The seven modes of the major scale, plainly

Every major scale contains seven modes, one starting on each scale degree. The trick is that the pitches stay the same; what changes is which pitch feels like home. In C major, the pitches are C D E F G A B. Play those pitches with D as home and you are in D Dorian. With E as home, E Phrygian. With F as home, F Lydian. And so on.

The seven, in order

• Ionian (C to C): the major scale. Bright, stable, familiar.
• Dorian (D to D): minor with a raised 6th. Wistful. Miles Davis, So What.
• Phrygian (E to E): minor with a lowered 2nd. Spanish flavour. Flamenco.
• Lydian (F to F): major with a raised 4th. Bright and floating. Film themes.
• Mixolydian (G to G): major with a lowered 7th. Rock and folk. Norwegian Wood.
• Aeolian (A to A): the natural minor scale. Sad and settled.
• Locrian (B to B): minor with lowered 2nd and lowered 5th. Rarely used as a tonal center.

The characteristic note trick

Each mode has one note that gives it its flavour: Dorian’s raised 6th (B natural in D Dorian), Phrygian’s lowered 2nd (F natural in E Phrygian), Lydian’s raised 4th (B natural in F Lydian), Mixolydian’s lowered 7th (F natural in G Mixolydian). If you can hear that note as different from the parallel major or minor scale, you can hear the mode.

Hear each mode in every key

Use the circle of fifths to find any major scale, then play from the second degree for Dorian, the third for Phrygian, and so on. The interactive tool lets you hear the mode with the tonic held as a drone (which is the fastest way to internalize the sound).

Modal songwriting in one line

Pick a mode, hold its tonic in the bass, build chords from its diatonic set. D Dorian: bass on D, chords Dm, Em, F, G, Am. Notice the G major (IV) that would be G minor in D natural minor; that raised 6th is Dorian’s whole personality.