It’s time for yet another Installment of “10 Things Every Musician Should Know“.  This time, we’re going to talk about Modes.  We won’t discuss much about the history of Modes (although it’s rather interesting), but we will talk about their practical application.

Modes, for all intents and purposes, are “shifted” scales.  Given a major scale, if you shift the starting note without altering your pattern of whole steps and half steps, you essentially have a mode.  Modes, to most musicians, have a voo-doo-like mystique about them, but once you wrap your mind around the theory, they become fairly easy to understand and use.  In fact, most musicians use chord progressions based off of modes without realizing it.

In the list below, we’re going to take each scale degree of a parent major scale and give its mode.  We’ll also tell the pattern of whole steps (W) and half steps (h).

  1. Ionian (Major):  W W h W W W h
  2. Dorian:  W h W W W h W
  3. Phrygian:  h W W W h W W
  4. Lydian:  W W W h W W h
  5. Mixolydian:  W W h W W h W
  6. Aeolian (Natural Minor):  W h W W h W W
  7. Locrian:  h W W h W W W

Another way to think about modes while you’re playing is to think of it as altering a major scale.  See the list below (flat is denoted with a lowercase “b”).

  1. Ionian (Major) - 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  1
  2. Dorian - 1  2  b3  4  5  6  b7  1
  3. Phrygian - 1  b2  b3  4  5  b6  b7  1
  4. Lydian - 1  2  3  #4  5  6  7  1
  5. Mixolydian -  1  2  3  4  5  6  b7  1
  6. Aeolian (Natural Minor) - 1  2  b3  4  5  b6  b7  1
  7. Locrian - 1  b2  b3  4  b5  b6  b7  1

This will get you started knowing how modes are constructed.  In our next post we’ll go into greater detail by describing when to use modes based on the chord progression of the song you’re playing.

Share This Post!
[Ask] [BlogMarks] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Fark] [Furl] [Google] [LinkedIn] [MySpace] [Reddit] [Shoutwire] [Slashdot] [Squidoo] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »