I linked to videos where you could hear samples of music in each of these modes. I showed how to order them from 'bright' to 'dark':
and I showed that inverting these modes maps the brighter modes to the darker ones, reversing the order of brightness, with Dorian getting mapped to itself.
On November 8th I took a different tack, focusing on the cube of modes that can be obtained from the major scale by flatting the three 'flavor notes', the third, sixth and seventh:
As we move down this cube, we reach darker modes. But since this cube doesn't show modes with a flatted second or fourth, it doesn't include the darkest of modes!
Today I want to take yet another approach. Let's look at all scales where we choose 7 notes from the 12 notes in the usual chromatic scale. There are $$ \displaystyle{ \binom{12}{7} = 792 } $$ scales of this sort, which is too many for me to talk about today. So let's impose an extra constraint! Let's say that the biggest allowed step between consecutive notes is a whole tone. So, the only allowed steps are a whole tone (w) and a half-tone (h).
It turns out there are far fewer scales of this sort: just 21. That's a lot less! We'll see that they form 3 groups of 7. Seven of them come from the major scale, seven come from the minor scale, and 7 come from a less well known scaled called the Neapolitan major scale.
To see this, the first step is to notice that an octave goes up 12 half-tones, so a 7-note scale obeying our extra constraint must have 5 whole-tone steps and 2 half-tone steps. There's no other option, ultimately because $$ 12 = 5 \times 2 + 2 \times 1 $$ There are lots of different ways to climb up the scale with 5 whole-tone steps and 2 half-tone steps. The white keys on the piano do it like this:
They form a scale called the 'major scale'. The steps between the white keys go like this:
As we climb up the major scale, we go up a whole tone when there's a black key between white keys, and a half tone when there's no black key between white keys.
By playing a scale with 7 notes, going up the piano on white keys only but starting wherever you want, you can get these scales:
The first one here (reading across) is the major scale, and they're all called 'modes' of the major scale. Each of these 7 modes of the major scale, has its own cool-sounding Greek name, and I discussed them all on November 1st:
All these 7 modes have two half-steps that are 3 whole-steps apart or 2 whole-steps apart.
But there are also 7 modes that have two half-steps that are 4 whole-steps apart or 1 whole-step apart:
These are called modes of the 'ascending melodic minor' scale — one of the commonly used minor scales. If the piano was designed with these modes in mind, it might look sort of like this:
And there are 7 more modes, which have two half-steps 5 whole steps apart or right next to each other:
And these, it can be shown, are all the possibilities! So, there are $$ 7 + 7 + 7 = 21 $$ scales with 7 notes, each separated by either a whole tone or a half-tone from the next.
Tomorrow I'll say more about these 21 scales. Many are used in multiple contexts and have several names. Here I'm trying to use some of the more commonly used names:
Today I'll talk about the first two groups: the modes of the major and ascending melodic minor scales. These are more widely used than the third group, and you'd be tired by the time you got to the third group, so I'll do that one later.
To describe these scales it's good to think about the spaces between notes, which can be either a whole tone (w) or half tone (h). As we saw last time, there have to be two h's. If these have 2 or 3 w's between them, there are 7 possibilities. These are called the modes of the major scale:
If they have 1 or 4 w's between them, there are 7 more possibilities. These are called modes of the ascending melodic minor scale:
These modes are all quite famous, and I explained them in detail in my November 1, 2022 diary entry. In a way, these modes are prerequisites for all the other modes. It is common to describe other modes by comparing them to these. Ionian — the major scale itself — is the most popular by far. Aeolian — also called natural minor — is the second most popular. By playing just the white keys on the piano you can play the major scale starting at C, or the natural minor scale starting at A.
We can use the spaces between notes to figure out the notes in these modes:
Here the notes in usual 12-tone scale are listed in the usual numerical way:
These are called scale degrees. They lets us avoid thinking about letter names, which depend on which key you're playing in, and focus on the harmonic role of the various notes in a scale. For example, the third note in a 7-note mode is very important for its flavor. If it's a 3, the mode is major, while if it's a ♭3, the mode is minor.
If the above chart is too busy, you might prefer this one:
This lets us see a lot of stuff right away. For example, Lydian has no flats — and even a sharp. This makes it the 'brightest' of the modes in this chart. Locrian is the darkest since it has the most flats and no sharps. It's also the only one of these modes where the 5 has been modified! Since the 5 is the second most important tone in Western harmony after the 1, a lot of musicians avoid Locrian.
