# What is this musical mode? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [October 9, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828 "2025-10-09T15:05:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/1 "2025-10-09T15:05:26Z")
Starting after the chorus at [4:02, Guantanamera](https://youtu.be/blUSVALW_Z4?si=wQn9qRLwjIc4rQlF&t=242), the singer goes into a mode that I don’t recognize. Not minor, not major, or any of the other modes that I know of. Is there a term for what he’s doing here? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/2 "2025-10-09T16:53:31Z")
I don’t know the answer to your musical question, but _Holy Moley!_ what a fabulous, goosebump-inducing video presentation of that song! Love the masterful editing and the different scenery and the montage of performers-- I welcome this gorgeous earworm. 👂🏽 🪱 🎶 ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/3 "2025-10-09T18:02:35Z")
Oh yeah it’s a longtime favorite of mine. I just could never quite figure out what that one guy is doing. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/4 "2025-10-09T18:28:56Z")
I can’t hear anything especially unusual there? The song is fairly solidly in G major. There’s a quick circle-of-fifths turnround at about 3:57, could that be what you’re hearing? ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/5 "2025-10-09T20:06:18Z")
I don’t think it’s a mode as such, he’s just choosing to sing some notes not within the key – in jazz, this would be “playing outside.” For example he’s using the minor 3rd scale note within a plain-old major mode (Ionian), which contains the major 3rd but no minor third. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2025, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/6 "2025-10-09T21:36:24Z")
So if it’s not a mode, there must be a name for what he’s doing? I don’t think this guy randomly decided to throw in a minor 3rd, I feel like I’ve heard this in other Latin songs. Not just the notes, but the whole wailing style that he’s doing. ---
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/7 "2025-10-10T01:33:49Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > _Holy Moley!_ what a fabulous, goosebump-inducing video presentation of that song! You bet! I listen to a lot of latin music, and I have heard a flock of that sort of excursion. Sometimes it’s so sbtle, and so quickly in-and-out, that you only realize that _something_ has happened after it passes. If that tickled you, watch Playing for Change’s La Bamba. Dan ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/8 "2025-10-10T17:57:41Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > So if it’s not a mode, there must be a name for what he’s doing? False relation? > **[False relation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_relation)** > > A false relation (also known as cross-relation, non-harmonic relation) is the name of a type of dissonance that sometimes occurs in polyphonic music, most commonly in vocal music of the Renaissance and particularly in English music into the eighteenth century. > The term describes a "chromatic contradiction" between two notes sounding simultaneously (or in close proximity) in two different voices or parts; or alternatively, in music written before 1600, the occurrence of a tritone between two n In... ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/9 "2025-10-10T18:28:35Z")
He’s just throwing in a minor 7th in a song that doesn’t have any minor 7ths, but he’s leading into it with a major 7th. Seems really unnatural to me, like singing a tritone interval. Couldn’t do it with a gun to my head. But it’s quite an effect if you can get it right. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/10 "2025-10-10T18:35:00Z")
The word you’re looking for is [blue note](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_note). ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/11 "2025-10-10T18:37:40Z")
I think that’s right. This would explain why I couldn’t even peck it out on a keyboard. > It should not be surprising that blue notes are not represented accurately in the 12-tone equal temperament system, which is made up of a cycle of very slightly flattened perfect fifths My ear just isn’t shaped like that. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/12 "2025-10-10T18:43:33Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Seems really unnatural to me, like singing a tritone interval. Couldn’t do it with a gun to my head. But it’s quite an effect if you can get it right. You may find this music history video interesting 🙂 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/uOoonFUb5HA/maxresdefault.jpg "False relations in the late Renaissance") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOoonFUb5HA) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-musical-mode/1023828/13 "2025-10-10T18:59:32Z")
P.S. as Johanna’s link points out, one possible use of a “blue note” is to create a seventh or eleventh, etc. harmonic, therefore making the music _less_ dissonant. That has to be distinguished from throwing in “outside” notes for a deliberate dissonant effect. [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Harmonic_Series.png/960px-Harmonic_Series.png) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Harmonic_Series.png/960px-Harmonic_Series.png)