I can't seem to find a straight definition for both.

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22 Answers 22





More reading: Wikipedia - Musical Mode

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    So, can I play the C Aeolian mode while playing in the key of C(major)? – crimson_sprite Mar 12 '12 at 21:06
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    @KeithS - the Aeolian of C is not the same as C Aeolian. That's where the discrepancy lies. The Aeolian of C is A natural minor, whereas C Aeolian is an Aeolian mode going from C-C, which will use the 3 flats that belong to Eb major. – Tim Sep 9 '14 at 18:41



For a better discussion of this topic than I may hope to render in a few paragraphs here, I encourage you to listen to Leonard Bernstein's master class on this very topic, Here it is on YouTube (updated because of link rot). He covers the physics of modes (scale steps and all that) better than others have done here, but also illuminates the chemistry, which is after all what separates real, organic music from academic discourse.

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A scale is any sequence of ascending (or descending) notes that can be used as an "organizing structure" for a piece of music. There are many types of scales, including diatonic (the "standard" in Western music), chromatic (containing every half note in an octave), whole-tone (containing notes a whole step apart), and pentatonic (which can be formed by taking the twelve tones and “subtracting” a major key; the pentatonic formed by eliminating C major uses the "black" keys on a piano). They can even include quarter-tones and other microtones in the music of other cultures, such as Middle Eastern or gamelan music.



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    "the pentatonic formed from C major uses the 'black' keys on a piano" C pent major uses anything BUT those!! You must be thinking F#. – Tim Jun 24 '17 at 7:08
  • @Tim Isn't a pentatonic scale 5 notes, so while you wouldn't be using the "black keys," 2 other notes would also be out, namely F and B? – JakeD Aug 14 '18 at 0:49
  • @JakeD I was actually trying to say a pentatonic scale can be formed by “subtraction” of a major scale from the dodecaphonic scale. – aeismail Aug 14 '18 at 2:58






UT = C

RE = D

MI = E

FA = F


LA = A








But that's another story.

  • This was very helpful. – JW. Dec 20 '20 at 17:17
  • Aren't the authentic modes I, III, V, and VI? – phoog Jul 12 at 20:17


























For example:







The difference is the order of the intervals, nothing more:

mode 1: m2,m2,m3,M3

mode 2: m2,m3,M3,m2

mode 3: m3,M3,m2,m2



  • Great answer...thanks. – JW. Dec 20 '20 at 17:26




Major pattern in half/whole steps:







5th mode of harmonic minor in half/whole/aug steps



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Think of C Major:

C D E F G A B.

Notice how there are 7 notes.



So using the notes of C Major we get:



Try to stay with me.



So let's say I have a lot of notes:



F G A Bb C D E F





Phyrgian: 1 b2 3 4 5 b6 7

Lydian: 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7

Mixolydian: 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7


Locrian: 1 b2 3 4 b5 b6 7










A mode is a type of scale.





         h            h  
     h            h  
 h            h  
             h        h  
         h         h  
     h         h  
 h         h  
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    So, you are saying that the harmonic minor is not a mode, (it's a scale), whereas the Ionian mode is a scale (the major), i.e both ? How can that be? – Tim Jun 24 '17 at 7:05
  • That is what I am/was saying. But perhaps it is wrong. Now that you raise the question, I doubt what I thought I knew. ... I always thought of mode like modus operandi, like it was the use of the material of scale pieces. ... Hmm. that doesn't lead anywhere.... – luser droog Jun 24 '17 at 16:54





  • D is the tonic
  • A is the reciting note (listen 1:34)





























I propose the following to encompass the modern usage of these words in western music theory:

A FREQUENCY is a fixed number of vibrations per unit time.

A NOTE is a finite or infinite set of frequencies.

A MODE is a fixed set of notes.

A SCALE is a fixed set of modes.

