The modes of the major scale, by ear

Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Locrian: the names make modes sound like advanced theory. The idea underneath is simple. The modern modes of the major scale use the same seven notes as the major scale, in the same order. Each one starts on a different note and treats that note as home.

For the ear there’s an even more useful way in. Play every mode on the same starting note and each one sounds like a major or a minor scale with a note or two changed. Learn which note, and you can tell them apart. This guide shows where the modes come from, the note that gives each its color, and a way to practice. Every scale on the page is played on a real piano, and there are two short drills.

Seven scales from the white keys

Play the white keys from C up to the next C and you get the major scale, which modal theory calls Ionian. Start on D instead and play up to the next D, still on white keys only, and you get Dorian. Every white key starts a mode of its own:

W is a whole step and H a half step. Read down the last column and you can watch the pattern turn: each mode has the major scale’s steps, W W H W W W H, begun one step further along. That’s why the modes are called rotations of the major scale. The names come from ancient Greek, but they’re conventional; the modern modes don’t match the Greek scales that once had the same names.

This view explains the names, but it doesn’t help the ear much. C major and D Dorian are made of exactly the same notes. What changes is which note sounds like home, the tonic. Open Music Theory points out that composers who want a modal sound often work to make the tonic clear, by repeating it, holding it or putting it in the bass, because so many listeners hear everything as either major or minor.

All seven on one tonic

To hear what makes each mode different, put them all on the same tonic. Theory calls this the parallel view. Here are the seven modes on C, in order from brightest to darkest:

Open Music Theory describes the modes on a continuum of brightness: brighter modes sound more like a major scale, darker ones more like a minor scale. The line between the two groups is the third. Lydian, Ionian and Mixolydian have a major third above the tonic, mi. Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian and Locrian have a minor third, me.

So the first question to ask of any mode is whether its third is major or minor. The second is which note sets it apart from plain major or natural minor. Open Music Theory calls that the color note.

The color note of each mode

On the same tonic, Ionian is the major scale and Aeolian the natural minor scale. Each of the other five is one of those two with a single note changed, apart from Locrian, which changes two. Here they are on C, with the movable-do name of each changed note:

• Lydian, C D E F♯ G A B C: major with a raised fourth, fi. The fourth is an augmented fourth (a tritone) above the tonic instead of a perfect fourth.
• Ionian, C D E F G A B C: the major scale itself, the yardstick for the bright modes.
• Mixolydian, C D E F G A B♭ C: major with a lowered seventh, te. The seventh sits a whole step below the octave instead of a half step.
• Dorian, C D E♭ F G A B♭ C: natural minor with a raised sixth, la, a major sixth above the tonic instead of a minor sixth.
• Aeolian, C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C: the natural minor scale itself, the yardstick for the dark modes.
• Phrygian, C D♭ E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C: natural minor with a lowered second, ra, just a half step above the tonic.
• Locrian, C D♭ E♭ F G♭ A♭ B♭ C: natural minor with a lowered second, ra, and a lowered fifth, se. Its fifth is diminished, so the chord on its tonic is a diminished triad, which is why Locrian has traditionally been treated as more theoretical than practical.

Dorian is the brightest of the dark modes, and Mixolydian the darkest of the bright ones, so each sits right next to a scale you already know. Earstep starts with these two pairs. First, Dorian against natural minor:

Then major against Mixolydian:

Descriptions are personal, but many listeners hear Dorian as a lighter kind of minor, and Mixolydian as major without its leading tone, the half step that leans up into the octave. Your own words matter more than these; use whatever helps you remember.

How to practice

Here is a way to name any of the seven, adapted from the step-by-step method in Open Music Theory. It works on a scale played up from its tonic, as in the drills here and in the app.

1. Find the tonic. It’s the first note and the last. Hum it.
2. Major or minor third? A major third (mi) means a bright mode: Lydian, Ionian or Mixolydian. A minor third (me) means a dark one: Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian or Locrian.
3. Bright: listen to the seventh, the note just under the top. A whole step below (te) means Mixolydian. A half step below (ti) means Lydian or major, so listen to the fourth: raised (fi) is Lydian, otherwise it’s major.
4. Dark: listen to the second, the note just after the tonic. A half step up (ra) means Phrygian or Locrian, and a lowered fifth (se) makes it Locrian. A whole step up (re) means Dorian or Aeolian: a major sixth (la) is Dorian, a minor sixth (le) is Aeolian.

At first you may need every step and a second listen. That’s normal. The steps are scaffolding, and you can drop them when you no longer need them.

Sing it. Hum the tonic, then sing slowly up the scale and hold the color note for a moment: fi in Lydian, te in Mixolydian, la in Dorian, ra in Phrygian. Then sing the same run as plain major or minor and listen to what changes.

Try it on the first pair. This drill plays Dorian or natural minor, starting on one of several notes. Both are dark modes, so go straight to the sixth.

Then the bright modes

When that pair feels easy, try the bright side, all three at once. Listen to the seventh first, then the fourth.

If Lydian and major blur together, play their rows in the figure above one after the other and listen only to the fourth note, in the middle of the run. If Mixolydian trips you up, listen only to the note before the top.

In Earstep, the Modes path takes the same route in 5 levels: “Dorian or Aeolian”, “Mixolydian or Ionian”, “The bright modes”, “The dark modes” and finally “All seven modes”, where Locrian joins in. The path opens once you pass level 2 of Scales, so major and natural minor are already familiar when you start. Each question plays a mode up from its tonic to the octave, on a different tonic each time, and the modes you miss come back sooner.

Sources

• Open Music Theory: Introduction to Diatonic Modes and the Chromatic Scale, by Chelsey Hamm: the modes on one tonic, their order from brightest to darkest, the major or minor third that divides them, and each mode’s altered degrees and solfège.
• Open Music Theory: Diatonic Modes, by Mark Gotham and Megan Lavengood: modes as rotations of the major scale, color notes, how composers make a modal tonic clear, and a step-by-step way to identify a mode by ear.
• Open Music Theory: Intervals: the augmented fourth from F to B as a tritone.
• Mode (music), Wikipedia: the modern modes as the major scale begun on each degree, their step patterns and white-key examples, the one degree that sets each apart, the sequence from Lydian to Locrian, Locrian’s diminished fifth, and the Greek names.
• Solfège, Wikipedia: movable-do syllables, including la and le for the raised and lowered sixth in minor.