Musical Modes Explained on the Piano: Seven Scales on the White Keys

Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian: the names sound like a secret code, but you can play all seven musical modes right now, on the white keys alone. Each one uses exactly the same seven notes. The only thing that changes is where you start, and that changes everything you hear.

Same keys, different starting point

Play the white keys from C to C: that is the major scale, also called the Ionian mode. Now play the same white keys from D to D. Same fingers, same keys, but the music sounds darker and folk-like: that is the Dorian mode. Start on each white key in turn and you meet all seven modes.

• Ionian, from C: the ordinary major scale. Bright and settled.
• Dorian, from D: minor, but with a hopeful sixth note. Heard in old folk songs such as Scarborough Fair.
• Phrygian, from E: minor with a half step right above the first note. Dark, Spanish, flamenco.
• Lydian, from F: major with a raised fourth note. Dreamy and floating, loved in film music.
• Mixolydian, from G: major with a lowered seventh. Relaxed, bluesy, common in rock and folk.
• Aeolian, from A: the natural minor scale. Sad and simple.
• Locrian, from B: unstable, with a diminished fifth. Rare, and fascinating to hear.

Hear where the change happens

Every mode has two half steps, from E to F and from B to C. As your starting note moves, those two half steps land in different places in the scale, and that is what gives each mode its colour. Try this: play the Ionian and the Mixolydian one after the other, from C and from G. Listen for the one note that sounds different, the seventh. Then Aeolian and Dorian, from A and from D: the sixth note changes the mood. Training your ear to hear that single changing note is the whole secret.

1. Play each mode up and down slowly, three notes forward and three back, then five forward and five back.
2. Keep the same fingering every time; only the starting key changes.
3. Play a simple chord on the first note with the left hand, and let the right hand wander through the mode above it.
4. Name the mood you hear in one word. Your word is the right answer.

Modes in other keys bring the black keys

Start a Dorian mode on E instead of D and the pattern of steps forces two black keys into it: F sharp and C sharp. In standard notation that means a key signature or sharps to remember. In iCanPiano Style each black key shows itself in the note, so a mode in any key reads as easily as the white-key version, and you can concentrate on listening to its colour.

• F sharp: right half black. Play the black key to the right of F.
• B flat: left half black. Play the black key to the left of B.
• B natural: no natural sign. A note that is all black or all white is played on a white key.

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