There are two ways to designate a note: alphabetical and scientific. The alphabetical notation does not assign a fixed frequency to the note but rather stands for every possible frequency. In distinction, scientific notation assigns a specific frequency to a specific note. Thus C stands for any and every C possible while C0 specifically identifies 16.35 Hz from the infinite possibilities.

A mode is thus defined as a collection of seven notes. Notice that by our prior definition, this means that a mode can reflect an infinite set (CDEFGABC) or a finite set (C0D0E0...), but the fact that it is a collection of prior definied notes stays the same.

Likewise, a scale is defined as a collection of seven modes. Regardless if you consider notes or modes finite or infinite, the definition of a scale will still apply.

As a final note (pun intended), mode and scale are often interchangeable and one is free to switch the definition around. But if a scale is designated as a set of notes, for example, then the mode automatically becomes a collection of scales (a definition I personally find awkward). Notice also that pitch is not on the list. This is because the scientific notation of a note is the same as pitch and thus in my opinion there is no need for an extra term aside from note to distinguish this collection.

  • Your definitions don't work for the chromatic scale and other non-heptatonic and calling a scale a set of modes really don't make any sense. – Dom Aug 7 '16 at 17:24
  • Thank you, you are correct. I can remove the "seven-element" condition and then it would fall in line with dodecatonic (a 12-note, one mode scale), hexatonic (the 6-note one mode whole-tone scale) and even octotonic (an 8-note, 2 mode scale, the whole-half/half-whole scale) . Thanks! – Ricardo J Rademacher Aug 7 '16 at 17:26
  • "calling a scale a set of modes really don't make any sense." - Think of it in the sense of the Major Scale has seven modes: ion, dor, lyd, myx, aeo, phr, and loc. These seven modes define what the Major Scale is abstractly, in no key, as much as CDEFGAB defines the Major Scale absolutely, in a specific key. Thus a Scale "has" Modes is more personally confromable than Scale "is" Mode (since there is only one Major Scale but Seven Mode) or Mode "has" Scales (which is awkward to me as to Ionian and Dorian and etc all "having" the Major scale...) – Ricardo J Rademacher Aug 7 '16 at 17:30
  • No, a scale is not defined by the modes. Modes are more of a relationship between different patterns as when you start a scale pattern on different scale degrees you have a much different sound/feel. A key can also use many different scales while sill being in the key for example it's pretty common for something in a minor key to go between the natural, melodic, and harmonic minor scales. If I say I'm playing a C major scale, it's pretty clear C is the root and the other notes clearly define this. The modes don't come into play unless you want to shift what you see as root. – Dom Aug 7 '16 at 21:24
  • " A key can also use many different scales while sill being in the key " -- that is correct, yet I don't see how this observation affects the organization I presented. My organization is key-independent; in other words what we call a mode or a scale should not depend on which key we are in. As an example, C Myxolydian and G Myxolydian are in different keys but that doesn't change the Myxolydian "flat seven" nature of the Mode nor that you are stillin the Major Scale. – Ricardo J Rademacher Aug 8 '16 at 0:03

I've been trying to figure out how modes apply to musical scales. The problem for me personally, is that the explanations get too technical, with all the explanation of interval differences, history of modes etc. Here is what I found works for me. When you listen to a song theres usually a backing rhythm playing a chord progression...So pick a key, any key and then pick a chord progression. Your leads or solos will be played over those chords. If you listen to a song that is played in perfect harmony the rhythm guitar will play a chord and a lead player will play the note that corresponds with the chord. For example, C major chord, the lead starts on a C note. This is known as Ionian mode. But if the you play that same C major chord and start your lead on an E note, it becomes Phrygian mode. Now here is the fun stuff...I dont know one guitarist that plays leads chromatically. They all improvise and that is how you get a quality of ascending, descending...its what I called music to my ears because the "feel" captures you. So, if you focus on the intervals of each mode its not going to take you anywhere, because the intervals dont really change. Yes you might go from WWHWWWH on the C scale to HWWWHWW on the E scale but the notes in the scale never change. If you're playing along to a C-D-G chord progression then you can use the new note interval to figure out which notes become the root note for the chords that are played in the progression. So your lead roots become E over the C chord, F over the D chord and B over the G chord. I'm not suggesting that I play this, I'm just using C major as an example. I dont really know how this would sound. But, each mode creates a whole new quality to the leads over chords. If you dont have backing guitars, do it over bass notes.


