The seven modes are one scale heard from seven different homes. Here they are in their natural order and in order of brightness, each to hear over a drone, with its colour note, its chords, a shape on your neck and the vamp that brings it out.
Lesson
Scale
KeyEvery example on the page follows it.
A mode is a scale heard from a different home
Play the C major scale but start and end on its 2nd note, D, and it sounds like a different scale: the same seven notes, another home. Start on each of its seven notes in turn and you have its seven modes, in their natural order: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian (“I Don’t Particularly Like Modes A Lot”).
The catch: your ear only hears the new home if something holds it down. Played alone, D to D still sounds like C major. So every example on this page plays over a drone, a held note on the home. Press a note on the ring to make it home.
Home on C
C Ionian
bright, whole, at rest
R234567
The same seven notes as C major, C D E F G A B, started from its 1st note.
The order of brightness
Now put all seven on the same root, C, and sort them from the brightest to the darkest. Each step down lowers exactly one note by a fret, and the lowered note glows. The ladder runs Lydian, Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian, Locrian. Press a row to hear it, or walk down the whole ladder and listen to the light go out a note at a time.
Seven modes on C, one octave each, over one drone.
CD♭DE♭EFF♯GA♭AB♭B
The dots wear the site’s interval colours: flats are drawn darker and sharps lighter, so Lydian’s ♯4 is the one light dot and Locrian has five dark ones.
Brightness is the circle of fifths
The notes come down in a fixed order, ♯4, 7, 3, 6, 2, 5: the order the flats join a key signature. So each mode on C borrows the key signature of one major key, and they run round the circle of fifths: Lydian G major (1♯), Ionian C major (no sharps or flats), Mixolydian F major (1♭), Dorian B♭ major (2♭), Aeolian E♭ major (3♭), Phrygian A♭ major (4♭), Locrian D♭ major (5♭).
Songling counts it the same way: one point for each note raised above the major scale and one off for each lowered, Lydian +1 down to Locrian −5.
Lower the last note left, Locrian’s root, and you are back at Lydian, a fret lower. The ladder is a loop.
The chords of each mode
Stack 3rds on each note of a mode and you get its seven chords, just as a key has. A mode has the same chords as its parent major scale; what changes is which one is home, so the numerals move. On one root, C, each step down the ladder changes the chords that hold the lowered note.
A few chords in each mode carry its colour note. They are the ones that tell your ear which mode it is, so they glow; the quieter carriers (the diminished chord, or a chord holding the colour note as its minor 3rd) are underlined. To write in a mode, stay on home and move to a glowing chord and back. Press ▶ to hear each mode that way.
1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th
Lydian
Ionian
Mixolydian
Dorian
Aeolian
Phrygian
Locrian
Each chord wears the colour of its job, as on the key and progression pages: home, the door, the pull, heroic, the lift and the rest. The marks follow Songling: a mode’s colour notes are its tritone pair, and a chord announces the mode when its root or its major 3rd is one of them.
The seven modes
Each on C: its notes with the colour note glowing, its chords, a shape on your neck, what it feels like, and the vamp that sets it up to play along with.
C Lydian
The major scale from its 4th note · brightness 1 of 7
the lift
R23♯4567
CDEF♯GAB
Its chordsGlowing: II, the chord carrying the colour note. Press one to hear it.
The major scale with its 4th raised a fret. That ♯4 sits a half step under the 5th and a tritone above home, so the scale never quite settles: it floats. Over a major chord moving to the major chord a whole step up, it is unmistakable.
Feels like wonder, floating, lift. Reach for it when ‘happy’ needs to become transcendent: wonder, fantasy, the miraculous.
I to II, the major chord a whole step up: the ♯4 is in it, and the music floats.
C Ionian
The major scale from its 1st note · brightness 2 of 7
home base
R234567
CDEFGAB
Its chordsGlowing: IV and V, the chords carrying the colour note. Press one to hear it.
The major scale itself, the yardstick for the other six. Its 4th and 7th each sit a half step from a note of the home chord, the 3rd and the root, which is why it resolves so cleanly. Most pop, hymns and folk tunes live here.
Feels like bright, whole, at rest. Reach for it for plain daylight: honest joy, resolution, the familiar.
I, IV, V and home: the 4th and 7th pull to the 3rd and the root, so it lands cleanly.
