…but first, a disclaimer.
This blog is not for the faint of heart.
And by the faint of heart, I specifically refer to the fact that modes are something that aren’t necessarily taught until a much more advanced level in music or music theory.
Why?
It can take long enough for pupils to learn the scales and key signatures on which much of our classic music is based; the ‘do - re - mi’ scale, to put it a way we all understand.
So until you’re absolutely confident with how these scales work and 100% confident also in all 12 different harmonic key signatures (C major, C minor, C♯ / D♭ major, C♯ / D♭ minor, D major etc.) then this blog may not be for you quite yet.
But if you are on top of all of these - or you just like to live life on the edge - then do read on…
What is a Mode in Music?
I’m glad you asked. After all, that is the nub of the blog.
Take a look at the classic sea shanty below:
Now tell me what key signature it is in.
If you said A minor because you’d deduced it is either that or C major from the key signature, you’d be right on paper.
However, to consider that a piece of music is truly in its home / root / tonic key, it has to at least feature the chord let alone have some sort of grounding in that chord. Yet this score is made up of D minor and C chords exclusively.
Right…so it’s in D minor?
…No.
Although I can see why you’d now shift to thinking that.
See, does D minor (relative minor to F major) not feature a B♭ and - if so - why are we not showing that in the key signature?
Because the B in bar three is a natural. So it's not in D minor!
So, how can we describe the key in which this key is in yet still honouring the notes and not having to resort to one or several accidentals throughout the score?
We describe it as being in a mode.
On paper, these read the same as a key signature, so if you were scoring out the above you’d still notate it as if it were in A minor on the score i.e. marking no sharps or flats in the key signature, but that’s where your description of it being A minor comes to a tragic end.
Let’s remind ourselves of what makes a scale with a fancy subheading…
What Makes a Musical Scale?
A scale is a series of ascending or descending notes that are separated by usually a mixture of tones and semitones.
Of course, you can just use semitones (chromatic) or just whole tones (a whole tone scale) but these don’t really cross into our discussion of modes.
For all other scales you’ll need to know, you just need to know that it is a mixture of both. And by all other scales, I don’t just mean the ones you’ll have learnt so far. I mean all the modes including the ones you’re about the be subjected to:
Introducing the Modes
Ionian Mode
Well, as if my magic, you already know a mode!
Ionian Mode is the fancy name that we give to the major scales we already know and love.
Let’s demonstrate how this is laid out:
C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C
If we look at the intervals between starting with C - D, our layout would be:
Tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone (back into C)
This is the mode on which much of our beloved Classical and Baroque music is based, and to much extent music from the Romantic Era. As far as music in a major key goes, it is also the mode that is used most commonly (though not exclusively) in our modern pop / rock music.
But the point of modes is to understand how a piece of music grounds itself. For example, a chordified C major scale would be:
C
D minor
E minor
F
G
A minor
B dim
Yet to say that a piece of music is truly in the key of C, we’d have to have that C major chord featuring quite prominently through. For example, a I, IV, V structure (C, F, G) would be great?
But what if we wrote a song that just used chords F and G?
Or D minor and G?
Or A minor, G, D minor?
What keys are these in?
You would still mark the key signature as appropriate if notating, but you wouldn’t call them C major so much as refer to them as being in their more prominent root with one of the following modes in them.
Let’s explore some more…
Keeping it Major: Lydian and Mixolydian
There are two other modes that are in a major key:
Lydian Mode
Here we take our usual scale structure, such as C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C, and we raise the fourth by a semitone.
The fourth is
C = 1
D = 2
E = 3
F = 4th
In this case, raising F by one semitone makes it an F♯. So the layout of Lydian is:
Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Semitone (back to C), C now reading:
C - D - E - F♯ - G - A - B - C
Try playing this scale and hearing the difference. Note you may need to adjust your fingers (thumb under on the G in the right hand works well).
To get an understanding of how this is used in music, chordify it bearing in mind that all our Fs are now F♯s.
C
D
E minor
F♯ dim
G
A minor
B minor
So if we wrote a chord structure from this that bases itself around the C major chord; such as C, D, B minor, C - we would say we have a piece in C Lydian*
*the name of a mode itself already dictates the tonality of the piece, therefore there is no need to specify C major Lydian. Just C Lydian will suffice.
You will note that the scale has one sharp - an F♯ - just like a G major scale. However, there is no G major in our chord sequence. Not even just once let alone with any prominence or grounding, yet on paper we would still mark this music the same way. Therefore it would read as being in G major but we would refer to it as C Lydian.
See why it’s confusing?
