Why Major Modes?

The major modes are modern music's gravitational center. They are the city center where most things happen. I used to think naively that this was because most people simply never put in the time to evolve past the simple sound of major modes like the major scale, but fortunately the truth is richer. The modes simply are the most usable, versatile and powerful structures for creating consonant sounds.

They contain a clean balance of the most consonant and versatile triads (as per the harmonic series), enabling smooth harmonies that can easily transition into more complex ones — and through their nesting each triad arrives with its own pentatonic, the most consonant melodic scale. No other system of scales in equal temperament packs all these qualities into seven notes.

The modes enable you to readily make sweet sounds, so much so that it is often seen as boring by more experienced musicians. It's the easy way. And yet, they power most of the music we hear all the time. They are the canvas, and musicians color them in with their own unique choices, be it with slight variations on chords from the modes or with interesting rhythms or tones or sound effects or or or. Other scales are temporary excursions from the modes, but the modes have been, are, and will continue to be music's core. In a world of compromise, the modes compromise on so little.