We consider a key to be defined by its tonic, so if two scales share a tonic, they are considered to be the same key but different modes of each other. For example, G major and G minor are the same key, but different modes. This is confusing for many students, because they have always associated their concept of a key with its key signature. It may seem like unnecessary jargon, but this differentiation will help in later units when we begin studying how harmonic functions can be used interchangeably between modes.
The logical conclusion of defining a key by its tonic is that there are many possible modes that share that specific tonic. We consider the eight scales below to be modal scales, and most students will process these by relating them to the scales they already know, however, the first six of these modes actually pre-date the major and minor scales. Even though you are likely more familiar with major and minor scales to this point in your musical education, the modes below are commonly used in all types of Western music, including classical, jazz, pop, movie soundtracks, and folk music. As you listen to Happy Birthday played in each mode, take note of the basic structure of each mode by comparing how they are related to the major and minor scales. Is there an easy way to remember these?
For example, each mode could be “ranked” on a scale from the darkest to lightest, so on your first listen, take note of which sound dark and light to you. (Remember that describing a scale as light or dark is a subjective concept, so you should view your ranking with a healthy bit of skepticism.) Once you have them grouped into dark and light modes, see if you can figure out what each group has in common. Does there seem to be a pattern of notes that pushes a mode toward the extremes of your rankings?
Because we have yet to discuss tonality as an overarching concept, you do not need to worry too much about the difference between modal and diatonic (i.e. major and minor) music yet. So as you listen to the modes below, simply compare the intervallic patterns and solfege to that of the major and minor scales in the previous topic. We will discuss their usage more as we begin to explore musical function and harmony in later chapters.
As you listen through all of the examples below, you should:
The next “mode” is not a strict mode in the traditional sense but is used often enough in jazz and commercial music that you should at least be familiar with its construction.
When first studying the modes, most students consider modes a simple extension of their major scale–i.e. “Phrygian mode is a major scale starting on the third scale degree”–even though, as mentioned above, the primary six modes (Ionian through Aeolian) predate the major scale. Relating the modes to the major scale is a good way to memorize their construction, because major scales are widely taught as the foundation of Western music. Eventually, you should strive to be able to recall each mode as its own entity, so that you can begin hearing the intricacies of how the mode functions musically, rather than hearing it as a derivation of the major scale.
| Modes from C Ionian | ^1 | ^2 | ^3 | ^4 | ^5 | ^6 | ^7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ionian | C | D | E | F | G | A | B |
| Dorian | D | E | F | G | A | B | C |
| Phyrgian | E | F | G | A | B | C | D |
| Lydian | F | G | A | B | C | D | E |
| Mixolydian | G | A | B | C | D | E | F |
| Aeolian | A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
| Locrian | B | C | D | E | F | G | A |
| Lydian Dominant | F | G | A | B | C | D | Eb |
Of course, there are other ways to memorize these. One is to memorize the intervallic pattern from the tonic note. The table below shows the intervals necessary to reach the next scale degree of each mode.
| Intervallic patterns of modes | ^1 | ^2 | ^3 | ^4 | ^5 | ^6 | ^7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ionian | W | W | H | W | W | W | H |
| Dorian | W | H | W | W | W | H | W |
| Phyrgian | H | W | W | W | H | W | W |
| Lydian | W | W | W | H | W | W | H |
| Mixolydian | W | W | H | W | W | H | W |
| Aeolian | W | H | W | W | H | W | W |
| Locrian | H | W | W | H | W | W | W |
| Lydian Dominant | W | W | W | H | W | H | W |
You may prefer to remember the relationship of scale degrees to the Ionian mode–much as you derive the minor scale through raising and lowering pitches–rather than relating the entirety of the scale to its Ionian mode.
