s a good thing!)
It takes music theory concepts like music modes, modal modulation, pitch axis theory, and negative harmony, and puts them right at the tip of your fingers ready to be used.
Simply put:
With SLModes, it only takes a couple of minutes before you find ideas for uncommon chord progressions, that work, and that you wouldn’t otherwise have on your own. Can’t beat that.
The main features are:
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A total of 63 music modes for you to explore:
- Major Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian;
- Melodic Minor, Dorian b2, Lydian Augmented, Lydian Dominant, Mixolydian b6, Locrian #2, Altered;
- Harmonic Minor, Locrian 6, Ionian #5, Dorian #4, Phrygian Major, Lydian #2, Ultralocrian;
- Harmonic Major, Dorian b5, Phrygian b4, Lydian Minor, Mixolydian b2, Lydian Augmented #2, Locrian bb7;
- Double Harmonic Major, Lydian #2 #6, Ultraphrygian, Hungarian Minor, Oriental, Ionian #2 #5, Locrian bb3 bb7;
- Neapolitan Major, Leading Whole Tone, Lydian Augmented Dominant, Lydian Dominant b6, Major Locrian, Half-Diminished b4, Altered Dominant bb3;
- Neapolitan Minor, Lydian #6, Mixolydian Augmented, Romani Minor, Locrian Dominant, Ionian #2, Ultralocrian bb3;
- Hungarian Major, Ultralocrian bb6, Harmonic Minor b5, Superlocrian ♮6, Jazz Minor #5, Dorian b2 #4, Lydian Augmented #3;
- Romanian Major, Superlydian Augmented ♮6, Locrian ♮2 bb7, Blues Phrygian b4, Jazz Minor b5, Superphrygian ♮6 and Lydian Augmented b3.
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For each mode, it shows its chords (this is huge!) and their notes:
- It provides instant feedback on how a mode sounds and feels like, by playing it arpeggiated over a modal chord.
- For each mode, a list of its guitar fretboard shape and piano notes.
You can also open the extended freboard mode, to access the notes of the mode across the entire guitar fretboard. The green notes show the root of the mode. Alternatively, the extended fretboard can also show the notes of any currently selected chord in blue. This makes it easy to learn all the chords positions and arpeggios across the entire guitar fretboard.
It creates a list of all matching modes and their corresponding chords based on how many notes in common they have with the original mode you’ve selected (this is a new way of thinking when writing chord progressions). This allows you to jump between modes that don’t necessarily belong to the same scale / key. However, since they have at least some notes in common, acting as a bridge, the jump can always be made to work.
SLModes also allows to explore a relatively obscure music concept that’s been gaining some popularity recently: negative harmony. By mirroring the Circle of Fifths using the root note of a mode as the reference point, we end up with its negative mode and, likewise, its corresponding negative chords.
Either to come up with a complete negative version of a chord progression you had already made, or simply to grab some borrowed negative chords, having a Negative Harmony tool can give you even more ideas for your music compositions.
Composer Mode, allows you to write down your chord progressions, and play them in a loop. And finally, to take thing to the next step, you can export you chord progression to a MIDI file, so that you can import it later into your DAW software.
Windows:
- : Windows 7 / 8 / 10 (might work on other versions, but it wasn't tested)
- Architecture: 64 bits
- RAM: 1 GB
- Soundcard: Required
- Hard-Drive Free Space: 150 MB
- Minimum Screen Resolution: 980×600
macOS:
- Operating System: tested on macOS Catalina and Big Sur
- Architecture:64 bits
- RAM: 1 GB
- Soundcard: Required
- Hard-Drive Free Space: 150 MB
- Minimum Screen Resolution:980×600