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:
The
C major
scale, when played from scale degree
is
:
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.

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