If you've been struggling to understand modes, I'm going to show you an easier way to think about them so you can finally understand what they are and how to actually use them in your music. Modes are scales. If you already know the major and minor scales, then you already know two of the seven modes. The first way to think about modes that people are often taught is to take the major scale but start on different notes. So if you decide that C is your home pitch or your tonic and you play all white keys, you get the C major scale.
But what if you use those same pitches, but you pick a different note to be home? For example, we could still use all white keys, but make D our tonic. This is called the Dorian mode, and specifically D Dorian.
Because there are seven different pitches in our typical western scale, there are seven different modes. A lot of times the explanation for modes stops there, and so it's really no wonder to me that people find that confusing and pretty useless. The other easier and more useful way to think about modes is how they relate.
to the major and minor scale. And you only have to remember a single unique thing about each one. I'll show you a quick example of what I'm talking about, and then we'll go into each mode one by one. So think of the notes in the major scale as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1. When we play all white keys, but start on G, we get G mixolydian. If we compare G mixolydian to the G major scale, you can see that instead of the F sharp, we have an F.
natural. Essentially we have flattened or lowered the seventh scale degree. And that's the simple formula for mixolydian. It's the major scale with a flat seven.
So C mixolydian would be the notes from C major except with a B flat. A mixolydian would be the notes from A major except with a G natural instead of G sharp. All seven modes have a formula like this. with a characteristic note and a unique sound.
Three of the modes are major, because they use the major third, and four of them are minor. So let's start with the major modes. The first is called Ionian, and the formula is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1, which hopefully you recognize is the exact same as the major scale.
The only difference between Ionian and being in a major key is that if you were being very strict about Ionian, you're not going to use any chromatic pitches or chords from different keys. It's just plain vanilla major. If we rank the modes on a scale of how bright they are, Ionian comes in at 6. Compared to most of the modes, it's pretty happy. Mixolydian, as we saw in our example, is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7, 1. It's a bit smoother than Ionian, and that b7 can give us a bluesy sound. On the brightness scale, Mixolydian comes in at a 5. I'll use Mixolydian when I want something that sounds kind of major or positive, but a bit softer or more neutral than just Ionian.
Because of that flat 7 scale degree, instead of a 5 major chord, we get a 5 minor chord, which is what Coldplay use in their song Clocks to get that bittersweet sound. Lydian is 1 2 3 sharp 4. five six seven one. On the brightness scale, Lydian is right at the top at a seven.
That raised fourth scale degree has this urgent pull upwards and this overall feeling of lift. When John Williams wants to evoke flying, he'll often use the Lydian mode. I'll use Lydian when I want things to be especially happy, maybe sometimes even to a silly degree. Now on to the minor modes. Aeolian is 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 1. If you know the natural minor scale, than you already know Aeolian.
The difference between Aeolian and minor is pretty much the same as the difference between Ionian and major. In a traditional minor scale, we're taught to raise the seventh scale degree for the V chord to give us a strong classical cadence. But in Aeolian, we're more strict about keeping those sixth and seventh scale degrees lowered. The result is a smoother and more hollow sound.
Ravel uses Aeolian in the sweeping beauty movement from his Mother Goose Suite, where the hollowness is evocative. of a melancholy fairy tale. On the brightness scale, Aeolian is at a 3. I'll use Aeolian most of the time when I'm writing in minor. That raised seventh scale degree from classical minor can have a really old-fashioned sound in the wrong context, but Aeolian is much smoother.
Dorian is 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, b7, 1. What's unique about Dorian is that the characteristic pitch is that sixth scale degree, which is interesting because it's not a flat six. Dorian gets a four on the brightness scale, which puts it right in the middle of the chart. Because of the raised sixth, the four minor chord becomes four major.
It's perfect for when you want things to be serious and maybe a little dark, but at the same time still heroic. Dorian also gets associated often with traditional Irish or Scottish or English music because that raised sixth degree is really characteristic of those styles. For example, it's used in the English ballad Scarborough Fair. Phrygian is one, flat two, flat three, four, five. flat six, flat seven, one.
It's like taking the Aeolian mode and lowering the second scale degree to a flat two, which becomes the characteristic pitch. Compared to the other modes, Phrygian is the darkest that you will probably regularly use. Technically Locrian is darker, but it's really not used that much. We'll get to that in a bit.
On the brightness scale, Phrygian is at a two. That flat two scale degree is pretty sinister. I'll use Phrygian when I'm trying to create an especially dark mood. The battle with Magus from Chrono Trigger uses Phrygian.
Locrian is 1, b2, b3, 4, b5, b6, b7, 1. Locrian is a 1 on the brightness scale, or in other words, the darkest of the modes because of that b5. You basically take Phrygian and make it even darker by lowering that fifth. Because in tonal music that one to five relationship is so important, you really don't find that many examples of locrian. David Bennett has a video literally titled, A Song That Actually Uses Locrian, which should give you some idea about how rare it is. In that case, it's used by Bjork, and there's other examples often cited by Metallica.
or Slipknot, so you should get some idea of the styles that are using Locrian when they're even using it. Although it's technically the darkest of the modes, I really don't use it that much. If I'm going that dark anyway, I'll probably end up with like a half diminished scale. The modes are easier to understand if you think of them relative to the major and minor scales as opposed to subsets of those scales.
I think it's a lot easier to remember that Lydian has a sharp 4. Rather than thinking, okay, Lydian is the fourth scale degree from the scale, and having to think backwards to the key, it just doesn't become that useful. So for each mode, you just have to remember what makes it special. Ionian is the same as major.
Dorian is minor with a raised 6. Phrygian is minor with a flatted 2. Lydian is major with a sharp 4. Mixolydian is major with a flat 7. Aeolian is natural minor. Locrian is minor with flat 2 and flat 5. 5. Because the scales are different, the chords end up being different too. Where it gets really fun is when you start to mix and match and borrow chords from one mode to use in another, which we call modal interchange.
You get a hint of modal interchange when you use chords from different keys where the roots are a third apart, which I talk about in this video here. It's how film composers can make fantasy scenes more magical or villains even more sinister. So definitely check that out if you're a film or video game composer.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.