AP® Music Theory · Unit 8 · Topic 8.1
The Seven Modes
The seven modes are scales built from the same seven white keys, each starting on a different note, so each mode has a unique pattern of whole and half steps around its own tonic.
Play only the white keys, but start on a different one each time, and you get seven different scales: C to C is Ionian, D to D is Dorian, E to E is Phrygian, F to F is Lydian, G to G is Mixolydian, A to A is Aeolian, B to B is Locrian. Same seven pitches, same key signature, but the half steps land in different places relative to each new tonic. Half steps naturally fall between E-F and B-C. Where those half steps sit relative to the tonic is what gives each mode its character: Lydian's raised fourth sounds bright and floating, Phrygian's lowered second sounds dark and tense.
Dorian is worth knowing step by step because it sits right next to natural minor. Natural minor's pattern from the tonic is whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole. Dorian matches that exactly except for the sixth degree: natural minor lowers it, Dorian keeps it a whole step above the fifth, one half step higher than natural minor's sixth. That single raised note is the only difference, and it is what gives Dorian its slightly brighter, less heavy minor color.
This connects straight back to the natural minor scale: Aeolian mode and natural minor are the identical scale, same steps, same tonic relationship, just two names from two different traditions. Seeing that equivalence is what makes the rest of the modes click, since each one is now just a small variation away from a scale already known.
Key terms
- Mode
- A scale formed by taking a fixed set of pitches and treating a different note as the tonic.
- Tonic
- The note that functions as home base, the one all other scale degrees are measured against.
- Dorian
- The mode built from D to D on the white keys, identical to natural minor except for a raised sixth degree.
- Aeolian
- The mode built from A to A on the white keys, identical in pattern to the natural minor scale.
- Half step and whole step
- The two sizes of interval between adjacent scale degrees that combine in different orders to define each mode.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does moving the starting note through C, D, E, F, G, A, B generate all seven modes?
- How it worksWalk me through the step pattern of Dorian and where it parts ways with natural minor.
- Worked exampleFind every note of D Dorian, E Phrygian, and F Lydian written on one staff.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't a mode just a major scale started somewhere in the middle?
- Ties togetherHow does Aeolian mode connect back to the natural minor scale built the same way earlier in the course?
Check yourself
End of topic.