The 7 Music Modes by Mood, Brightest to Darkest

From brightest to darkest, the seven music modes are Lydian, Ionian (the major scale), Mixolydian, Dorian, Aeolian (the natural minor scale), Phrygian and Locrian. Lydian sounds dreamy and Ionian happy; Mixolydian is easygoing, Dorian wistful and Aeolian sad; Phrygian is dark and tense, and Locrian never feels settled. Start all seven on the same note and each step down that list flattens one more note, which is why the moods slide so neatly from light to shadow.

What are the 7 modes in music?

A mode is the major scale played from a different starting note, with that note treated as home. Play the white keys of a piano from C to C and you have C major, which in mode names is Ionian. Play the same white keys from D to D and you get Dorian, from E to E Phrygian, and so on up to B, which gives Locrian. The notes never change. What changes is the tonic, the note the music settles on, and moving it changes which intervals sit above home. From C the 3rd is E, a major 3rd; from D it is F, a minor 3rd, and that alone tips Dorian toward minor.

Because the notes are shared, the chords in C major hold all seven modes at once. Each of its seven chords is the home chord of one mode: C for Ionian, Dm for Dorian, Em for Phrygian, F for Lydian, G for Mixolydian, Am for Aeolian and Bdim for Locrian.

The 7 modes from brightest to darkest

The white-key order hides a pattern. Put all seven on the same home note, C here, and each mode has exactly one more flattened note than the one before it. Going down the list, F# drops to F, then B to Bb, E to Eb, A to Ab, D to Db and finally G to Gb. More flats, darker mood.

1. Lydian (dreamy, floating). 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7; on C: C D E F# G A B. The raised 4th is the only note in any mode that sits higher than it does in the major scale, and it has no urge to fall back to the 3rd the way F does in C major, so melodies seem to hover. The chord a whole step above home comes out major (D over C), and rocking between C and D is the Lydian sound in two chords. Joe Satriani’s “Flying in a Blue Dream” is built on C Lydian.

2. Ionian (happy, settled). 1 2 3 4 5 6 7; on C: C D E F G A B. The plain major scale and the default for most pop, folk and children’s songs. Its 7th sits a half step below home and its 4th a half step above the 3rd, and both pull toward the home chord, which gives Ionian the strongest sense of arrival of any mode. “Joy to the World” opens by walking down the whole scale, top note to bottom.

3. Mixolydian (easygoing, bluesy). 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7; on C: C D E F G A Bb. Major with a flattened 7th, so it keeps the sunny major 3rd but loses the pull toward home, which makes it sound relaxed and a little swaggering. The giveaway is a major chord a whole step below home (Bb in C). Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” and Lorde’s “Royals” both cycle through D, C and G, and with D heard as home that loop is D Mixolydian.

4. Dorian (wistful, cool). 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7; on C: C D Eb F G A Bb. A minor mode, but its 6th is major, which gives it a hopeful lift and turns the IV chord major (F in C Dorian). “Oye Como Va”, written by Tito Puente and a hit for Santana, rocks between Am7 and D9 in A Dorian for nearly the whole song.

5. Aeolian (sad, serious). 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7; on C: C D Eb F G Ab Bb. The natural minor scale. Flattening the 6th turns Dorian’s bright IV into a minor iv (Fm), and the flat 6th leans down onto the 5th like a sigh (more on why minor sounds sad). Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” circles C#m, B and A, a classic Aeolian loop (i, bVII, bVI).

6. Phrygian (dark, Spanish, tense). 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7; on C: C Db Eb F G Ab Bb. Flattening the 2nd puts a half step right above home, and that rub is the sound of flamenco and of many metal riffs (on a guitar’s low E string, E to F and back is Phrygian in two notes). The chord to lean on is the major chord a half step up (Db over Cm). Megadeth’s “Symphony of Destruction” and Metallica’s “Wherever I May Roam” both use it.

7. Locrian (unstable, eerie). 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7; on C: C Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb. The flattened 5th turns the home chord diminished (C Eb Gb), so the music has nowhere solid to land. Whole songs in Locrian are rare. The heavy bass line of Björk’s “Army of Me” is one, in C Locrian.

Flatten the C too and you land on Cb Lydian, the brightest mode again, so the ladder loops.

Treat these moods as tendencies. Tempo and sound push any mode around, so a fast, bouncy Aeolian tune can sound defiant and a slow Ionian ballad heartbroken.

What is Dorian mode used for?

Dorian mode is the minor mode musicians pick when a groove should stay moody and still have some light in it. The light comes from the major 6th (A in C Dorian, B in D Dorian), which sits inside the IV chord and makes it major. So the signature Dorian move is a minor home chord rocking to the major chord a fourth above it: Dm to G, Am to D, Cm to F.

Beyond “Oye Como Va”, it turns up in very different styles:

• Modal jazz. Miles Davis’s “So What” sits on D Dorian, then moves up a half step to Eb Dorian for the bridge.
• Folk. “Scarborough Fair” and “Drunken Sailor” are both Dorian, which is a big part of why they sound old.
• Pop and dance. Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” loops Bm7, D, F#m7 and E, with Bm heard as home, which puts it in B Dorian. The E chord holds G#, the major 6th of B.

To make any minor progression sound Dorian, swap the minor iv for a major IV (play Dm to G instead of Dm to Gm), then let the melody land on the 6th over that chord. In D Dorian that note is B, and holding it over the G chord gives the mode away in one beat.

Songs in Lydian, Mixolydian and Dorian mode

After major and minor, these three modes turn up most in pop and rock.

A mode label on a pop song is really a claim about which chord feels like home. The D, C, G loop of “Sweet Home Alabama” fits G major just as well, and some players hear it that way. Calling it Mixolydian means the loop keeps coming back to rest on D.

How to use modes in songwriting

Writing in a mode takes two moves: make the new home note obvious, and feature the note that sets the mode apart from plain major or minor.

1. Pick the mood, then the mode. Wistful with a glimmer of hope is Dorian, sunny with a shrug is Mixolydian, floating is Lydian, and menacing is Phrygian.
2. Find the two chords. The table below pairs each mode’s home chord with a neighbor that carries its special note. Rock between them for a verse and the mode is established.
3. Keep home in the bass. Hold the tonic as a drone or a repeated bass note, start and end phrases on it, and give it the most time. Avoid the V to I move of the major key the notes come from (G to C when you are in D Dorian), because it drags the ear back to C major.
4. Put the special note on a strong beat. The #4 in Lydian, the b7 in Mixolydian, the 6th in Dorian, the b2 in Phrygian. Buried on an offbeat, it sounds like a passing note.

The Locrian pair needs help. Cdim to Db is also vii° to I in Db major, so the ear hears Db as home unless a low C drones under both chords.

The middle column lets you hear any mode on a tool that only knows major and minor keys. Open the online chord player, pick the key from that column, and start and end on the mode’s home chord. For C Dorian, pick Bb major and rock between Cm and F. The chords on screen stay the same; only the chord you treat as home changes.

Our two iPhone apps include Dorian, Mixolydian and Lydian next to major and minor, though neither has Phrygian or Locrian. In Gelato Synth the Notes pads hold only the notes of the scale you choose, so you can improvise over a vamp without a stray note, and in Gelato Chord the melody plate lays that scale out as twelve strings.

You can also borrow a single modal chord inside an ordinary song. A major II chord (D in C major) gives a chorus a Lydian lift, a bVII (Bb in C major) adds a Mixolydian swagger, and a major IV in a minor song (D in A minor) brightens it with a Dorian touch.