If you understood the answers previously presented here, it is likely you already understand enough music theory to have not asked the question in the first place. I'm assuming you know very little music theory and are just looking for a working knowledge of the terms modes and scales. I will attempt to provide a non music theory-like sounding explanation. This is not an attempt to insult anyone with an elementary answer, but I feel if I explain the concepts like I'm turning in papers to impress the Professor of Music Theory, the novice still won't get a satisfying answer. This is not to suggest the various answers are incorrect, they're fine, I just think the original poster probably won't understand the answers if he/she is a newbie to music theory. I think perhaps I can provide a general response, or intro answer, THEN the poster can go back and look at the various well thought out and detailed answers listed here.

For the most part the terms scales and modes are interchangeable. In Western music we consider certain 12 tones the Mother of all tones for creating our music. We list these 12 tones in order of ascending/descending pitches. We call this pitch order a scale, the chromatic scale. We then determined that we didn't need ALL the 12 tones AT THE SAME TIME to produce say a song, or melody. So, we went pitch by pitch, and asked what are all the other pitches that work well with this one? For example, if we took the pitch C, what are the other "usable" notes/pitches that will sound harmonic with C? A formula was devised to figure this out based on a series of whole tones and half tones. The result was that they started out with a single pitch, and then added only six other pitches to create a family of 7 pitches. This was done for all 12 pitches, and thus creating a unique, or new family of pitches.

Let's summarize exactly what has happened. We started out with a slate of 12 raw or aboriginal tones from a scale. We then MODIFIED that singular chromatic scale of 12 tones, by throwing out some tones and thus creating a new adjusted set, or new family of 7 tones. This was done, tone by tone. So, what do we call these MODIFICATIONS of the chromatic scale? We could call them "modifications," or "tonal adjustments," or say "abridged tonals, or whatever. The winner is the word "scale." Thus now we have specialist groupings of notes designed to evoke certain "moods."

But wait, what if we wanted to create even more specific note groupings that can provide yet even more and exotic tonal details and moods? We can, and we did. We then took the existing Major Scale (C) and further MODIFIED that scale! Yes, we MODIFIED an already MODIFIED scale. Any suggestions as to what we might call these new MODIFIED scales? These additional modifications of the major scale simply moved all the other pitches where the C existed. For example the 4th degree of scale C (CDEFGAB) is F, (C is the first, and D is the second, etc.) and if in the C major scale your tonal root if F (instead of C) then you're in the Lydian "mode." I know that sounds awkward, but when you make these movements and MODIFICATIONS to an existing scale you call them just that--Modifications. Thus Modification F, Modification G, Modification B, etc. These are scales within a scale, or just a subset scale of major scale C. The word "scale" is already used, so how about "Modification," or better yet let's just abbreviate it and call it "mode." I did this simply on my own initiative. We could call these scale subsets say "Major Scale C, subset D etc." since they ARE scales, but that's rather confusing and not very sexy! To pay homage to the ancient Greeks for their contributions to music we gave each of these "mode"fications of the major scale a Greek name.

I don't know if you will find in music theory that the term "mode" is just a short way of saying modification, but that's what these modes are, modifications of a scale. It is easier to think of them that way, though not necessarily for word origin accuracy. All the major/minor scales are modes. They are modifications of the chromatic scale. All the "modes" are, well modes, they are modifications of the major scale. The chromatic scale is not a mode, it is only a scale, while the others are modes. They are ALL scales, however. The chromatic scale are the parents. The major/minor scale are modes, or children of the chromatic scale. The modes (Greek) are children of the C major scale, (it is a mode too) thus they are the grandchildren of the chromatic scale.
