Escape Functional Harmony! Book Guiding New Methods of Pop Composition, 'Modal Composition Approach for Popular Music,' to be Released on April 17

Rittor Music, a company in the Impress Group that handles music-related media business, will release 'Modal Composition Approach for Popular Music' (by Yoshikazu Suo) on April 17, 2026.

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To pop musicians, film music composers,

and all you songwriters,

if you're tired of chord progressions, why not try modes!

For composers who find themselves stuck in the same old chord patterns,

or are searching for a new approach,

and for those who know the name and basic knowledge of mode scales but haven't put them into practice,

why not take a peek into the world of modes!

Just as there are complex and simple chords in ordinary chord progression composition,

the ideas behind modes are diverse, ranging from simple to difficult.

This is a pop interpretation that's a little different from jazz modes.

Of course, it's not about returning to the modes of the Gregorian chant era.

It's about the way of thinking in our current age.

This is a proposal to incorporate the concept of modes into your compositional challenges for a new world of sound!

We will break it down with explanations, sheet music, and sound sources.

Yoshikazu Suo (from the Foreword)

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In this book, as an alternative to the act of composition that heads towards 'resolution' based on dominant motion, we create the concept of 'mode-pop'—pop music with a unique floating sensation and spatial sense using 'modes'—and call for composers to participate. Modal music, seen in ancient monophonic music, has finally been introduced to popular music after the development of functional harmony since equal temperament and the discovery of modes in jazz.

The author, Yoshikazu Suo, has left numerous works as a composer of film and commercial music, winning the Japan Academy Prize for Music four times. Also active in bands and solo projects, he has been experimenting with 'pop music composition using modes' since the 1980s. This book, which can be called the fruit of his labor, also introduces many songs by members of his study group, the MODE SONG PROJECT. Many of these can be viewed as videos on YouTube, allowing for a multi-faceted experience of the mode-pop world.

Please pay attention to this new movement called mode-pop, which has finally been unveiled!