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A modal frame in <a href="/facts/Music/hDVP0xsQ">music</a> is "a number of types permeating and unifying <a href="/facts/Music_of_Africa/K3fBxlW8">African</a>, <a href="/facts/Music_of_Europe/HyRmCYRq">European</a>, and <a href="/facts/Music_of_the_United_States/jEE0JFKm">American</a> <a href="/facts/Song/wm7uRPzQ">song</a>" and <a href="/facts/Melody/5TR3IE3Y">melody</a>. It may also be called a melodic mode. "Mode" and "frame" are used interchangeably in this context without reference to scalar or rhythmic modes. Melodic modes define and generate melodies that are not determined by <a href="/facts/Harmony/Uwagvon2">harmony</a>, but purely by <a href="/facts/Melody/5TR3IE3Y">melody</a>. A note frame, is a melodic mode that is <a href="/facts/Atonality/LToI29Xu">atonic</a> (without a <a href="/facts/Tonic_(music)/3YWh9zFV">tonic</a>), or has an unstable tonic.
Modal frames may be defined by their:

<ul><li>floor note: the bottom of the frame, felt to be the lowest note, though isolated notes may go lower,</li>
<li>ceiling note: the top of the frame,</li>
<li>central note: the center around which other notes cluster or gravitate,</li>
<li>upper or lower focus: portion of the mode on which the melody temporarily dwells, and can also defined by melody types, such as:
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Chant/WUXJtIvJ">chant</a> tunes: (<a href="/facts/Bob_Dylan/WcaUqWBj">Bob Dylan</a>'s "<a href="/facts/Subterranean_Homesick_Blues/33sbmQNR">Subterranean Homesick Blues</a>")</li>
<li>axial tunes: ("A Hard Day's Night", "<a href="/facts/Peggy_Sue_(song)/o8qA5B84">Peggy Sue</a>", <a href="/facts/Marvin_Gaye/NLquREXY">Marvin Gaye</a>'s "<a href="/facts/Can_I_Get_a_Witness/d4UMprwY">Can I Get A Witness</a>", and <a href="/facts/Roy_Milton/vtaRJ5ba">Roy Milton</a>'s "<a href="/facts/The_Hucklebuck/dFRJj6ot">Do the Hucklebuck</a>")</li>
<li>oscillating: (<a href="/facts/Rolling_Stones/15fCN7RF">Rolling Stones</a>' "<a href="/facts/Jumpin%27_Jack_Flash/Jvqz9pXU">Jumpin' Jack Flash</a>")</li>
<li>open/closed: (<a href="/facts/Bo_Diddley/qTPwE055">Bo Diddley</a>'s "<a href="/facts/Hey_Bo_Diddley/4mpLTYL6">Hey Bo Diddley</a>")</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Melodic_motion/z1s5dfgv">terrace</a></li>
<li>shout-and-fall</li>
<li>ladder of thirds</li></ul></li></ul>
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"Chel-sea" football crowd <a href="/facts/Chant/WUXJtIvJ">chant</a>: minor third.
Further defined features include:

<ul><li>melodic dissonance: the quality of a note that is modally unstable and attracted to other more important tones in a non-harmonic way</li>
<li>melodic triad: arpeggiated triads in a melody. A non-harmonic arpeggio is most commonly a melodic triad, it is an <a href="/facts/Arpeggio/TNDg3PMw">arpeggio</a> the <a href="/facts/Note_(music)/spIQyV4T">notes</a> of which do not appear in the <a href="/facts/Harmony/Uwagvon2">harmony</a> of the <a href="/facts/Accompaniment/GsUhcUqM">accompaniment</a>.</li>
<li><a href="/facts/Level_(music)/V40Cy8KY">level</a>: a temporary modal frame contrasted with another built on a different <a href="/facts/Foundation_note/V40Cy8KY">foundation note</a>. A change in levels is called a <a href="/facts/Level_(music)/V40Cy8KY">shift</a>.</li>
<li>co-tonic: a melodic tonic different from and as important as the harmonic tonic</li>
<li>secondary tonic: a melodic tonic different from but subordinate to the harmonic tonic</li>
<li>pendular third: alternating notes a third apart, most often a <a href="/facts/Neutral_third/tyYlpomn">neutral</a>, see <a href="/facts/Double_tonic/GbrLwg8B">double tonic</a></li></ul>

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