How Music Can Help Us Be Curious About Our Emotions (Even the Cringey Ones)
Practicing emotional self-care through modal modulation—for certified therapeutic harpists and curious humans alike.
There’s this beautiful, quietly radical study that came out of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.* It found that people who simply noticed and accepted their emotions, even the uncomfortable ones like sadness or anger, actually experienced more positive emotions over time. In short: turning toward our emotions instead of avoiding them makes us feel better.
And while that might sound like “therapy-speak” at first, it’s something certified therapeutic musicians can bring straight into our practice, especially when we’re supporting others from bedside to hospice, or just taking care of our own inner world after a long day.
So how do we do it? How do we observe emotions without getting swept away by them? We can use music as our familiar language. More specifically: through modulating chord progressions modally, as a kind of emotional sketchpad.
Start with the Emotion: “Annoyed”
Let’s take “annoyed” as our example. It’s not the most poetic emotion, but it’s real. The person behind you is clicking their pen. Your email has 49 new unread messages. You feel yourself getting prickly— but instead of acting on it or pushing it away, you decide to get curious.
Now imagine sitting at your harp, not in the heat of the moment, but in a quieter, reflective space. You give yourself 10 minutes. You ask:
What does “annoyed” feel like in my body?
Where does it live?
What would it sound like?
Then you start playing.
Modulating the Mood: Musical Tools for Emotional Curiosity
As CTMs we know that this is where modal modulation can come in. Different modes evoke different emotional colors. Think of them like lenses you can use to “tint” your emotional expression.
(In LIMDAP order, in order from brightest to darkest, major to minor.)
Lydian: Bright and slightly otherworldly. Could help bring a sense of wonder or detachment.
Mixolydian: Major with a rebellious streak. Good for exploring indignation or sarcasm.
Dorian: Minor but hopeful—great for complexity, like annoyance mixed with curiosity.
Aeolian: Your classic natural minor—good for sadness and low energy.
Phrygian: A bit darker, tenser. Use this if annoyance feels more like frustration or edginess.
So, to explore annoyance, you might begin in Dorian — a minor feel that still has lift. Maybe you modulate to Phrygian when the tension spikes, or transition gently into Aeolian as you exhale but still want to acknowledge lower energy. You’re not performing for anyone. You’re not even trying to “fix” anything. You’re simply tuning in.
Why This Matters (and Works)
When therapeutic musicians practice modulating emotions musically, they’re not just learning technique. They’re training emotional muscles:
To observe, not react
To give shape to feelings that might otherwise come out sideways
To create a practice of self-awareness that’s embodied, not just mental
You’re also preparing. So the next time you feel truly annoyed — by an error, a customer service hold line, or someone’s loud shoes in the hospital — you’ve already built a pathway. You know the shape of that emotion. You’ve played with it, sat with it, made space for it.
And that makes a difference. That’s therapeutic musicianship — for ourselves and others.
Deeper Dorian Dive:
Understanding D Dorian
D Dorian is the second mode of the C major scale.
D Dorian scale:
D – E – F – G – A – B – C – D
(No sharps or flats — same notes as C major)What makes D Dorian special?
It’s a minor mode (starts on D, with a minor 3rd: F), but it has a natural 6th (B) instead of the flattened 6th (Bb) found in D Aeolian (sometimes referred to as “raised 6th” because of the relationship, but not meaning “sharp”).
This gives Dorian a unique character: minor with a touch of brightness and motion.
D Dorian Progression: True to the Mode
Here’s a modal progression that honors Dorian’s distinctiveness and is great for emotional work around annoyance or restlessness, emotions that want movement without outright eruption:
Progression:
Dm (i) – Em (ii) – G (IV) – Dm (i)
Dm anchors the mode in that minor, grounded tone.
Em introduces light and space via the E–G–B triad — the B natural is the Dorian signature.
G major lifts again (IV), bright but still modal.
Return to Dm to bring the emotion back into focus.