C Mixolydian
The major scale from its 5th note · brightness 3 of 7
the swagger
R23456♭7
CDEFGAB♭
Its chordsGlowing: ♭VII, the chord carrying the colour note. Press one to hear it.
Major with the 7th lowered a fret. The ♭7 takes away the pull up to the root, so it sounds relaxed and confident rather than driven: rock riffs, blues-rock, Celtic and country tunes.
Feels like easy swagger, road, sun. Reach for it for grounded, bittersweet-bright energy: Celtic, bluesy, road-worn.
I, ♭VII, IV: the major chord a whole step below home is its tell-tale.
C Dorian
The major scale from its 2nd note · brightness 4 of 7
the shine
R2♭3456♭7
CDE♭FGAB♭
Its chordsGlowing: IV, the chord carrying the colour note. Press one to hear it.
Minor with a natural 6th. That one raised note keeps it from sinking into sadness: cool, hopeful minor, the sound of funk, soul, jazz and many a rock solo.
Feels like cool minor, hopeful motion. Reach for it for pensive but not sad: a cool groove, a hopeful shadow.
A minor 7th to the dominant 7th a 4th up: the IV chord holds the natural 6.
C Aeolian
The major scale from its 6th note · brightness 5 of 7
the long night
R2♭345♭6♭7
CDE♭FGA♭B♭
Its chordsGlowing: ♭VI and ♭VII, the chords carrying the colour note. Press one to hear it.
The natural minor scale, the minor key itself. Its ♭6 brings the weight. Most minor-key songs live here, with the major chords on ♭VI and ♭VII carrying them home.
Feels like shadow, weight, the long night. Reach for it for straightforward sadness, gravity and dusk.
i, VI, VII (♭VI and ♭VII counted from the major scale): the minor key’s own way home.
C Phrygian
The major scale from its 3rd note · brightness 6 of 7
the omen
R♭2♭345♭6♭7
CD♭E♭FGA♭B♭
Its chordsGlowing: ♭II, the chord carrying the colour note. Press one to hear it.
Minor with the 2nd lowered a fret, a half step above home. That ♭2 leaning on the root is the sound of flamenco, metal riffs and menace in film scores.
Feels like close dark, Spanish shadow. Reach for it for tension and threat: Spanish colour, metal weight, foreboding.
i to ♭II, a half step up and back: that lean on the root is the whole sound.
C Locrian
The major scale from its 7th note · brightness 7 of 7
the fault line
R♭2♭34♭5♭6♭7
CD♭E♭FG♭A♭B♭
Its chordsGlowing: ♭V, the chord carrying the colour note. Press one to hear it.
The darkest mode, with a ♭2 and a ♭5. With no perfect 5th its home chord is diminished, so it never rests and is rarely a home key. Players use it over a m7♭5 chord, and metal uses its ♭5 for unease.
Feels like unstable by design. Reach for it for vertigo and dissolution: a world with no floor.
uneasedreadambiguityCliffhangerForeboding
The E shape, the root on the low E string. The glowing note is ♭5, the note that makes it Locrian.
Hold the home down. A drone, a looped chord or a bass note on the root. Without one your ear drifts to the parent major key.
Lean on the colour note. Play the scale’s pentatonic and touch the glowing note on a strong beat: Dorian’s 6, Lydian’s ♯4, Mixolydian’s ♭7, Phrygian’s ♭2.
Compare on one root. Play C Ionian then C Mixolydian over the same drone. One note changes, and you hear exactly what it does.
Use the vamp. Two chords are enough to set a mode up. Loop one and improvise over it.
The scale pages have every mode in every key and position.
Questions
What are the guitar modes?
Seven scales made from the major scale by starting on each of its notes: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. Each has the same notes as its parent major scale but a different home, so a different sound.
What is the order of brightness of the modes?
From the brightest: Lydian, Ionian, Mixolydian, Dorian, Aeolian, Phrygian, Locrian. On one root, each lowers one more note of the major scale.
Which mode is the brightest, and which the darkest?
Lydian is the brightest, with its raised 4th. Locrian is the darkest, with its ♭2 and ♭5 and a diminished home chord.
How do I practise the modes?
Over a drone or a vamp on the root. Learn one shape, then play it over the vamp and lean on the colour note. Change one mode for its neighbour on the ladder and listen for the one note that changes.
Do I need to learn modes to play guitar?
No. Songs need chords and rhythm first. Modes help when you solo or write and want a particular colour, and they are easiest once you know the pentatonic.