The modes of the major pentatonic scale
The major pentatonic scale heard from each of its five notes: Major pentatonic, Egyptian, Man Gong, Yo, Minor pentatonic. Each in order of brightness, to hear over a drone, with its colour notes, its chords and the ones that announce it, and a shape on your neck.
A mode is a scale heard from a different home
Play the C major pentatonic scale but start and end on its 2nd note, D, and it sounds like a different scale: the same five notes, another home. Start on each of its five notes in turn and you have its five modes, in their natural order: Major pentatonic, Egyptian, Man Gong, Yo, Minor pentatonic.
The catch: your ear only hears the new home if something holds it down. Played alone, D to D still sounds like C major pentatonic. 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 Major pentatonic
folk, pop, gospel
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The same five notes as C major pentatonic, C D E G A, started from its 1st note.
The order of brightness
Now put all five on the same root, C, and sort them from the brightest to the darkest. With five notes the degrees don’t line up with the major scale’s, so brightness here is where the notes sit on the circle of fifths: the further round to the sharp side, the brighter. The brightest is Major pentatonic, the darkest Man Gong; the notes that change from one row to the next glow.
Five modes on C, one octave each, over one drone.
The dots wear the site’s interval colours: flats are drawn darker and sharps lighter.
The chords of each mode
A scale of five notes doesn’t stack into 3rds, so each note shows the first chord that fits in the scale: major, minor, sus4, sus2, diminished or augmented, or a dash where none does.
Each chord wears the colour of its job, as on the key and progression pages. Press one to hear it, or ▶ to hear the mode’s chords in turn.
The five modes
Each on C: its notes with the colour note glowing, its chords, a shape on your neck, what it feels like, and the chords that say it, to hear.
How to hear a mode
- 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 other families
The other families, each on its own page: the major scale’s modes, the melodic minor modes, the harmonic minor modes, the harmonic major modes, the double harmonic major modes, the Hirajoshi modes, the octatonic (diminished) modes.
Look it up
The scale pages have every mode in every key and position.
Questions
What are the modes of the major pentatonic scale?
Five scales, each starting on one of its notes: Major pentatonic (from the 1st), Egyptian (from the 2nd), Man Gong (from the 3rd), Yo (from the 4th), Minor pentatonic (from the 5th).
Which pentatonic mode is the brightest, and which the darkest?
Major pentatonic is the brightest and Man Gong the darkest. From the brightest: Major pentatonic, Yo, Egyptian, Minor pentatonic, Man Gong.
Where are the pentatonic modes used?
folk, pop, gospel, world, ambient, film, blues, rock. The major scale without its 4th and 7th: sweet and open. Country, pop and Southern rock solos live here; its boxes are the minor pentatonic's, moved down three frets.
How do I practise them?
The same way as the major scale’s modes: over a drone on the root, one shape at a time, leaning on the glowing notes. Then play the home chord and a glowing chord in turn and improvise over them.