Major Modes

Major modes are special seven-note scales, built by adding two notes from the circle of 5ths to a pentatonic. Picking every second note three times yields a balanced spread of three major and three minor triads — the most consonant chords; picking every second note four times yields the tetrads. Each mode also contains the pentatonics corresponding to each of the triads.

There are seven modes, one per note. The major major modes (ionian, lydian, mixolydian) share the major triad and major pentatonic; the minor major modes (aeolian, dorian, phrygian) share the minor triad and minor pentatonic. Locrian, the 7th mode, is built on the diminished degree and is practically unused. Each mode differs from its pentatonic by just two notes, and those two notes define its character.

Also called the diatonic modes — "major" here refers to the full seven-note structure, not to brightness.