We can also try this one:
Progression:
Dm – G – Bdim – Dm
Bdim (B–D–F) brings in that tense, unresolved color—perfect for capturing the friction in emotions like “annoyed” or “frustrated” — without leaving the mode.
Why This Works for Expressing “Annoyed”
It’s not heavy or hopeless like a more minor mode.
It lets tension rise and fall in waves, instead of peaking dramatically.
The natural 6th (B) gives the feeling of something unresolved but still moving, in line with how we experience low-level emotional friction.
“Flat” in Modal Theory
In D Dorian, we have a “flat III” and “flat VII.” Let’s unpack that clearly, and then address how to stay grounded in Dorian without accidentally slipping into Ionian (major).
In modal language, especially when comparing modes to major (Ionian), “flat” is relative to the major scale starting on the same tonic.
For example:
Compare D Dorian vs. D Major (Ionian)
D Major: D – E – F# – G – A – B – C# – D
D Dorian: D – E – F – G – A – B – C – D
So:
The 3rd in D Major is F# → but in D Dorian, it’s F → flattened 3rd
The 7th in D Major is C# → but in D Dorian, it’s C → flattened 7th
We call those bIII and bVII because they are lowered from their major-scale equivalents, not because they’re flat notes in the key signature.
This is standard in jazz and modal harmony. You’re not seeing accidentals here (like Bb or Eb), but you’re seeing degrees lowered from the parallel major scale.
How to Stay in Dorian Without Slipping Into Ionian
When you improvise in a mode like Dorian or Phrygian, your ear may instinctively reach for the comforts of major or minor—because that’s what most of us have heard through our lives. Your ear is like a magnet drawn to the poles of ‘home’ it knows best: Ionian and Aeolian (at least Western ears…). But in modal music, we’re not trying to ‘resolve’ the emotion, we’re trying to stay with it and explore its color.
Slipping out of mode is like emotionally bypassing, going back to what feels comfortable instead of staying curious with what’s present. The same way we might shift a hard feeling into distraction, our ears shift a ‘harder’ mode into familiar harmony.
Strategies to stay in D Dorian:
Avoid Accidentally Highlighting the Major 3rd or 7th
Don’t introduce F# or C# into your melodies or harmonies. Those pull you toward D Major (Ionian).
Stay true to F natural and C natural—they define Dorian.
Emphasize the Dorian Character Note: The 6th
In D Dorian, the B natural is the signature note (the raised 6th compared to Aeolian).
Highlight G–B–D (IV chord) or Em (ii) to keep that Dorian color present.
Use Chords That Don’t Exist in Ionian
Em (ii) and Bdim (vi° in D Dorian) aren’t diatonic to D Ionian. Using these helps keep you anchored in Dorian.
Melodic Anchoring
Use melodic phrases that land on or pass through B natural (6th degree) and avoid too much emphasis on A–C#–E, which could imply D major.
Cadences
Aeolian often cadences v → i (Am → Dm)*
*In Aeolian, a typical modal cadence is v → i (Am → Dm), which lacks a leading tone and keeps the color more subdued than a full dominant resolution.
Dorian cadences IV → i (G → Dm) or even ii → i (Em → Dm)
That IV → i motion is a beautiful hallmark of Dorian and helps steer it away from a major-feeling tonic.
*The study:
“The Psychological Health Benefits of Accepting Negative Emotions and Thoughts: Laboratory, Diary, and Longitudinal Evidence” by Brett Q. Ford and colleagues. This research was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and investigates how acceptance of negative emotions relates to psychological health.
The researchers found that individuals who habitually accept their negative emotions and thoughts without judgment tend to experience better psychological health over time. This nonjudgmental acceptance helps prevent amplification of negative emotions, leading to a decrease in their intensity and duration. Practicing this contributes to an increase in overall positive emotional experiences and well-being.
You can access the full study here: The Psychological Health Benefits of Accepting Negative Emotions and Thoughts or by pasting
https://eerlab.berkeley.edu/pdf/papers/Ford_etal_inpress_Acceptance2.pdf
into your web browser.
