Chapter 9: Modes [1]

For our purposes, think of modes as new scales that start on different pitches of major and minor scales.

Although I’ll be referring to major and minor modes, in reality they are all just modes. We will be generating one group of modes from the major scale, the other from the melodic minor scale.

Major modes

We can extract seven major modes from one major scale. All seven modes share the same seven pitches of the major scale, but begin on their own respective pitch.

EXAMPLE

As you know, the scale of C major begins on its tonic (C = pitch 1), ascends through six more pitches and arrives at pitch 8, an octave up from pitch 1. From this C major scale we will now create seven modes, each starting from a different step of the scale.

Here, with their Greek names, are these seven modes.

C major scale is identical to C Ionian mode.

A natural minor scale is identical to A Aeolian mode.

Play notes 1, 3, 5 and 7 of each mode. The resulting 7^th chord relates specifically to that mode, as shown in table 3.

For now, pay particular attention to the Dorian and Mixolydian modes and their resulting chords: Dm⁷ and G⁷.

Here, below, is how table 3 looks in notation form (Fig 40).