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Musical Modes Cheat Sheets

Modes are essentially scales comprising different combinations of semitones and tones. Each mode has a particular set of characteristics that make it distinctive.

This series of cheat sheets can either be used to expand your musical knowledge, or in choir rehearsals and workshops to help your singers.

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1. Ionian Mode

The Ionian Mode is also known as the major scale and it is the most familiar of all the modes used in western harmony. If we begin an Ionian Mode scale on C, it comprises all the white notes on the piano keyboard.

The structure of the Ionian Mode is:

Root - tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone - tone - semitone

If we replicate that combination of intervals starting on any root note, we have a major scale.

We associate the Ionian Mode with a bright, happy sound, which is largely the result of the major 3rd (E in the scale of C major) and major 7th (B in the scale of C major). The major 7th provides a powerful leading note, which gives a strong, satisfying pull back to the root note.

Many well-known melodies such as nursery rhymes and Christmas carols are composed in the Ionian Mode. Here’s the opening of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (transposed into C major).

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2. Dorian Mode

The Dorian Mode comprises all the white notes on the piano keyboard from D to D.

The structure of the Dorian Mode is:

Root - tone - semitone - tone - tone - tone - semitone - tone

Its pattern of tones and semitones is symmetrical, so it follows the same structure descending as ascending.

This mode is minor in quality. Its defining characteristic is the major sixth and it is often used in jazz and blues improvisation.

An example of a composition in the Dorian Mode is the folk song Scarborough Fair.

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3. Phrygian Mode

The Phrygian Mode comprises all the white notes on the piano keyboard from E to E.

The structure of the Phrygian Mode is:

Root - semitone - tone - tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone

It is identical to the natural minor scale save for the second scale degree, which is minor rather than major.

This mode has a distinctive sound and is sometimes known as the ‘Spanish Gypsy Scale’ because it features strongly in flamenco music.

An example of a composition in the Phrygian Mode is the main theme in Vaughn Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. It has a wonderfully pensive quality.

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4. Lydian Mode

The Lydian Mode comprises all the white notes on the piano keyboard from F to F.

The structure of the Lydian Mode is:

Root - tone - tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone

It is identical to the major (Ionian) scale save for the raised fourth scale degree, which is augmented instead of perfect.

Because it echoes so closely the major scale, the Lydian Mode has an exotic yet familiar feel to it. It sounds rather ethereal, hence its popularity with film composers.

An example of a composition in the Lydian Mode is the theme from the popular television show The Simpsons.

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5. Mixolydian Mode

The Mixolydian Mode comprises all the white notes on the piano keyboard from G to G.

The structure of the Mixolydian Mode is:

Root - tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone - tone

It is identical to the major (Ionian) scale save for the lowered seventh scale degree and is sometimes referred to as the ‘dominant scale’ because it is built on the fifth scale degree of the major scale (eg in the key of C major, the dominant scale begins on the G). This mode’s flattened seventh gives it a jazzy, bluesy sound.

An example of a composition in the Mixolydian Mode is the Norwegian Wood by The Beatles.

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6. Aeolian Mode

The Aeolian Mode comprises all the white notes on the piano keyboard from A to A.

The structure of the Aeolian Mode is:

Root - tone - semitone - tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone

It is more commonly known as the ‘natural minor scale’. Its defining characteristic is the minor 6th, which contrasts it with the Dorian Mode’s major 6th (with which it is otherwise identical), and which gives it a melancholy sound.

An example of a composition in the Aeolian Mode is the Nights in White Satin by The Moody Blues.

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7. Locrian Mode

The Locrian Mode comprises all the white notes on the piano keyboard from B to B.

The structure of the Locrian Mode is:

Root - semitone - tone - tone - semitone - tone - tone - tone

The Locrian Mode is the only diatonic mode where the root triad is a diminished chord. Because the interval between the root and the fifth is diminished, the mode has a disturbing, unfinished quality. It is not widely used in Western music. We tend to hear the tritone root chord as needing resolution in a different key, so it’s inherently unstable.

Here’s the scale set out on a stave.