The Modes: Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian
You're going to discover the modes, scales that sound like major or minor except for one note, and learn how to bring out the note that gives each one its color.
You now know the major scale, the minor scale and its two variants. Between bright and dark, there are other, subtler colors, called modes. Producers talk about them a lot, sometimes as if they were a secret for insiders only. Yet there's nothing mysterious about them: each of the modes you'll use most often differs from major or minor by just one note.
A single note changes the color
Let's listen first. The next figure plays a short phrase in A minor, over a bass that holds A2. Notice the note F, which comes back twice.
Now here's the same phrase, with only one row changed: every F has become F♯.
The second version is still minor, since the third note is still C. But it sounds less sad, more open, with a slightly funky edge. You've just heard the Dorian mode. One change, on the sixth degree, was enough.
The characteristic note
This is the most useful way to think about modes when you produce: you start from the major or minor scale on the same tonic, and you change one note. That note is called the mode's characteristic note. It's the one you need to bring out, on a strong beat or a long note, if you want the mode to be heard. If you avoid it, your melody will simply sound major or minor.
| Mode | Family | Note that changes | Example | Color |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dorian | minor | raised 6th degree | A Dorian: A B C D E F♯ G | brighter minor |
| Phrygian | minor | lowered 2nd degree | A Phrygian: A B♭ C D E F G | very dark, tense |
| Lydian | major | raised 4th degree | C Lydian: C D E F♯ G A B | dreamy, suspended |
| Mixolydian | major | lowered 7th degree | C Mixolydian: C D E F G A B♭ | relaxed major |
There are seven modes in all. You already know two of them under another name: the Ionian mode is the major scale, and the Aeolian mode is the natural minor scale. Let's look at the other four one at a time, then we'll say a word about the seventh.
Dorian, the minor that grooves
Dorian is a minor scale whose sixth degree is raised by a half step. In A, that gives F♯ instead of F. This higher sixth takes away some of the minor scale's melancholy, without making it happy either. Dorian is often associated with funk, soul and a good share of house and deep house, where it gives minor loops that stay danceable.
On the white keys, you find Dorian by starting from D: from D to D, with no black keys at all, you're playing D Dorian. A common signature of Dorian is the major chord built on the fourth degree: in D Dorian, that's G major, G, B, D, which contains the characteristic note itself, B.
Phrygian, the darkest of the common modes
Phrygian is a minor scale whose second degree is lowered by a half step. In A, that gives B♭ instead of B. This note hugs the tonic from above, and every time it comes back down to the tonic, it creates a dark, almost threatening tension. On the white keys, you find Phrygian by starting from E. Listen to a bass riff in E Phrygian, over a steady kick.
That half step above the tonic is the signature of Phrygian. You often come across it in dark techno, in metal and in some drill, where a bass or a melody that rocks between the tonic and the note just above is enough to set a mood.
Lydian, the major that floats
Lydian is a major scale whose fourth degree is raised by a half step. In C, that gives F♯ instead of F. This augmented fourth takes away the settled quality of the major scale: the music seems to float, as if it weren't quite touching the ground. On the white keys, you find Lydian by starting from F. Compare the two scales.
Lydian is very present in film and video game music, to suggest wonder, dreams or space. In electronic production, it gives pads and melodies that sound bright but never naive.
Mixolydian, the relaxed major
Mixolydian is a major scale whose seventh degree is lowered by a half step. In C, that gives B♭ instead of B. The scale loses its leading tone: nothing pushes toward the tonic anymore, and the major color becomes more relaxed, less driven toward resolution. On the white keys, you find Mixolydian by starting from G. Listen to a two-chord loop that makes use of it.
This back-and-forth between the tonic chord and the chord built on the lowered seventh degree is typical of Mixolydian. You often hear it in rock, funk and some house or Afro tracks that want a major color without the overly sweet side of the major scale.
Playing a mode on the grid
So you have two ways to find a mode. The first, the one we recommend, is to keep your tonic and change the characteristic note of the major or minor scale. The second is to play the white keys starting from another note: D for Dorian, E for Phrygian, F for Lydian, G for Mixolydian.
That second method is handy for understanding, but it has a trap. If your bass and your chords don't insist on the new tonic, your ear will simply hear C major or A minor. A mode only comes through if home is clearly established: a bass or a drone that holds the tonic, phrases that start and end on it, and the characteristic note in plain view.
Note to note: whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step.
Characteristic note: the major sixth, F♯. It makes this minor brighter and funkier: the color of a lot of house, funk and neo-soul.
On the grid, the shaded rows are the notes of the scale across an octave and a half: any note you place on those rows stays in the scale. The pattern drawn goes up one octave, then comes back down.
Here's a phrase in C major over a bass on C. First turn it into C Mixolydian, then into C Lydian, changing only one row each time. Which notes do you need to change?
All of these modes have seven notes. In the last lesson of this part, we'll take two of them away to get the pentatonic scales, the safest of all for improvising.