Modes Chart: the 7 Modes of the Major Scale

🤔 If you're anything like me, it's hard to get a mental picture of how modes are related to major scales.

To help with this, I decided to create this chart to help visualize the order, notes and relationship to the major scale for the 7 modes: Ionian (unmodified major scale), Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian (same as the natural minor scale) & Locrian.

🌈 This helps illustrate how the modes of the major scale are created by playing a major scale starting from a different root note.

You might also be interested in this scale reference to all 7 modes of the major scale. Or, you can zoom in to references for the individual modes: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian & Locrian.

Choose a starting major scale and then click on any of the 7 modes to highlight the notes of the mode:

A useful mnemonic device to remember the order of the modes is I Don't Play Loud Music At Lunch, where the first letter of each word represents the first letter of the mode.