Just for completeness, here's a chart including the most common names of these modes:
This sort of chart will become more important as we proceed, since the modes of the ascending minor scale tend to have a lot of names!
Let's quickly go through the modes of the major scale:
Dorian is the only mode of the major scale that remains the same when you invert it, because its pattern of whole and half-steps is a palindrome: w h w w w h w. This makes this mode extremely subtle in emotional tone — for example, it's been called "melancholy yet optimistic".
This makes Phrygian even darker: it's the second darkest of the modes of the major scale. It conveys "tension, foreboding, and doom", and is used a lot in flamenco to capture the mood of duende: passion and emotional darkness.
This makes it the brightest mode of the major scale, and this brightness makes this mood sound "mystical, ethereal, like floating in air".
As such, it's a bit darker than Ionian, but not much. It's often considered a more interesting, edgy relative of the major scale. Check out Rob van Hal's great guitar solo at the start of the first video here, illustrating the flavor of Mixolydian.
This gives Aeolian a mood that's often described as full of "melancholy, sadness and longing".
So, it's like Phrygian with the 5 replaced by a ♭5. Since the ♭5 is a tritone above the 1 this gives Locrian an ominous feel. And since in Western music the 5 is the most important scale degree except for the 1, its absence makes Locrian the least used mode of the major scale!
We can figure out the scale degrees in these modes starting from their pattern of w's and h's:
Or, if that chart is too busy for you, focus on the result:
![](src="../cultural/modes_of_melodic_minor_2.jpg")
Unlike natural minor (Aeolian) the 6 and 7 are not flatted. In classical music they say ascending melodic minor is a good way to play the minor scale going up. For the story as to why, and a comparison with the other minor scales, check out this video by Gracie Terzian:
It has its name because it's the Dorian mode with a flat 2, which makes it darker. It's also called 'Phrygian ♯6' — not because the 6 is sharp (that would be too easy and logical), but because Phrygian usually has a flat 6, and here it's one half step higher than that: an ordinary 6. Some people, rebelling against this, even call it Phrygian ♮6.
Let's call it Dorian ♭2. But more importantly, let's listen to it! The first minute of the first video here will show you its luscious, moody dark jazzy sound:
I mentioned that Lydian differs from major only by having a sharp 4, making it brighter. Lydian augmented also has a sharp 5. Since the triad 1 3 ♯5 is like the major triad 1 3 5 but with the 5 raised a half step, it's called an augmented triad. That's the reason for the name Lydian augmented! Lydian ♯5 may be an easier name to remember — at least if you know your Lydian.
Lydian augmented is brighter than Lydian, but the second video here argues that the augmented triad makes it "uncomfortably bright" — not pleasant.
It gets its name because besides containing the #4 characteristic of Lydian, it contains the chord 1 3 5 ♭7, which is called a dominant seventh. Lydian dominant also called 'Mixolydian ♯4', since it's Mixolydian with a sharp 4. But the ♯4 is so strongly characteristic of Lydian that the Mixolydian flavor is not very strong here.
Rick Beato calls this scale 'Mixolydian ♯11', which is just a weird way of saying Mixolydian ♯4. And yet another name for Lydian dominant is the 'acoustic scale', since this scale contains a lot of overtones of the 1.
It's also called 'Mixolydian ♭6' since it's Mixolydian with the 6 flatted. It's also called 'melodic major descending', since it's melodic minor descending with the 3 not flatted, so it's not minor.
Another good way to think about this scale that it starts out sounding major as you climb up, thanks to the 3, but then switches to natural minor when you hit the ♭6 and ♭7. So yet another name is the 'major-minor scale'.
As these videos show, these give the scale a paradoxical feel: major yet minor! Perhaps this sensation is heightened by the fact Aeolian dominant is the only mode of the melodic major scale that remains the same when you invert it. Like Dorian, its pattern of whole and half-steps is a palindrome:
Thus, this scale is darker than Aeolian, and the ♭5 or 'tritone' is quite dissonant, so a good way to describe its mood is "scary minor".
You can also get this scale from Locrian by raising the 2, so it's also called 'Locrian ♭2'. Yet another name is the 'half diminished' scale, since it contains the chord
which is called a half-diminished seventh chord.
This scale is also called the 'altered dominant scale' or simply 'altered scale', for rather complex reasons I'd rather not explain. It sounds "ominous, tense, and transitional".
Next time I'll turn to the remaining 7-note scales drawn from the usual 12-tone scale with at most a whole tone between consecutive notes: