What is a music mode?

Answer 1

Church modes are basically scales. There are three Major church modes: Ionean (Major), Lydian, and Myxolydian. Ionean is the most common and if your playing on a piano and you start on C, you will only use white keys to play the scale. With Lydian, you add one sharp to the scale, which can also be called raising the 4th degree of the scale. Lydian would start on F if you were to only use white keys, and Mixolydian would start on G. Mixolydian is Ionean with a flatted 7th. These three are called Major keys because the 1st 3rd and 5th notes of the scale played at once forms a Major chord. It is easy to write really happy music in these modes, or if there exists a healthy balance between Major and minor chords in the progression, or there are 7 chords used, the song can easily sound pretty or emotional.

The three minor modes are aolean, phrygian, and dorian. Aolean (minor) is the most common and can be played starting on an A and only using white keys, or by flatting the 3rd, 6th and 7th of a Major scale. Dorian would start on a D, or by flatting the 6th of an aolean scale. Phrygian would start on an E or can be formed by flatting the 2nd of the minor scale. The 1st, 3rd, and 5th of each of these scales form a minor chord.

The last church mode is locrian. Using only white keys, locrian scales would start on a b. or by adding 5 flats to a Major scale or 2 flats to a minor scale. The 1st, 3rd, and 5th scale degrees form a diminished chord, which makes anything written in this mode sound dissonant.

There are a few alternative scales that are commonly used that you should know about. Harmonic minor is a minor (aolean) scale with a sharped 7th and is used to make things sound evil or Arabian. Phrygian dominant is a phrygian scale with a sharped 7th, and harmonic phrygian is a phrygian scale with a raised 3rd. Harmonic phrygian has also been referred to as 'the gypsy scale' because everything sounds middle eastern. When the 3rd is raised and the 7th is sharped in a phrygian scale, it is called byzantine, which is dissonant, evil, and foreign sounding. However, both harmonic phrygian and byzantine have major chords formed by their 1st, 3rd, and 5th degrees, so in order to make these modes sound dissonant to really get the evil across in a song, i personally more often use the 1st, 3rd, and 6th of the scale which creates an Augmented chord.

A couple more discrete scales are the Whole tone, diminished, and chromatic. the whole tone scale is made by using only whole tones between scale degrees, leaving it with 6 different notes, while all church modes have 7. the diminished scale is formed by alternating half steps and whole steps, allowing diminished chords to be created on every pitch. These are both used to make things sound very dissonant without having them sound like wrong notes are being played. The chromatic scale has the same effect and is pretty much a free for all. it uses whatever pitches it feels like.

Pentatonics are 5 note scales within a major or minor scale. A minor pentatonic uses the degrees 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 of a minor scale. It leaves the melody ambiguous between dorian aolean and phrygian because the only difference between the three is the pitch of the 2nd and 6th degrees. The Major pentatonic contains degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, because lydian has a sharped 4th, and mixolydian has a flatted 7th. A blues scale is a minor pentatonic, with a flatted 5th between the 4th and 5th degrees.

If you're going to stay in a particular mode while writing chord progressions, it can be helpful to know which scale degrees are the roots of what kinds of chords.

The major (Ionean) scale forms major chords when the 1st, 4th, or 5th degrees are the roots, minor chords when the 2nd, 3rd, or 6th are roots, and a diminished chord when the 7th is the root.

Ionean: I ii iii IV V vi vii*

Lydian: I ii iii* IV v vi VII

Mixolydian: I II iii iv* V vi vii

Aolean: i ii* III iv v VI VII

Dorian: i ii III IV v vi* VII

Phrygian: i II III iv v* VI vii

Locrian: i* II iii iv V VI vii

This shows the chords of all 7 modes where capital letters indicate Major chords, lower case letters indicate minor, and *s indicate diminished.