Why Does That Tune Sound Old? Scales Other Than Major and Minor
By the BrainSnail editorial team. How these articles are written and checked, and how to tell us when one is wrong.
Playing only the white notes of a keyboard starting from different notes produces seven different scales, each with a distinct character. Most Western music uses two of them, and the others never went away.
What a mode is
Starting a scale on a different note of the same set of pitches changes which intervals fall where, and that changes the character entirely even though no new notes are involved. Playing the white notes from one particular note gives the familiar major scale, and from another gives the natural minor, and the remaining five give scales that are neither. The difference lies in the pattern of tones and semitones, and specifically in which degrees are raised or lowered relative to the major scale, since that determines how much tension each note carries and where the scale wants to resolve. The mode is therefore a property of the pattern rather than of the notes, and any mode can be built on any starting pitch.
The seven and how they differ
Each carries a recognisable character that comes from one or two altered degrees:
- •Ionian, which is the ordinary major scale
- •Dorian, minor with a raised sixth, which gives it a brighter quality than ordinary minor
- •Phrygian, minor with a lowered second, which sounds Spanish to most Western ears
- •Lydian, major with a raised fourth, which sounds floating and unresolved
- •Mixolydian, major with a lowered seventh, which removes the pull to the tonic
- •Aeolian, which is the natural minor scale
- •Locrian, which has a diminished fifth and is essentially unusable as a home key
Where the names came from
The Greek names attached to these scales have a confused history worth stating accurately. Ancient Greek theory described a system of scales with those names, and medieval European theorists adopted the names for their own system of church modes while applying them to different patterns, apparently through a misreading of the classical sources. The medieval modes governed the composition of plainchant and of early polyphony and were classified by their final note and their range. As harmony developed through the Renaissance, two of the modes came to dominate because they support the strongest harmonic progressions, and the others fell out of use in art music by the eighteenth century. The names in current use are the medieval ones, which are not the Greek ones despite the spelling.
Hearing which one you are in
Identifying a mode by ear is a learnable skill and the shortcuts are worth knowing. Establish where the music feels at rest, which is the tonic, then listen for whether the third above it is major or minor, which splits the seven into two groups immediately. Within the major group, listen for a raised fourth, which is unmistakable once known, and for a lowered seventh, which removes the leading note's pull and makes cadences sound unfinished in a characteristic way. Within the minor group, listen for a raised sixth, which brightens the scale noticeably, and for a lowered second, which is the most conspicuous alteration of all. Associating each with a familiar tune is how most musicians actually learn them, and the associations differ between people.
Where they survived and returned
The modes never disappeared outside the concert tradition. Folk music across Britain, Ireland and much of Europe uses them extensively, which is why traditional tunes sound different from composed ones and why the raised sixth of one mode is so characteristic of certain repertoires. Plainchant preserved them liturgically. Composers from the late nineteenth century returned to them deliberately as an alternative to exhausted harmonic conventions, drawing on folk material to do it. Jazz adopted modal thinking in the late 1950s, with improvisation over sustained single harmonies rather than rapid chord changes, which produced several landmark recordings. Rock and film music use them constantly, with one in particular supplying the sound of a great deal of guitar-based music, which is the most familiar modern instance.
The takeaway
Starting the same set of notes on different degrees changes where the semitones fall, which changes the character without introducing any new pitches. A raised sixth, a lowered second and a lowered seventh each give a mode its recognisable quality. The Greek names were applied to different patterns by medieval theorists, apparently through a misreading, and the current names are the medieval ones.