page_title: Pitch axis theory
section_title: Dream Theater: "Lie"
hierarchical_section_title: Pitch axis theory / Examples / Dream Theater: "Lie"
context_page_description: Pitch axis theory is a musical technique used in constructing chord progressions. The tonic is used as the bass note, and melodic scales are chosen according to the chords that lie beneath them. "A variety of scales or modes are used, all built around the same tonic pitch."
  The pitch axis is the pitch common and most important to the tonic of the initial key and all chords in a chord progression.
context_section_description: The transition to the guitar solo in Dream Theater's "Lie" is built on Pitch Axis Theory. The bass and guitar play the root (B) while the  keyboardist implies the chords in the progression: B5, B minor 7, B minor 6, G root B and A root B.
  The scales used for each of these four chords are B Aeolian (natural minor), B Dorian, C# Mixolydian, and E Aeolian, respectively. However, as these are all diatonic modes, they can all be thought of as being based on the root of B. If the scales are shifted to start on B, then the progression appears as B Aeolian, B Dorian, B Lydian, and B Phrygian.
caption: The chord progression from "Lie" by Dream Theater.
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