13. Taking the mystery out of modes in a flash

1 We’ve focused on the basic major and minor scales so far, as they’re the most commonly used. We also showed you how they’re really the same scale, starting from a different note. Did you know that there are five more scales hiding inside the major shape, though? Let’s uncover them! To get started, load Bazille CM and select the patch 03 Leads - AF Ana-Lead. 2 From the MIDI Construction Kit, import C » Scales » C Major Template. midi, placing it on bar 1. Delete all the notes below C3. Enable your DAW’s note audition feature and click notes C3 to C4 to hear the C major scale. Now select all notes from A3 and upwards, and copy them to bar 6. Click notes A3 to A4 to hear the A minor scale – all we’ve done is change the starting note, but it has a different feel. 3 So what if we create scales starting on the other five notes of C major? Well, that’s what modes are! From the stack of C major notes, copy notes D3-D4 to bar 2, E3-E4 to bar 3, F3-F4 to bar 4, G3-G4 to bar 5, and B3-B4 to bar 6. We’ve now created the scales C Ionian, D Dorian, E Phrygian, F Lydian, G Mixolydian, A Aeolian, and B Locrian. Ionian and Aeolian are simply the major and (natural) minor scales. 4 Click through the notes of each mode in order to hear these new scales. Let’s put them all into the same key, C. Select and slide each stack of notes down so it starts on C. We can now see their interval patterns side by side. Everything we’ve showed you about scales and chords so far can be applied to these five new scales. And our MIDI Construction Kit contains scale templates for all modes in every key. 5 Now let’s hear how they sound – import Drone.wav onto an audio track, set tempo to 100bpm, and loop it. This loop features only one note, C, so we can hear how the modes sound against it. Either program your own patterns using the scale templates, or load our demo MIDI files from the Tutorial Files folder. C Ionian is the upbeat major sound we’ve already covered. 6 Dorian is similar to the minor scale but has a bit of a jazz/blues feel going on with the major instead of minor 6th. Phrygian is often associated with Spanish music. Lydian has an unresolved, dreamy character. Mixolydian appears in rock and blues a lot. Aeolian is the good-old natural minor scale. Locrian has a dark, unresolved quality and is probably the least used mode.