Modal scales

Created: 2017-11-25 14:12:34 -0800 Modified: 2017-11-25 14:54:41 -0800

What they are

§Section titled What they are

They’re just shifts of the major scale:

C Ionian:

D Dorian:

…and so on.

Remembering them

§Section titled Remembering them

Mnemonic

§Section titled Mnemonic

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Ionian

Dorian

Phrygian

Lydian

Mixolydian

Aeolian

Locrian

Differences in scale degrees

§Section titled Differences in scale degrees

By just knowing the mnemonic above and shifting the C scale around, you can figure out the following, but here it is listed out easily:

Mode #	Mode	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1st	Ionian
2nd	Dorian			flat				flat
3rd	Phrygian		flat	flat			flat	flat
4th	Lydian				sharp
5th	Mixolydian							flat
6th	Aeolian			flat			flat	flat
7th	Locrian		flat	flat		flat	flat	flat

The numbered columns represent the notes in a scale. For example, the C Ionian scale is just a C major scale, so 1 is C, 2 is D, etc.

Suppose you want G Lydian and you didn’t have this table. You’d go through this process:

• Lydian is the fourth mode of the seven modes, so which major scale has G a perfect fourth from the tonic? D does.
• The D major scale has two sharps: F# and C#.
• Thus, the G Lydian mode is
  • 

Instead, by using the table, we can do this process:

• G major’s only accidental is F#
• Lydian shows that we should make the fourth scale degree sharp (C → C#)
• Thus, the G Lydian mode is the same as what’s shown above