Mixolydian Mode
Here we revert back to our original C major scale (Ionian - remember?) and make another small adjustment. Let’s refresh our mind of the C major scale:
C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C
And now explain the slight adjustment required for Mixolydian. This is taking the seventh and lowering it by a semitone:
C = 1
D = 2
E = 3
F = 4th
G = 5th
A = 6th
B = 7th
In this case, the B being lowered by a semitone creates a B♭, ergo:
C - D - E - F - G - A - B♭ - C
This ones plays a lot more alike to the C major Ionian scale for the fingers, but you’ll notice that lovely little ‘folk-like’ lilt at the end!
If we chordify this, bearing in mind that all Bs are now B♭’s, we get:
C
D minor
E diminished
F
G minor
A minor
B♭
If our chord structure from Lydian were adjusted slightly to accommodate the B♭ and re-naturalise the F♯ we would create:
C, D minor, B♭, C
And there it is: a sequence in C Mixolydian.
And…you guessed it…you’d mark that one flat - the B♭ - on the score making it look just like it were in F major, but we know. We know the truth now. It’s in C Mixolydian!
Differentiating the Two
Again, this all comes down to grounding.
Let’s take a look at a simple riff by the Kinks: ‘You Really Got Me’.
Here, you can see that the piece is written in C major (let’s assume it’s all major from here on out…I know, I know it could also be A minor but stay with me…).
The chords are F and G.
So yes, they absolutely do appear in the C major scale. Technically, it’s fair to say you wouldn’t be wrong for identify the key of the song as being in C major for this reason, however is there something a little more accurate?
Our grounding chord is probably going to be the G here. It’s not the first, but it’s the one that the F resolves to more pleasingly as it is the G that rings out at the end of each phrase.
So now we need a variant on the G major scale that features F♮ as opposed to F♯.
And as it were planned this way, F♯ is the seventh degree of the G major scale, is it not? And what rule did I give above? Lowering the seventh by a semitone creates…Mixolydian!
So is You Really Got Me in G Mixolydian?
I would argue so!
But now let’s just assume that the riff was backwards...:
And that now F major is our chord of resolve…
We can’t surely still consider it G Mixolydian because G is a more incidental chord that now resolves into the F major.
Oh no - what do we do?
We need a mode for which F is the root but G major still exists - thus changing F major’s usual B♭ to B♮. By process of elimination, you’ve probably sussed that this is Lydian but…let me talk you through it anyway!
Lydian raises the fourth by one semitone:
F = 1
G = 2
A = 3
B♭ = 4
And a B♭ raised by one semitone is…B♮!
So our backwards Kinks is…F Lydian!
So, whilst in either of those two examples above all the notes are there to suggest that this could be C major (Ionian), F Lydian or G Mixolydian, consider where the grounding and / or the resolve is within the chordal structure and work with that.
Examples in Well Known Music
Ionian: Ionian is the Do - Re - Mi scale, so if you find a piece of music from the Classical or Baroque Era that is in the major key it will almost certainly be in Ionian Mode. Just to give you a head start, however:
‘Winter’ from Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’*
‘Overture’ from ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ - Mozart*
‘Ode to Joy’ - Beethoven
*of course, many of our Classical and Baroque composers liked to throw accidentals into their music and that doesn’t alter the mode. Don’t let it throw you - just consider when it is an accidental (i.e. appears just a handful of times or - when it does - it resolves to a note with the Ionian scale) or a regular, un-resolving culprit in place of its natural, sharp or flat counterpart that should be in the scale. If the latter. It may be a mode!
Lydian:
‘Dreams’ - Fleetwood Mac
‘Flying Theme’ from E.T. - John Williams*
‘Every Little Thing She Does is Magic’ - The Police**
*Lydian is a mode that is rarely adhered to for it’s entirety. Whilst Fleetwood Mac do indeed ground themselves in Lydian for the duration of their song, the E.T. theme has snippets of theme that are in Lydian mode before it modulates to a new key!
**Similarly here, we could argue that the Police’s song is in Ionian because at the very end of the verse it ends (modulates) to chord I - the tonic. So it’s really subjective as to whether you would consider it this way: because of the resolve it is Ionian - or because the majority of the verse's structure it's Lydian.
Mixolydian:
‘Louie, Louie’ - the Kingsmen
‘Sweet Child o’Mine’ - Guns & Roses
‘She Moves Through the Fair’ - Traditional
In Conclusion
Whew…that was exhausting. But hopefully it made sense for at least as long as you were reading.
I’ve neglected to start the minor modes in this blog because I think that’ll be quite enough to be getting on with, although that does mean you will need to wait until my follow up to learn which mode ‘Drunken Sailor’ is in.
However, do familiarise yourself with them and how they sound for now.
I do, for the record, have a YouTube playlist dedicated to the modes and demonstrating them, so take a look at the first video and head over the playlist to watch them all!
And make sure you subscribe so you never miss any videos of mine about all things piano in the future!
Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.
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