The_Complete_Idiot%27s_Guide_To_Music_Theory
The_Complete_Idiot%27s_Guide_To_Music_Theory
The_Complete_Idiot%27s_Guide_To_Music_Theory
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38<br />
Part 1: <strong>To</strong>nes<br />
Note<br />
While it’s convenient to<br />
think of modes in relation<br />
to a specific major scale,<br />
modes are arrangements<br />
of intervals in and of themselves.<br />
In practice, any<br />
mode can start on any<br />
note.<br />
In the Mode<br />
If a scale is a combination of eight successive notes (in alphabetical order, of<br />
course), do any eight notes make a scale?<br />
Not necessarily.<br />
Once you get past the major and minor scales, all the other eight-note combinations<br />
aren’t technically called scales; they’re called modes.<br />
Note<br />
Modes date all the way back to the ancient Greeks, and the findings of Pythagoras<br />
and Aristotle. In fact, it was Aristotle’s student, Aristoxenus, who formalized the<br />
Greek scheme of modes, which included the Dorian, Ionian, Lydian, and Phrygian.<br />
<strong>The</strong> name of each mode was based on the final note of the mode.<br />
<strong>The</strong> number and use of modes were expanded in the era of the medieval church,<br />
where they were called church modes and used in the form of plainsong called<br />
Gregorian chant. <strong>The</strong> last discovered mode, Locrian, is actually a theoretical<br />
mode; it was never used in the same context as the other church modes.<br />
Chronologically, modes were around long before scales. <strong>The</strong> major and minor<br />
scales we use today came after the introduction of the various modes, and were,<br />
in fact, based on the Ionian and Aeolian modes, respectively.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are seven essential modes, each of which can be thought of as starting on<br />
a different degree of the major scale. You stay within the relative major scale;<br />
you just start on different notes.<br />
For example, the Dorian mode starts on the second degree of the major scale.<br />
In relation to the C Major scale, the Dorian mode starts on D, and continues<br />
upward (D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D). <strong>The</strong> same holds true for the Phrygian mode,<br />
which starts on the third degree of the related major scale—in C Major: E, F,<br />
G, A, B, C, D, E.<br />
Modes are important when you’re constructing melodies. When you create a<br />
melody based on a specific mode, you get to create a different sound or feel while<br />
staying within the notes of a traditional major scale. You just start and stop in<br />
different places. (Melodies based around specific modes are called modal melodies.)<br />
Ionian<br />
If you’re a musician, you play the Ionian mode all the time without really<br />
knowing it. That’s because the Ionian mode starts on the tonic of the related<br />
major scale—and contains the exact same notes as the major scale.<br />
<strong>The</strong> following table details the half steps between the notes of the Ionian mode.