Popular Songs that feature the Dorian Minor

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Here are the four main minors in music.

[00:00:04]Natural.

[00:00:07]>> [music] >> Melodic.

[00:00:11]>> [music] >> Harmonic.

[00:00:17]And Dorian.

[00:00:19]>> [music] >> For certain reasons that we can pontificate on in the comments, the Dorian lends itself more to popular music.

[00:00:31]>> [music] >> In this video, we are going to look at some amazing tunes [music] that feature the set of notes known as the Dorian minor.

[00:00:41]I hope, by hearing this particular minor mode in action, the lover of music might get a better idea [music] of the emotions it produces.

[00:00:52]In the last video, we saw the natural minor. Here it is again harmonized with one, four, and five chords, all minor.

[00:01:06]>> [music] >> Let's compare this sound with the Dorian minor harmonized now with one minor, four major, [music] and five minor.

[00:01:25]>> [music] >> There is just one note different between these two scales, the sixth.

[00:01:39]In the Dorian, it is a natural sixth.

[00:01:45]And in the natural minor, it is a [music] flattened sixth.

[00:01:52]This seemingly small difference is actually huge. The four chord becomes major in the Dorian and the whole feeling of the scale of Oaks changes.

[00:02:01][music] The natural sixth is the signature note of the scale.

[00:02:07]Okay, let's get started with example one, Average White Band, Pick Up the Pieces in F minor Dorian.

[00:02:20]>> [music] >> Straightaway in the melody, we hear the signature note of the F Dorian, the natural sixth.

[00:02:30]>> [music] >> If we were to lower this note a semitone to the flattened sixth, the sound would go from funky to something quite unfunky.

[00:02:40]>> [music] >> In bar nine, we hear the four major chord that has a [music] dominant seventh added.

[00:02:49]These two chords, 1-7 to 4-7, [music] so indicative of the Dorian, are heard so much in jazz and funk and Latin music, such as Herbie Hancock's Chameleon in B flat minor Dorian.

[00:03:05]>> [music] [music] >> B flat minor seventh E flat seventh [music] 1 minor seventh 4 seventh [music] Example two in E Dorian minor, Scarborough [music] Fair by Simon and Garfunkel.

[00:03:31]Are [music and singing] you going to Scarborough Fair?

[00:03:38]>> [music] >> Parsley, sage, rosemary, [singing] and thyme >> [music] >> Remember [music] me [singing] to one lives there.

[00:03:54]>> [music] >> She once [singing] was a true love of mine.

[00:04:01]>> [music] >> Right from the beginning in the guitar introduction, the signature note is heard, the C sharp, the natural sixth as we [music] are in E Dorian minor.

[00:04:18]In [music] E minor, [clears throat] this C sharp produces a four major chord, A major. [music] In bar 10, we hear the D major chord, [music] the flat seven seven major. This is another important sound in the Dorian.

[00:04:40]In bar 15, we hear the C sharp, the sixth in the melody, which is an uplifting sound.

[00:04:50]>> [music] >> Here is the E minor Dorian harmonized with the chords of Scarborough Fair.

[00:05:06]>> [music] >> Example three, Staying Alive by the Bee Gees, again in F minor Dorian.

[00:05:33]Let's focus first on the Fender Rhodes part.

[00:05:39]>> [music] >> These two chords, the F minor and the [music] G minor are highly redolent of F Dorian minor.

[00:05:50][music] In bar five, we hear the four major chord, which is [music] optimistic and lifts the mood.

[00:06:09]Here is the F minor Dorian scale harmonized with chords taken from Staying Alive.

[00:06:17]>> [music] >> Example four, Miles Davis's So What from the Titanic Kind of Blue album. The key is D minor [music] Dorian.

[00:06:41]The piano voicing Bill Evans played in the A section is extremely interesting, as the D minor chord is voiced mainly in fourths.

[00:06:53]Here now dead slow.

[00:06:57]>> [music] >> There is a great kind of [music] openness and ambiguity these fourth chords produce as they function in a different way to chords built on thirds that tend [music] to want to resolve more.

[00:07:18]Here now is the D minor Dorian scale harmonized with just these two chords, D minor seven and E minor seven with a Bill Evans voicing.

[00:07:40]>> [music] >> Example five in E flat Dorian minor, Stevie Wonder, I Wish.

[00:07:53]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Let's look at this wicked bassline which outlines the one minor and four major chords of E flat minor.

[00:08:22]>> [music] >> So, the first section of the song just uses two chords, E flat minor seven [music] to A flat seven.

[00:08:35]One minor seven to four seven. [music] I hope you enjoyed this presentation.

[00:08:42]Please help the Jens [music] Duets channel grow by subscribing, liking, and sharing. Cheers.

[00:08:50]To finish, here is Dionne Warwick [music] singing Burt Bacharach's beautiful Walk On By. This first section is in A Dorian, [music] just two chords.

[00:09:01]If you see me walking down the street and I start to cry each time we meet walk on by.

[00:09:10]>> [singing] [music]