The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Par t 1:Tones

In the Mode

If a scale is a combination of eight successive notes (in alphabetical order, of

course), do any eight notes make a scale?

Not necessarily.

Once you get past the major and minor scales, all the other eight-note combi-

nations aren’t technically called scales; they’re called modes.

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Modes date all the way back to the ancient Greeks, and the findings of Pythagoras

and Aristotle. In fact, it was Aristotle’s student, Aristoxenus, who formalized the

Greek scheme of modes, which included the Dorian, Ionian, Lydian, and Phrygian.

The name of each mode was based on the final note of the mode.

The number and use of modes were expanded in the era of the medieval church,

where they were called church modesand used in the form of plainsong called

Gregorian chant. The last discovered mode, Locrian, is actually a theoretical

mode; it was never used in the same context as the other church modes.

Chronologically, modes were around long before scales. The major and minor

scales we use today came after the introduction of the various modes, and were,

in fact, based on the Ionian and Aeolian modes, respectively.

Note

There are seven essential modes, each of which can be thought of as starting on

a different degree of the major scale. You stay within the relative major scale;

you just start on different notes.

For example, the Dorian mode starts on the second degree of the major scale.

In relation to the C Major scale, the Dorian mode starts on D, and continues

upward (D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D). The same holds true for the Phrygian mode,

which starts on the third degree of the related major scale—in C Major: E, F,

G, A, B, C, D, E.

Modes are important when you’re constructing melodies. When you create a

melody based on a specific mode, you get to create a different sound or feel while

staying within the notes of a traditional major scale. You just start and stop in

different places. (Melodies based around specific modes are called modalmelodies.)

Ionian

If you’re a musician, you play the Ionian mode all the time without really

knowing it. That’s because the Ionian mode starts on the tonic of the related

major scale—and contains the exact same notes as the major scale.

The following table details the half steps between the notes of the Ionian mode.

While it’s convenient to

think of modes in relation

to a specific major scale,

modes are arrangements

of intervals in and of them-

selves. In practice, any

mode can start on any

note.

Note