The Modes on Guitar
The same seven notes, the same five positions, a different home.
Every mode of the major scale is the major scale. That is the sentence that makes modes easy, and the one most lessons avoid, because it sounds like it can't be enough. It is. C major and D dorian are the same seven notes; so are E phrygian, F lydian, G mixolydian, A minor and B locrian. What changes is which note is home — the one your ear returns to, the one the chord under you is built on. On the guitar, that means the modes are not seven new sets of shapes. They are the five positions you already know, with a different note lit as the root.
Here is D dorian: C major's notes, from D. The figure follows the text.
One scale, seven homes
Play C major and rest on C: major, plain, done. Play the same notes and rest on D — D dorian — and the sound turns minor, but a bright minor, because the sixth above D is B, a major sixth, where a natural minor scale would have B♭. Rest on E and it is E phrygian, a darker minor with F a semitone above the root. Each home note gives a different pattern of distances, and the distances are the sound.
The same positions
Nothing moved on the neck between those three. Every position of C major is a position of D dorian and of E phrygian; the fingerings are identical. What is different is which note you start phrases on and end them on — and, when you are labelling the neck by degree as this figure does, which note is the 1. The major scale positions are the shapes; the modes are what you do inside them.
Where the chords land
A key's chords come from its scale, so all seven modes of C share the same three major triads — C, F and G — and the same three minor ones. What changes is what those chords are called from the new home. This is the part that trips guitarists up: the E-shape C chord at the eighth fret is still C in every mode of C. In D dorian it is the ♭VII; in G mixolydian it is the IV. Same shape, same fret, a different job.
| Mode (of C) | Home chord | C, F and G become |
|---|---|---|
| Ionian (C) | C | I, IV, V |
| Dorian (D) | Dm | ♭VII, ♭III, IV |
| Phrygian (E) | Em | ♭VI, ♭II, ♭III |
| Lydian (F) | F | V, I, II |
| Mixolydian (G) | G | IV, ♭VII, I |
| Aeolian (A) | Am | ♭III, ♭VI, ♭VII |
Ionian
Ionian is the major scale under another name, and the mode nobody thinks of as one. Home is the I chord; the IV and V pull back to it. Everything else on this page is measured against it.
Dorian
Dorian is minor with a major sixth — the B in D dorian — and that one note makes it the minor of funk, of Santana, of half of jazz. Home is Dm; the chord a whole step below it, C, is the ♭VII, and a Dm–C vamp is dorian in two chords. The IV is G major, not minor, because of that sixth. On the neck: D dorian in every key.
Phrygian
Phrygian is minor with a flat second — F a semitone above E — which is the Spanish sound, the metal sound, the note that makes a riff feel like it's leaning. Home is Em; the ♭II, F major, is the chord that defines it. E phrygian on the neck.
Lydian
Lydian is major with a sharp fourth — B against F — and it floats: film scores, Steve Vai, anything that wants to sound like it hasn't landed. Home is F; the II, G major, is where the sharp fourth lives. F lydian on the neck.
Mixolydian
Mixolydian is major with a flat seventh — F against G — the scale of the dominant chord, of blues that isn't quite blues, of most rock riffs that sound major but not sweet. Home is G; the ♭VII, F major, a whole step down, is the chord that says mixolydian. G mixolydian on the neck.
Aeolian
Aeolian is the natural minor scale — the one you already call "minor" — with a flat sixth and flat seventh. Home is Am; the ♭VI and ♭VII, F and G, are the chords under most minor-key choruses. A minor on the neck.
Locrian
Locrian, from B, has a flat second and a flat fifth, so its home chord is diminished and doesn't sit still. It is a scale you can name and almost never a mode you play in; it is here because the table has seven rows.
Hearing a mode
You don't learn a mode by learning its shape — you already have the shape. You learn it by hearing its character note against the root: the major sixth of dorian, the flat second of phrygian, the sharp fourth of lydian, the flat seventh of mixolydian. The app's melody games play a phrase in a mode and ask you to play it back, root shown; dorian, phrygian, lydian and mixolydian are each an exercise in the browser, and the moment you can hear which one is sounding, the shapes stop mattering.
Questions
- What are the modes on guitar?
- The seven scales you get by starting the major scale on each of its notes: ionian (the major scale), dorian, phrygian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian (natural minor) and locrian. On the guitar they share the same positions — only the note treated as the root changes.
- Do I need to learn new shapes for each mode?
- No. Every mode of C major uses C major's notes, so its positions are C major's positions. Learn the five major scale positions and you have the shapes for all seven modes; what you learn per mode is which note is home and how it sounds.
- What is the difference between dorian and natural minor?
- One note: dorian has a major sixth where natural minor has a minor sixth. D dorian is D E F G A B C; D minor is D E F G A B♭ C. The major sixth makes dorian brighter.
- How do I hear which mode I'm in?
- Listen for the character note against the root: the major sixth in dorian, the flat second in phrygian, the sharp fourth in lydian, the flat seventh in mixolydian. The chord under the scale usually tells you the root; the character note tells you the mode.