| Modes as related to Ionian (major) scale degrees | ^1 | ^2 | ^3 | ^4 | ^5 | ^6 | ^7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ionian | ^1 | ^2 | ^3 | ^4 | ^5 | ^6 | ^7 |
| Dorian | ^1 | ^2 | ^b3 | ^4 | ^5 | ^6 | ^b7 |
| Phyrgian | ^1 | ^b2 | ^b3 | ^4 | ^5 | ^b6 | ^b7 |
| Lydian | ^1 | ^2 | ^3 | ^#4 | ^5 | ^6 | ^7 |
| Mixolydian | ^1 | ^2 | ^3 | ^4 | ^5 | ^6 | ^b7 |
| Aeolian | ^1 | ^2 | ^b3 | ^4 | ^5 | ^b6 | ^b7 |
| Locrian | ^1 | ^b2 | ^b3 | ^4 | ^b5 | ^b6 | ^b7 |
| Lydian Dominant | ^1 | ^2 | ^3 | ^#4 | ^5 | ^6 | ^b7 |
Yet understanding construction does nothing to further your understanding of their function. Western music education often associates modes with early music, but as mentioned above, modal music is widely used in most genres of modern music, not to mention the prevalence in musical styles from around the world. Using modes allows composers to create a range of colors, through a variety of techniques. For example, one popular theory ranks the modes from “light” to “dark” based on the number of raised or lowered pitches in the mode. If you apply this logic to the previous table, you can see that Lydian and Ionian would be the “brightest” modes because they have the most raised pitches, whereas Phrygian and Locrian would be the darkest modes because they have the most lowered pitches respectively.
Our “non-mode”–the Lydian Dominant scale–shares the altered pitches from both the Lydian and Mixolydian modes, so it cannot be derived in the same manner as the other modes. It is, however, useful in improvising over dominant seventh chords and has the unusual characteristic of acting as a hybrid of the whole tone and octatonic scales, two non-diatonic scales that we will discuss in Unit 22. After you read more about those two scales at a later date, return to the Lydian Dominant scale to see if you can determine why we consider it a hybrid of a whole tone and octatonic collections.
You should spend time exploring each of these modes to learn why one pitch can sound “tonicized” without a traditional dominant to tonic relationship. With very few exceptions, every piece of music contains a harmonic method for creating tension and release, and music written in these modes is no different. When listening to all of the versions of Happy Birthday above, you probably disliked the first time a mode landed on te, but after listening to multiple examples using te, it becomes normalized and can be heard as a weaker–but still functional–way to pull towards do. Discovering how each mode creates tension and release is paramount to understanding modal usage, and will help you create a framework for any scale.
We will discuss the pentatonic scales here because of their importance and prevalence in a variety of music, but these are not a complete modal shift from major and minor scales in the way that the modes are. Instead, certain penatonic scales exclude certain pitches when compared to the parallel major or minor scale. You will see this in the examples below, because it required some “artistic license” to translate a melody based in the complete major scale into a pentatonic collection limited to five pitches.
As you listen through all of the examples below, you should:
We must also apply the same restrictions to the minor pentatonic scale. These scales do not correlate directly to their seven-note counterparts, so this is more of a re-imagining of Happy Birthday.
The pentatonic scale is a nearly universal sonority as demonstrated by Bobby McFerrin in the following clip.
Neither the major nor minor form of the pentatonic scale relates strongly to the harmonic functions that we will study in this course, but their prominence in world and folk musics makes them an important part of our musical heritage. This alone justifies familiarity with these colors.
Major and minor pentatonic scales have a simple relationship to their major and minor counterparts. The major pentatonic scale uses the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth scale degrees of the major scale. The minor pentatonic scale uses the first, third, fourth, fifth, and seventh scale degrees of the minor scale.
Even though they do not function diatonically, there are two general concepts of harmony in pentatonic scales.
la in major pentatonic scales and te in minor pentatonic scales can take on a similar function by pulling toward the tonic in a melody.This final example is a heavily ornamented version of Happy Birthday that demonstrates every possible solfege as well as the correct resolution for all chromatic tones. This arrangement is still technically in G major, because strictly speaking, the chromatic scale is a collection of pitches and does not necessarily center around one tone. (Note that because ABC notation has no way to represent scale degrees, I was forced to omit the ^ that would normally appear above each scale degree and to use a b to represent a flat and a # to represent a sharp. Please forgive the colloquialisms.)
The chromatic scale is not a tonality, because it has no tonic unless we arbitrarily assign a starting point. It is however, the aggregate pitch collection and functions as a useful way to familiarize a musician with all twelve pitch-classes.
The final “Happy Birthday” version above uses every possible scale degree in order to demonstrate resolution in a diatonic key, but it is not a “chromatic” tonality. That example is still in G major, but it is heavily embellished using chromatic tones.
Of particular note, the example demonstrates the importance of considering resolution when choosing which chromatic pitch to use. Generally, if a pitch is raised, it should resolve upward; if a pitch is lowered, it should resolve downward. For example, li and te are enharmonically equivalent, but they function differently because their accidentals imply specific resolutions. Li should resolve to ti, but te should resolve to la. This is not only important in simplifying notation for harmonic analysis, but it also makes it easier for performers when reading heavily chromatic music.