9.1 · The Modes

Same notes, new home

C to C on the white keys is the major scale. Play the same seven notes from D to D and the music feels different: nothing changed but which note is home. Seven homes, seven moods: the modes.

One scale, seven homes

Every button plays only white keys. The same seven notes each time. All that changes is which note is home. Shapes mark the mode's own 1, 3, and 5: star, triangle, pentagon.

Ionian: the major scale itself · feels bright, settled. Heard in: nearly every pop chorus.

Two of them have other names

Ionian is another name for the major scale, and Aeolian is natural minor. The other five modes are new.

Why the mood changes

Rotating the notes rotates the step pattern. Major's W–W–H–W–W–W–H becomes, from D, W–H–W–W–W–H–W. The half steps land on different degrees, and the half steps are where the feeling lives.

Quiz

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What changes between two modes of the same scale?

Score 100% on every quiz and game to complete this lesson. A perfect run sticks: a later miss never undoes it.The bright modes →